Hi All:

I've been lurking for the last 2 years or so, popping up here and there to
ask a question or comment briefly on a topic. Anyway, after using a
Brinkmann Gourmet for all of last year, I finally decided to take the WSM
plunge after reading one after another post heaping praise on this venerable
smoker. Well, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that it has been an
absolute treat to use and has well exceeded all of the lofty expectations I
had for it after reading this group and virtualweberbullet.com.

Yesterday was a high mark in my BBQ education. Having "only" smoked ribs up
to this point (and my lord! what ribs they were) I decided that it was high
time to set my sights higher. So, it was a day of firsts for me yesterday:

1) My first pork shoulder weighing in at nearly 4 pounds (obviously only a
partial shoulder cut)
2) My first time using the "Minion Method"
3) My first time using water in the water pan (all of my previous runs have
utilized sand in the water pan)
4) My very first taste of pulled pork!

A Pulled Pork Story:

Prepped the near 4 pound partial shoulder cut by slathering good ol' yellow
mustard on the outside before treating with a heavy sprinkling of my
favorite BBQ dry rub. Wrapped in plastic wrap and allowed to sit in the
fridge overnight. Morning of the smoke, made a mixture of organic apple
juice, brown sugar, and my BBQ rub...mixing thoroughly. Injected liquid
concoction into shoulder until the meat had taken on all of the liquid it
could handle.

At 10 AM the morning of, filled the charcoal ring w/ decent quality lump
charcoal, lacing smallish-sized hickory chunks throughout the unlit lump.
Then, soaked 3-4 fist sized clumps of shredded apple wood (wasn't able to
procure any chunks of apple wood at the time) in a bowl of water and got to
lighting off about a half-chimney's worth of lump. In about 20 minutes, my
chimney was fully fired. Dumped the lit lump onto the unlit lump and
hickory chunks, placed tin foil packet containing soaked apple wood on top
of lit charcoal, assembled my smoker (utilizing near-boiling water in the
water pan as temps were in the 40s and fairly breezy), and loaded meat onto
top grate. Waited for temps to reach ~ 225 and adjusted dampers to maintain
a steady temp of about 250 (temp was measured about 4 inches below top of
lid via a candy thermometer attached to the lid baffle...guessing grate
level temps were in the 225 - 240 range). My faithful WSM chugged away @ a
constant 250 for about 8 1/2 hours at which point I had to stir the coals to
continue to maintain temp of 250. (Coincidentally, this was also about the
time that it started to snow...yes, snow!...gotta be prepared for anything
here in Wisconsin I guess. The Brinkmann never would've been able to handle
the wind and temperature fluctuations yesterday.) After about 9 1/2 - 10
hours, removed shoulder from smoker and took internal temp readings. Temp
readings averaged out to about 190 and there was a beautiful dark brown bark
on the outside. Success! Wrapped meat, placed in cooler for 1/2 hour and,
after waiting, got to pulling the pork.

End product had a well-defined 1/4 - 3/8 inch smoke ring, pulled quite
easily w/ little residual fat waste (which was removed), and was
juicy/succulent and tasted smokey, just a tad spicy and nearly melted in the
mouth.

I owe my success to the collective A.F.B. BBQ contingent! Thanks to each
and every one of you.

J.P.