Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Up to 200 now. Damn gimmick trays.

 

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Take the charcoal rack out of the charcoal grill, take the supplied grates for the offset box, and put them under the normal grates in the grill section where your meat is. Almost doubles your cooking area.

Edit, you might be able to just put the offset grates under the regular grates with the other thing in there.

 

Just pulled them off.

 

Are they done?

 

Yup. At least they look like it to me. Got about a 1/2" of bone showing on the end of them.

 

Nice. Enjoy.

 

I'm assuming they shouldn't be dried out like the ones from a BBQ place, right?

They cooked for 4 hours.

My kitchen therometer is showing them at 165 after being off the grill for 20 minutes

 

My ribs are usually around 200* when they're done.

If I had a guess, yours will be fairly moist, but will be a little on the tough side for ribs. More like the consistency of a pork chop, which is usually cooked so that you eat it like a steak with a fork and knife vs something that pulls off the bone easily when you bit in to it.

Make sense?

Most importantly, though, how do YOU think they are?!!??!

 

Suggestion: finish these on your propane side. Spray them with apple juice and crisp them up on each side for a few minutes.

 

You nailed that one. Moist but about like biting a pork chop. To get them to fall of the bone and tender you smoke them longer, right? Lower temp?

I like the taste. I smoked them with apple wood. I liked that they weren't dried out like most of the restaurants have around here.

 

Now that sounds really good.

 

If you want to cook for the same amount of time, crank up the heat a bit. If you want to cook at the same temp, leave them on a little longer.

The main thing is that you need to get your internal temp to about 195-200*. I suggest cooking to an internal temp for the first couple of cooks, but start to learn the "bend test" that you'll see referenced plenty.

If you want to keep your temp the same, but speed it up a tad, then you can wrap them in foil for part of the cook. 4 hours is on the short side for ribs, so you will need to be in the 275-300* range, more than likely, and include an hour or so of wrapping if that is the time frame you're shooting for.

 

I'll give that a try next time. Thanks!

 

Look up the 3-2-1 or 2-2-1 method. The formula is Smoke-wrapped-unwrapped and sauced. 3-2-1 is for St. Louis style, 2-2-1 for baby backs.
I've only cooked them this way on the smoker, and have had no complaints yet. You can adjust to suit your tastes. If you want more smoke, leave them unwrapped longer. More tender/fall off the bone, leave them in the wrap longer. More crispy on the outside, a little longer after the wrap.

They've been so good, I generally use only a little sauce at the end for a bit of sugar that the wife likes. Or, you could do them at 225 and just let them on for 5-6 hours until tender. I like mine tender, but with a little bit of a chew to them. I don't know if I've ever cooked a dry rib. Wrapping helps keep them moist, especially if you add liquid.

 

How necessary is a water pan? I built a UDS and didn't think about putting a spot for a water pan in there. I want to do my brisket on Saturday but keep hearing I should have one of them water pans.

 

I played it safe and used one on mine.

 

It really depends. You need a diffuser of some sort to prevent direct heat. The water pan acts as a diffuser and a heatsink to help regulate the temp. Sometimes I use water in it, sometimes I don't. Even if I don't use water in it, I wrap it in foil and leave it in there. A small pizza stone is a good diffuser. Just wrap it in foil to make cleanup easier.

 

This. 3-2-1 for spares or 2-2-1 for baby back. Hard to mess it up. I do trigg ribs. For the wrap portion I do parkay butter, honey, brown sugar and tiger sauce. Pretty much only way I do em now. Wife approves

 

All you guys with your fancy foil. No foil here for anything but the water pan. Foil on ribs just makes them consistent. It's slightly harder to be consistent without foil, but the final result is better.