Learnin' Curve

willy,
did you ever figure out why your temp never rose?
i am trying this idea this weekend for chicken.
i am going to buy a one half size sheet pan and a cookie cooling grid to go into and then cook the chicken on that.
if it works (and you would like) i could send you the pan dimensions to see if something similar could fit into your unit
jack
ps peggy cooks about 16 thighs at a time so i know what you mean about grease

I'm not sure I understand not wanting the drippin's to burn off the foiled firebox.

That is what direct cooking is all about IMO.

The drippin's burning off is what flavors gas,charcoal,and direct cooking open pits.

The CS is designed pretty efficiently and yes, you can cause it to underperform with enough modifications.

My thoughts too Tom. I always thought that the drippin's hitting the firebox added to the smoke. Maybe I'm missing something as I've yet to do "parts." Could the excess be injection liquids? Now I am curious.

I agree with Tom, I'm not sure why the intent to restrict the drippings, that's why you cover the deflector with foil anyway, easy cleanup.

Without knowing everything, my guess would be you restricted the airflow too much, as shown when you removed it and it started climbing. The design is what it is, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to refigure/redesign it.

Russ

Hey guys.. I'm not Wee Willy.. I'm WeeWilly.. I'm NEW to this and going thru a learnin curve. If you can help me thru the curve, I'd appreciate it.

Here is what my thoughts are/were..

When I grill with my Weber kettles.. chicken and burgers, for instance.. and I grill direct.. with the kettle cover on.. the meat turns out ugly, gray, and has a lot of unwanted black stuff on it from the vaporized burned grease. To me, it doesn't taste very good. I think this is caused by juices coagualting on the food and not evaporating, trapping the soot produced by that burning fat.. It is, essentially a closed environment, save the little vent holes at the top of the kettle cover. Burgers and steaks turn out great if I grill direct with the top off the kettle. Sure, there is some of the same stuff attaching to the burgers but with the top off the kettle.. somehow it tastes much better. Chicken/turkey in the kettle is done INdirect and I catch the drippings in a sheet cake pan below the bird/parts. When I add a few chunks of oak from one of the trees.. I get a good smoke flavoring. They also turn out esthetically nice because of the higher temps.

In my trials with the CS I can get what appaars to be the same thing happening as when I grill direct with the kettle closed. The meat gets coated with black particulate stuff from the vaporized grease and juices. Maybe it's just an esthetic thing cuz it all tastes good.. but I do get some of the off flavorings I got in the kettle as mentioned above.

The first time I put a sheet of foil on the bottom grate it was just large enough to keep drippings off the top of the foiled firebox. It worked like a charm.. the meat was much nicer to look at and had a great smoke flavor with none of the off flavors of the burned fats.

If I had an offset.. it'd be no problem.. the drippings drop off the meat to the bottom of the barrel and never hits the fire.. just drains into a can.. and the higher heat browns the meat nicely. The meat in the kettle is also nicely browned when I do it properly . That doesn't happen in a CS, in my experience yet. Sooo,

I'm still trying to find out how some of you have come up with the most excellent looking turkey and chicken I've seen pics of on the forum. At 225� there is no browning.. just the black from the soot.. there is a ton of moisture in these chickens/turkeys.. even the Foster farms that are so highly advertised with their cute commecials on TV. That is a lot of stuff dropping onto the firebox and vaporizing.

Another reason for putting a pan under it is to catch some/all of the drippings for use in gravys. If it hits the firebox and burns.. it doesn't seem to taste nearly as good when it comes out the bottom of the CS drain.

Jack.. If you are reading this.. I think the reason for the temp problem was one of two things, or a combination of the two.. either the foil blocked/covered the thermostat bulb in back of the unit.. and/or the large size of the sheet of foil didn't allow the heat to circulate properly.

weewilly,
those pics of browned chicken have either been finished on a grill or cooked in an fe.
your right 225 will never brown the skin
jack

William,

I smoked two 15 lb turkeys for Thanksgiven using 250 degrees on the dial. I covered both with two layers of butter soaked cheese cloth and when I removed the cheese cloth both turkeys were photo ready.

