My first smoke

[BluzQue]

(Partial) Success!

If I had been smoking on too low of a temp, I was able to compensate by increasing the cooking time and temp.....the ribs came out done, but certainly not "fall off the bone" tender. My 3-2-1 plan was butchered into a 2-2-2.5 plan. It was strange in that one side of the ribs appeared to have an almost jerky-like texture, but the other was quite moist.....I'm not sure how to explain that.

The rub and mop both came out better than I hoped, but I think I'll need to tone down the cayenne pepper next time.

The taste was a bit "hammy" as some suspected it would be, but not overpowering.


For those of you who said fire control was going to be something I'm going to have to get good at, I wholeheartedly agree...I was almost continually tinkering w/ it.

BTW: Cowboy Brand charcoal is crap......the only way I could keep the heat up was to use my "smoking" chunks of hickory as the basis for my fire......gonna try Stubb's next.

You'll like Stubbs alot!

8)

 

[Rack Ops]

This isn't really a "mod" per se, but my smoker does allow me to adjust the grate....if I pull it all the way up, and position a drip pan next to the firebox, it goes a long way towards blocking air from coming straight up into the smoker.

I wonder if that would help with temp control?


BTW: Just fired up the Stubbs....is it just me or is that stuff smokey? It almost feels redundant to add wood to it now

 

[Nick Prochilo]

Rack Ops, keep practicing ............... you will get it!

 

[Shores]

The Stubbs might be smokey, but it's a heck of a lot better than Cowboy (that stuff is terrible). I baught a bag of Stubbs at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. I bought some Frontier at Sam's this past weekend (40lb bag for less than $15)....CRAP!!! You'd think I'd learned my lesson by now, but sometimes a good deal and convienence takes over. Won't do that again...I hope.

I think adding a water pan to help that stabilize the heat right by the firebox will make a world of difference. Like I said before, you're gonna get this figured out and then you'll be the master of fire control!