WSM Cooker / Increased Capacity

There are several methods of increasing the capacity or adding a third grid in a WSM cooker and I feel that mine is one of the best. My modification will allow the cook to easily service his meat without any problems on this great little cooker.

I like to baste my meat once in a while on the cooker, maybe turn the meat over on the cooking grids, maybe foil the meat, and I also like to glaze my meat near the end of my cook and my setup will allow this without any headaches.



I mount a Grid Extender (a Big Green Egg product) under the top grid in my WSM cooker and this just hangs down in the cooker and is used for my middle grid in my larger cooks. The Grid Extender is a pretty slick device and can be mounted over or under most grids and costs about $24 dollars. This grid mounted under the top grid places this cooking surface right in the middle of the cooker and does have enough room for a couple of extra pork butts.



Cooking with the three grids is fairly easy to do with this modification and I always place a table beside all my cookers which I use to service the cooker and my meat. These are the steps I take to service my meat on all three layers with this setup on the WSM cooker. Pull the lid, grab the handles on the top grid and pull the whole setup including the two layers of meat right out of the cooker and set it on the table. The Grid Extender will support the extra weight of the top grid. I then baste, maybe turn the meat over, or maybe just glaze the meat on the lower level. I next service the meat in the middle grid while it is on my table, and then place the upper section with the middle grid back into the cooker. I then service the upper grid and place the lid back on the cooker. I can usually do this in about two minutes and I am on my way again with the cook.

Cooking on three grids in this great little cooker is not all peaches and cream!!! You will find that the middle cooking grid will run at a much lower temp than either the upper or lower grid and you will need to adjust for this in your cook. Place your smaller and less thick pieces of meat on this middle grid for the best results.

Another method for increasing the capacity of the cooker for your larger cuts of meat like pork butts is to place the meat on its side on the grids in the cooker. I will usually place them in a triangular fashion on the grids and then kinda lean them together at the top so they won't fall over. It is very easy to do 6 large or 8 small pork butts on the two grid in the cooker with this method.

A cook can also use the Weber rib racks for his large brisket flat cooks.