Both become ready for the bone yard in about 15 minutes - that was all that was left.

smokemullet

I haven't tried the cheese cloth yet.. I've read about it and fully intended to try it.. but, senior moments take over. What can I say?

WeeWilly...

I know the grey nasty stuff you're referring to from your kettle... A way to avoid this and still cook chicken pieces w/direct heat is to place your chicken on the hot grill and instead of right-away placing your lid on tight, lay your lid on loosely, overlapping by about an inch on both sides of the kettle...Leave it like that through your first turn (5-8min) until your coals have had a chance to settle down... After the first turn, you can gently put the lid on tight and keep it that way throughout your cook...

The first couple of times I did whole chickens or chicken pieces in the CS I wasn't very happy either... After some experimentation I'm very happy now...

Here's what I do now...

Chicken pieces:
Brine breasts in Italian dressing, don't brine the rest, cover in mixture of mayo/CS Chicken rub, smoke at 250 w/1.5oz total (mix of apple/cherry).

Whole chicken:
Brine overnight in 1gal H2O, 3/4cup kosher salt, 1/2cup white sugar, 1/4cup Old Bay Seasoning...

Rinse, pat dry, cover in olive oil and liberally cover in CS Chicken rub or similar...

Smoke at 225 w/1.5oz total (apple/cherry).

I used to use a mix of alder/apple... Switching to apple/cherry made a big difference in the color of the finished bird... It comes out beautiful now--light/dark brown, not black--still rubbery, but you can finish it w/the broiler if you care...

Brining also made a huge difference in the finished bird...

I don't worry about the juices dripping... I also don't use the drippings for gravy...haven't developed a taste for smoked gravy...yet..

Good luck!

Try this instead...

Looks exactly liks what I initially did.. before putting the sheet of foil on a shelf below the bird.

But, I've never gotten one as pretty as that.... Maybe I need to put a lot more rub on the bird

Dennis/UT
That looks like the way I line my CS150, except I put foil inside the drip pan also. I never have a big heap of grease in it, but I know the day I don't put the foil in, I'll regret it. I like having the racks open as much as possible to let the smoke circulate and touch as much meat surface as it can.
Is that a turkey breast in the photo?
What kind of rub did you use?
Peggy

Peggy that's a full packer brisket, with the end folded under. The small cookshacks are small and big briskets fit if you do this.

WeeWilly, we're here to help, wasn't trying to knock your ideas. It's just that sometimes we have people trying to reinvent what has worked well for years while they're still learning. Example, we've had questions about how to change things before someone even uses their CS for the first time.

I'm just here to help WW. You've come a long way since you first joined.

Russ

Thanks.. what I was trying to accomplish with that foil is to not reinvent something.. but to go to the process I think I see in the Series 70 and 100. I've never seen them personally.. but from the looks of the pictures.. there is a shield over the smokebox that prevents the drippings from hitting the box itself. Just figured that was part of my problem and took a step to see if the foil on the shelf would accomplish the same thing.

That was my learnin' curve. I made the foil way too large and messed up the heat/smoke flow. I thought it would work similar to the cold smoker accessory.. except instead of holding ice.. it would catch the drippings.

Regarding Tom's comment.. I'm not sure I understand not wanting the drippin's to burn off the foiled firebox. That is what direct cooking is all about IMO. I agree with that comment for heavy cuts of pork and beef.. but, IMO.. chicken and turkey isn't enhanced with the burned drippings.

Thanks again for all the comments. I'll be in a learnin' curve for some time.. I'll bet.

Bill

Man, you guys (and gals) are giving me too much credit. I just linked to a picture that I remembered seeing. The picture is from Mainely Dave's site.

Gee - I thought it looked familiar! Fond memories of brisket.

Hopefully, I'll get a couple new cooks posted to my site this weekend. I've been too busy (or too lazy) since June to update the site. (not too busy to use the Cookshack, though...)

Just did a Leg of Lamb last weekend - turned out awesome! This weekend is jerky weekend - just got some spices from Hi Mountain and am going to experiment with burger jerky for the first time. I'll post the results as soon as possible.