5 Racks of Spare Rib w/ DIY windbreak
- Thread starter Matt N
- Start date
Steve Cutchen
TVWBB Super Fan
That is R2D2 on Hoth.
R. Hanson ("Rondo")
TVWBB Pro
Way ta Go Matt!!
Pls tell us about your starting/cooking techniques..vent settings..and dome thermo readings...water pan etc.... Pretty darn impressive
Patrick Sullivan
TVWBB Fan
Nice, I'm in Minneapolis and we have a huge snow bank on the east side of our patio. I am doing an ovenight butt tonight. Will the snow ever stop?
Eric Simon
TVWBB Fan
Go Matt! What's the wire running down the right side?
The ribs were good. I used lump charcoal (only the second time with lump) but no smoke wood this time. I use a thick clay saucer that I bought at Menards a while ago. I just foil the saucer and it fits perfectly where the water pan goes. I do not put the water pan in the smoker. If I want to bring the smoker up to temp quicker I preheat the foiled saucer in the oven while I setup. I did not preheat the saucer this time.
The lump is nice in that I find the temp easier to regulate (I know that sounds odd). I find when I use kingsford I have the vents open pretty wide and I cannot keep the temp up. This time with lump it seems to be a bit better. The only issue I had as when I basted the ribs I had the lid off a long time and one of the big pieces of lump started on fire and was coming up the side. Nothing that closing all the vents including the top couldn't fix in a minute. I was worried about a residue on ribs from that but I couldn't tell any difference. Anyway with the lump charcoal I was able to keep my bottom vent settings at around 25% to 33% most of the time. No need to stir the coal for just a 6hr smoke. The dome thermometer read about 215 to just under 250. The wire running down the side is a probe thermometer. I do not think it was inserted in the picture since it goes under the lid to the lower rack. I put that on the bottom rack to see how the clay affects temps (as usually I do not have the bottom rack in). Since I did not preheat the saucer this time it was interesting to see the difference in dome temp and probe temp. You could see the point where the probe temp finally made it as high as the dome temp. After the little fire above the probe temp shot up to 275 so I turned the vents down a bit until it was under 250. The I opened the up the vents a little bit more that she stabilized well.
All in all things went well. We got a couple of more inches of snow since then.
The lump is nice in that I find the temp easier to regulate (I know that sounds odd). I find when I use kingsford I have the vents open pretty wide and I cannot keep the temp up. This time with lump it seems to be a bit better. The only issue I had as when I basted the ribs I had the lid off a long time and one of the big pieces of lump started on fire and was coming up the side. Nothing that closing all the vents including the top couldn't fix in a minute. I was worried about a residue on ribs from that but I couldn't tell any difference. Anyway with the lump charcoal I was able to keep my bottom vent settings at around 25% to 33% most of the time. No need to stir the coal for just a 6hr smoke. The dome thermometer read about 215 to just under 250. The wire running down the side is a probe thermometer. I do not think it was inserted in the picture since it goes under the lid to the lower rack. I put that on the bottom rack to see how the clay affects temps (as usually I do not have the bottom rack in). Since I did not preheat the saucer this time it was interesting to see the difference in dome temp and probe temp. You could see the point where the probe temp finally made it as high as the dome temp. After the little fire above the probe temp shot up to 275 so I turned the vents down a bit until it was under 250. The I opened the up the vents a little bit more that she stabilized well.
All in all things went well. We got a couple of more inches of snow since then.
DAVE IN CINCY
TVWBB Member
And here I thought they might think me looney smoking during our 1" storm last night!