Great,1st smoking experience.

[Crash]

Outdoor temperature, 60F.
2:00 PM
Lit a chimney full of briquettes.
Mean while, I got the fire box ready with a setup outlined else where.
I placed 11 lbs of briquettes and some Hickory chunks around a bottomless coffee can.


2:30 PM
Dumped lit charcoal into can and removed the can by pulling it up with a pair of pliers.


I placed a disposable pan full of boiling water on the cooking grate along with two racks of ribs and a 4LB butt. Closed the lid.


3:00 PM
This is what it looked like.


But the temperature read:


Continued next post.

 

[Crash]

Decided to check temperature with another thermometer. Found a hole in the side just below the cooking grate on the opposite side of the fire box.



This one read 267F.


When I was sure this was correct, I throttled back by closing the firebox flute for a few minutes until the temp came down to 240F. That took about two minutes. Very responsive. Then reopened to 1/2 open.


4:30 PM
Up til now the temperature had stayed around 245F, but by now the flute was full open and the temp was starting to go down. I took a peak and turned the butt. The water pan is a little over half full. I dumped about 3 LBS of unlit coals on top of the old ones.



6:30 PM
This is what it looked like. The water pan was nearly empty.


Continued next post.

 

[Crash]

6:30 PM
The ribs went on the gas grill with the first coat of BBQ sauce impregnated with diced Jalapenos.



Took the butt's temp. It was only 120F.
It went into a covered pyrex dish and into a 325F oven.



7:00 PM
After three coats of BBQ sauce.



Served with cabbage salad and Mac n Cheese.



The ribs were pink through out. Was that a smoke ring? Or did we eat raw pork?

 

[candelbc]

Awesome post.. Glad your first experience was so good.. Brings me back to the first time I got my smoker started up...

-Brad

 

[Uncle Bob]

Great Photos! Great Post! Good Job!

 

[kitchenelf]

Was that a smoke ring? Or did we eat raw pork?

VERY good question - if the meat were more the size of a pork butt that would be the smoke ring. All smoked meat shows pink - even turkey and chicken.

I'm going to smoke a brined turkey on Wednesday - going to brine in apple juice, garlic, limes, lemons, oranges, rosemary, thyme, brown sugar, kosher salt all day Tuesday then fire that bad boy up on Wednesday morning.

It won't be 24 lbs. like my Thanksgiving turkey was so hopefully it will be done before 18 hours!!!!!!!!!!! That guy was extremely hard to get out - I might see if the rack that came with my big roasting pan will fit in there making a bit easier to turn around. It got VERY done on one side and had to be thrown in the oven so the other side could catch up.

Another great thing to do as long as you've got your smoker going is slice some sourdough bread and pop in the slices. They take about 1/2 to 1 hour or so but boy are they good!!!!!!!!! Flip them over occasionally.

Your ribs look awesome - you should be proud and pics ALWAYS help.

 

[AllenOK]

Don't you just love that grill? I have the same thing. I haven't used that quantity of charcoal to smoke with. I just burn logs of wood, usually Oak, with some hickory and/or pecan. Of course, I only get 45 - 60 minutes before the temp starts dying and I have to refuel.

I never coat my meat with sauce like you did your ribs. I always serve the sauce on the side. That's just me. I've always felt that the sauce is a condiment, and the meat should be the star.

I put drip pans under the meat, in the fire-grate in the cooking chamber. In fact, I've filled the one on the right side with water as well. This gives me the entire cooking area to cook with, including the upper rack, although I find I have to rotate items around about half-way through cooking.

I usually smoke pork butts that weigh 10 - 11 lbs, and I do two at once, since my family is addicted to the stuff. I smoke them for about 5 hours, then wrap in plastic, then in foil, and into the oven at 250 degrees F for another 4 hours. Perfectly done, pull-able pork. I usually end up with a smoke ring about half and inch deep into the pork. Ribs have no smoke ring, as the ribs aren't thick enough to show grey, cooked, pork in contrast with the pink smoke ring. The entire rack IS the smoke ring.

KE, I'm thinking about possibly getting the rotisserie attachment for my grill, brining a turkey, and smoking it in my grill without any of the grates. I could git a good-sized turkey, maybe two, into that thing. However, I would have to rotate the turkeys left-for-right at least once, to even out the cooking, and I'm not sure how easy that would be with the rotisserie.

 

[love2"Q"]

looks great ...