I'vew been using a WSM cooker for some time, with great success.

But the more I use it, the more "crud" builds up on the barrel and the
lid, and the grates. I scour the grates and burn them off well before
cooking, and feel OK about them, but the barrel and lid are kinda'
suspect. I usually build the fire in the base, burn off the grills
right over the HOT fire, then set up the WSM and let it burn hot for a
while before choking down and adding the food.

What do you experts do in terms of cleaning the accumulated crud
within the WSM?

Thanks a heap,
-Zz

"Zz Yzx" wrote in message
...
I'vew been using a WSM cooker for some time, with great success.

But the more I use it, the more "crud" builds up on the barrel and the
lid, and the grates. I scour the grates and burn them off well before
cooking, and feel OK about them, but the barrel and lid are kinda'
suspect. I usually build the fire in the base, burn off the grills
right over the HOT fire, then set up the WSM and let it burn hot for a
while before choking down and adding the food.

What do you experts do in terms of cleaning the accumulated crud
within the WSM?

Thanks a heap,
-Zz

Scrape the walls with a putty knife once in a while and start cooking again.

Zz Yzx wrote:

What do you experts do in terms of cleaning the accumulated crud
within the WSM?

Cleaning? Yeah. Right.

Light lump, put grates over fire. Wait 5 minutes (sissies scrape at
this point). Move racks up and add meat.

I was just standing next to my smoker today - hasn't been used in 2+
weeks, and damn that thing sure smelled good.

-sw

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"Zz Yzx" wrote in message
...
I'vew been using a WSM cooker for some time, with great success.

But the more I use it, the more "crud" builds up on the barrel and
the lid, and the grates. I scour the grates and burn them off well
before cooking, and feel OK about them, but the barrel and lid are
kinda' suspect. I usually build the fire in the base, burn off the
grills right over the HOT fire, then set up the WSM and let it burn
hot for a while before choking down and adding the food.

What do you experts do in terms of cleaning the accumulated crud
within the WSM?

Thanks a heap,
-Zz

Scrape the walls with a putty knife once in a while and start cooking
again.

Take it down to the car wash and hose it out! Or if you wanna be banned from
the car wash, pull in there with a jumbo size trailer smoker, and see how
fast you get acquianted with the manager.

Actually those little steam cleaners like the steam mouse do a pretty good
job.

MartyB in KC

I clean mine out a few times a year, but it isn't elaborate. When I
notice a lot of crispy crud, I wad up a pretty good sized piece of tin
foil and scrub it out using the wadded foil as a scouring pad. It
gets all the dried stuff off pretty easily. I would use anything too
sharp, blunt or hard as you will scratch the porcelain finish.

In other words, I just knock the loose stuff off as I don't want it
falling onto my meat.

I don't think you want it too clean as a bit of stuff on the inside is
acknowledged by the factory as a necessary seasoning.

Robert

On 7-Apr-2008, "
wrote:

I clean mine out a few times a year, but it isn't
elaborate. When I
notice a lot of crispy crud, I wad up a pretty good sized
piece of tin
foil and scrub it out using the wadded foil as a scouring
pad. It
gets all the dried stuff off pretty easily. I would use
anything too
sharp, blunt or hard as you will scratch the porcelain
finish.

In other words, I just knock the loose stuff off as I
don't want it
falling onto my meat.

I don't think you want it too clean as a bit of stuff on
the inside is
acknowledged by the factory as a necessary seasoning.

Robert

What Robert said. I use an offset, but the same criteria
applies I think. When I see some loose looking stuff
building
up, I give it a quick once over with a wire brush to knock
all
the loose stuff off. Then I vacuum the loose crap up with my
shop vac. When the grates get to crappy, I used to put them
in the firebox for a couple of hours, but since I got a gas
grill
I just put them in there on max heat for a couple of hours.
Yes that uses up some gas, but I only do it two or three
times
a year. I put the crappy grates in my selfcleaning oven one
time. Big mistake!!! Even with the exhaust fan going, I had
to
disable the smoke alarms.

--
Brick(Youth is wasted on young people)