Pics of today's Beef Short Ribs smoke

Just started a rack of beef short ribs and get to spend the next 6 hours doing chores around the house and yard while I get to smell em cooking!

First I had to trim off some fat - and at $4.99 a lb. I just tossed $6.50 in the trash! Don't know any way around that. My last beef short rib cook the fat did not render down very much and I just don't like heavy layers of fat in my food. There will still be plenty by the time this is done.



Here it is trimmed up:



Next a medium layer of Meat Church Holy Cow rub.



I'm experimenting with a larger smoke pan as the little square one that comes with my Landmann 3405GLA is just too small. Today I'm using an old aluminum frying pan with some foil to keep the wood from igniting. I have some oak, cherry and hickory mixed in there.





I have the smoker loaded up with wood pan, water pan, drip pan, meat and Redi-Chek thermometers.



Now I'm going to go shop and see what advancements they have in remote thermometers. My older Redi-Chek remote is good but won't update given my smoker is all the way on one side of the yard/house and I need to hang out in my garage awhile. Maybe there is a wireless one or something that won't break the bank?

Right away I can see my larger smoke pan is putting out much more smoke. I think that is good although it looks more smoky than the thin blue smoke I used to get. It isn't flaring up though as I can see my temps staying right around 250.

Hmmm, in 1.75 hours already up to 158 degrees. Seems fast, but I've stayed around 260 the whole time. Maybe I'm gonna have a long stall? I have the thermometer in the thickest part. Last time I recall it took 5 to 6 hours and my goal is 200 - 205.

She was putting out way more smoke than I am used to, but this pan holds twice what I was used to having so I guess that was it. Hope it wasn't too much smoke.

Looks like the smoke subsided big time.

Made me a little side table. I didn't like how close my thermometer rested to the smoker the way I had it hanging before

Here is how my wood box looks after 3 hours. I opened it up since the smoke had stopped. Is that amount of creosote normal? Usually I don't have as tight a lid/seal so would expect it to have gone up in the smoke on prior cooks if it is normal at all...????