What's Your Low & Slow Temp Range In The Weber Smoker? - Chris Allingham - The Virtual Weber Bullet

[@derekg8399]

Thank you for sharing, ive been trending in this direction as well. Sometimes i start out a little lower but then kick it up after an hour or so by adding in some chunks of lump charcoal. I like to bbq in the winter in Chicago, and the higher temps help me finish while there's still a little bit of daylight.

[@sklegg]

I used to obsess about maintaining 225 and it was eventually not fun anymore. Just as you say in the video, you can push through the stall on a big pork shoulder by running a little hotter. Now I aim for 250 plus or minus about 20 degrees.

[@dustindorsey6380]

I think another advantage to cooking hotter is it allows the cooker more airflow. To me this gives a better smoke flavor. It also seems to render fat better.

[@pas0003]

Thank you for sharing your tips!

[@Tom_Platz]

I have the 22" WSM cooker, and the lowest temp I can usually get is around 235-240 measured at the top grate, so have always cooked at 235-250 or so for "low-n-slow". I used to fret about not being able to get down to 225, but my BBQ was turning out great, so I stopped worrying about it lol. Now this video and the other comments are making me feel even better about it. :)

[@robertterry8018]

I had an 18 inch WSM for eight or nine years and absolutely loved it. We moved into a new house, and I sold it and bought the 22 inch. I could never get it to run at 225, hovered more around 250. I literally sold it because, I had it in my mind that I needed to smoke at 225. 😅

[@David-burrito]

Awhile back I was looking for info on how to run my WSM at low temps, 150 degrees or slightly lower for cold smoking bacon, don't wanna render the fat. My online query took me to VWB where I got all the answers I needed. A smaller snake with less charcoal, and one guy said to run some practice burns with no food. Well I can do that! First time, fire was too small and went out, temps barely hit 135, but now I got it and can reproduce my results. Thanks VWB!

[@razorpit]

Glad I’m not the only one who thought 225º was just a bit too low. Living in western PA and smoking year round, I try to run at 275º because of the temperature loss when the ambient temperature outside is in the 40’s - 50’s and/or windy. I liked the result and kept it. Ironically I’m running baby backs today and they will be at 250º AND I’m removing the water pan! Chris you should run a video on water pan (if you haven’t already). I’m not even going to place a heat shield in its place. Heck if the Pit Barrel guys can do it then why can’t we? Plus big advantage is, I don’t have to work about my ribs falling in to the fire.

[@TheVirtualWeberBullet]

No video, but a detailed article: www.virtualweberbullet.com/using-water-pan-weber-smokers/

[@danrini783]

Chris…Im with you on that 250-275 range. That range seems to give me the best of all worlds.

[@odeed]

My WSM seems to settle in at around 275. So I let it do it's thing. I agree with all the reasons you mentioned as to why I like cooking at 275 vs. say 225. As well as I feel the fat renders off better.

[@dscott7864]

I learned from you that I've been smoking my chicken way too slow, which I'm guessing is the reason why the skin always turned out rubbery. Will bump cooking temp up to 350 next time. Thanks so much.

[@Dana-ns5py]

I usually run at about 250 +/- a bit in either direction, but the target is generally 250. Did a brisket style tri tip Friday, and ran it at 250, until wrapped then let the temp climb. But maybe I'll give 275 a try next run. Thanks for the videos.

[@jminion1947]

My old friend I agree on your findings, cooking 250 to 275 is my normal range. I cook brisket and pork butt hot and fast anymore.

[@TheVirtualWeberBullet]

I hope life is treating you well, my old friend!

[@jminion1947]

@@TheVirtualWeberBullet Doing well, still cooking for family and friends.

