Rib Problems

Inaugurated the new WSM this weekend and thanks to all the great info and advice on this site things went pretty smoothly. Did a whole turkey the first night, a salmon the second night, and finally 2 racks of ribs. Ribs were a slight problem. I smoked them for 5 hours at a lid temp of 300 and a grill temp (measured w/ a Polder) of 225-250. When I took them off you could pull the meat off the bones easily with your fingers but the meat was dry and stringy and a little tough to chew. Any idea whether this points to cooking too long? Cooking at too high a temp? Something else? Can't wait to try again.

Short answer is yes, run dome temp
of 225 to 265*. Your temp at 300* at dome may have worked but they were on to long.
Q'n is not judge based on time (use time as guide only). Sounds like you were probably an hour to long.
I run a toothpick between the ribs and if
goes thru like going thru butter and if you have some pull back on the rib bones there done.
Jim

In addition to Jim's comments, I would add that it seems unlikley that you have a 50? difference between dome and rack. Chris ran extensive tests on his smoker and only found about a 15? difference between top rack and lid temp. Of course, that was on his smoker, but I have to believe that it would hold true for all WSMs.

Might want to check your polder for accuracy.

Doug

This was a brand new WSM so I assumed the large temp difference was just because it was new. The lid temp was measured with an Allied-Kenco bi-metallic stuck in the top vent and the Polder was checked in boiling water and in an ice/water mixture. I believe the thermometers. I'm interested to see what happens to the Lid/Rack temps as the smoker starts getting greasy.

Hi Andrew,

I just fired-up a new WSM last weekend for the first time too,my top-vent temp ran around 245*,my bottom-rack showed 220*-225*,(I burn only lump)

I know the top reading was within +/- 2*,
And judging by results alone,
I feel the bottom one was very close too.
As the above poster said,I also find ribs
average about 4 hours,depending on cut.

One other thing I noticed is that I can reduce the amount of wood I use for flavor,probably cause the WSM is so much tighter than my old bullet.

Best of luck next venture.

Theo B.

[This message has been edited by Theo Theophilus (edited 09-08-2000).]