[@monkeyb1820]

Here's an idea for an experiment, based on my experience a couple of weeks ago. I was tasked with helping to make an oven-baked brisket for passover. But someone else saw that the briskets at costco were really expensive and instead got a two-pack of costco tri-tips (about half the price). So I said what the heck, just pretended they were brisket flats, cooked for around 3 hours at 350 in a foil covered pan. Then sliced them, put them back in the liquid, cooked for another 45 minutes or so without foil (this let the liquids thicken up). This is my standard oven-based way of cooking a brisket. Each one was coated with packet of onion soup mix, then dumped in jar of chili sauce, can of cranberries in jelly. And sure enough, they were indistinguishable from a brisket. Fall apart tender, delicious. It could be interesting to treat a tri-tip like a brisket flat and see how it does on the wsm (taken to the typical brisket temp, 190+). The worst case is that you'd get something like a slightly drier brisket, but edible with sauce. But when done in the oven (submerged in liquids), it comes out fully moist and delicious.

[@TheVirtualWeberBullet]

Harry Soo of Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ cooks tri-tip like brisket in these two videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXTHe59todOpqrc kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKfPp4ChmZyNidE

[@monkeyb1820]

@@TheVirtualWeberBullet I'll check them out. And obviously this is really only worthwhile if the tri-tip is cheaper than the brisket. But it is pretty much all meat, whereas the full brisket obviously has a lot of fat.

[@raywilliams5099]

Never seen Tri tip cheaper per pound. But sometimes it’s worth it to pay a little more and not have 10lbs of meat to freeze

[@tomworkman3219]

Chris, I agree. I tend to have better outcomes in the 250-275 range.

[@nonexman]

I've been using around 275-ish° for some time. Intrinsically, I thought below 250° just seemed too low. I do have a comment on your comment of "people were bragging about cooking at 210°…." I was very amused with that. I"m about to talk photography here so if this is not your cup of tea, you have my permission to ignore. About 15 years ago I got started with HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography. The basic idea is that if you're outdoors on a bright day, the camera can capture the very bright areas OR the very dark areas of shadow; but not both. So, what you can do is to take multiple shots at different shutter speeds and combine them in the computer to get the best of both worlds. The idea, expressed in length to make it easy to see what's going on, is if the eye can see a dynamic range of (say) 30", you need three images, each of 12" so there is some overlap for your images, for the whole final image. [Unfortunately, a number of folks got the idea to up the saturation of the image and thought that that made HDR extra special. (I thought it made my teeth hurt looking at these images). And that made a lot of folks think that HDR was dreadful photography. No, it was just a bad implementation of a great tool.] Meanwhile, on the photographic forums, people were "bragging" that they took nine photos at 1/2 stop apart and got X photo. As I explained above, that's way more than necessary, but these folks were taking images that only filled up their hard drives, and did NOT get a better image. Alas, ignorance was bliss and people were bragging about their silly technique and their dreadful photos. FWIW, my wife gave me my best review when one day she came into my office and said that the photo I was working on looked like she was looking out a window. There was no over-saturation, and that was done with just three images. Meanwhile, I'll be doing a brisket in the next week or two and that will be done at around 250-275-ish°. Here's to great food!

[@akba7192]

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t cooked a whole lot of meats so far on my 18, but I have done both pork ribs a few times and 2 pork loin roasts, both with pretty great results. Every cook so far I’ve done at 275-300+. The last rib cook I can say that I did have a few ribs at the end of the smaller spare racks (I cut the full racks in half so I can try different sauces). Every rib cook I have also not wrapped the ribs at all. I would say that is the most likely reason for the burnt ribs, but the rest of the meat was perfect.

[@BrokeGuyBBQ]

Same camps as you. 300-325 for poultry and 275 for everything else. Just seems to work better.

[@drpoop253]

I never cook below 250 nowadays. I will usually start off my brisket at 250, and after 9 hours, if it looks like I wont get the cook done in time, I will bump it up to 275. That being said, I really like to get my fat cap as rendered as possible, so I really try not to go up to 275 unless its absolutely necessary for timing.