Attempting first kettle smoke on Saturday.

[Nick H]

First off let me repeat what many others around here have said before. This site Rocks! I have learned so much about smoking before my first smoke that it is almost TOO much for me to handle. Let me also say that I understand I can research and prepare forever, but I won’t truly begin to learn until I put the flame to the charcoal.

That being said, I expect “problems” with my first smoke, and I also expect to have a serious change of plans throughout the process. With so many variables I find it hard to believe that my first smoke will go even remotely close to as planned. I do, however, have a general layout.

Over Christmas I had to decide between a WSM or a OTG. Prior to now I didn’t have a very reliable kettle so I opted to go with the OTG. My first smoke will be on the OTG using the adapted minion method. The setup of the kettle will be similar to the diagram shown here:

http://www.thesmokering.com/HowTo/weberribs/default.jsp

Other notes about my setup:
OTG
Lid thermometer mounted with chicken wire (Grill Care. 210-215 boiling test results)
Smart BBQ remote probe for grate/meat temp. (potato on grate. 210 boiling test result)
Firebricks, not wide, to bank the charcoal (Kingsford)
Deep Loaf pan (foil) for the water pan, lasagna pan (foil) for the drip pan
Hickory Chunks/Apple chips - soaked
Spray bottle filled with Apple Juice

What I plan to smoke:
6 lb flat (BBQ Bible rub)
One-rack St. Louis ribs (BBQ Bible rub)
Baked beans????

Expected time in kettle smoker:
Ribs (6-7).. 3-2-1 method… tear test
Flat (7)… take to 170… foil… finish in oven to 190 (since it is a flat)… cooler for 1-2 hours
Baked Beans (1-2 hrs)… if there is enough fuel left after the ribs/flat

How I plan to do it:

I understand that brisket isn’t the easiest piece of meat to smoke, so it probably wasn’t the best choice for my first attempt, but the flat was on sale and it looked too good to pass up on.

I don’t have a set-time to eat… I’ve told my family it will be ready when it is ready… I’m not too worried about upsetting the close family, I’ve dealt with their impatience long enough to be able to handle it for another day… I am aiming for 8pm… I figure with my start time, 8 is a reasonable range… but this is my first smoke so I really don’t know.

I do not plan on closing the bottom vents completely because I do not want the coals to go out.

I am keeping a cook-log each time I smoke in the kettle so I can look back at it for future reference.

Friday:

Prep spares into St. Louis, rub
Prep & Rub brisket
Make BBQ Sauce (Basic BBQ from How to Grill)

Saturday:

9am: Begin to fire charcoal using the minion method. 3 medium chunks buried, 1 chunk on top.
9:30-10:30am: Monitor temps, try to get in desired temp range (220-250) **closely monitor the difference in lid and grate temps
10:30am: Add meat… rolling the ribs, starting the brisket fat cap down.
10:30am – 2:30pm: Continually monitor temps, make necessary adjustments (every 20 or so minutes) DO NOT OPEN LID!!!
2:30pm: Remove probe from potato, place into side of the flat. Spray brisket/ribs with AJ. Foil ribs. Replace lid.
2pm-4pm: Keep a close eye on temps, make vent adjustments… record progress
4pm: Remove foil from ribs … Vent adjustments for temp.
*** 5-6pm: Hopefully by this time I will have made some progress on the brisket. I am not foiling the brisket until it is 170. I plan on spraying the flat with AJ before I foil and place in the oven. I want to keep the bark and from what I have read here if I foil anywhere below 165 the fat will turn the bark into stew. This time range is very vague because I am going to be keeping a close eye on my probe for the brisket and I will be pulling the ribs when they pass the tear-test.
6-7pm: Eat Ribs. Finish the flat in the oven. If there is fuel in the kettle I will up the temp to over 300, add a handful of soaked chips, and cook the beans, otherwise I will cook them in the oven.
7-8pm: Hold brisket in cooler.
8pm: Sigh of relief.

This is my general plan and it is the best I could come up with based on the reading I have done… I understand that times are very general and that the brisket is more of a feel than a temp/time guide. Fork twist.

I have endless questions, but I feel a few are important:

- I have read on here that briskets can dry out and that a few pieces of bacon over them while smoking can help “naturally” baste the meat while it is cooking. When do you put the bacon on and does it reduce the amount of bark sufficiently?

- Should I turn the brisket during the smoke?

- Should I spray the brisket/ribs more than once during the cook? Im worried about opening the lid too much.

-Instead of monitoring temps for the first hour, should I just go ahead and put the meat on when I fire the charcoal? Id like to get a feel of the grate/lid difference, but if it will make the smoke more complex, I will skip that step and start with the probe in the flat.

- Should I start the meat cold or at room temp? I want the best smoke taste possible.

-Waterpan hot or cold water?

Any HELP or suggestions or recommendations would be GREATLY appreciated!

Once again, Thank You!!

 

[Pat McCreight]

Sounds like you have a well thought out plan, which is a good start.

I started smoking ribs on my weber kettle before I bought my wsm, but I never put as much effort into it as I do now.

As for spending the first hour monitoring temp differences between the grate and lid, I would forgo this step and just get the meat on the grill. I know you don't have a hard-stop dinner time, but it gets frustrating looking at hungry guests...you're keeping a log, so you'll learn the differences over time.

I would leave the brisket fat cap down the entire time. If you want to put bacon on it, do so in the beginning and leave it on the top.

I only spray/baste meats when I turn them. So just spray the meats when you need to work with them. In my opinion, it's not worth the heat loss to lift off the lid only to spray the meat.

I've heard cold meat absorbs more smoke, but I never really tested it out. I bring my meat to room temperature so it doesn't add hours / fuel expense to the cook.

As for the beans / fuel issue...I'm guessing you will need to add fuel along the way anyways, so if you want / have space for the beans, put them on. It can't hurt and charcoal is relatively cheap compared to other fuels nowadays...

Hope this helps - many more people with greater experience will hopefully chime in.

Either way, relax and have a great time. Even decent home bbq beats most of the stuff you find in restaurants (unless of course you live in Memphis, KC, etc.)

 

[Steve Z]

Do a few smokes on your kettle, and you will want to buy a WSM. I did 3 butts on my kettle (Not all at the same time), and after reading up about how easy the WSM is to use, I ran out and bought one. Good luck with your smoke and let us know how it turns out. Take some pictures, too!

Steve

 

[Nick H]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by markwarren:
Either way, relax and have a great time. Even decent home bbq beats most of the stuff you find in restaurants (unless of course you live in Memphis, KC, etc.) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the reply Mark and yes I do plan on relaxing,watching basketball, and smoking meat.

Im making stuffed poblanos and some dips for the Superbowl so I decided to go ahead with the smoke on Saturday when I have all day to sit back and watch.

Thank you for the suggestions... I now plan on leaving the brisket fat cap down the entire time... I have some extra bacon leftover from the baked beans so I will probabaly throw those on the brisket when I start up the charcoal. I will also pull the meat out of the refrigerator a little less than an hour before I start the smoke to try and conserve fuel. I will be putting the meat on at the same time as starting the charcoal.

Also, since it is a kettle and I am mostly concerned about maintaining the temps, I will take your advice and only spray the brisket/ribs when I open the lid to foil/unfoil.

Hopefully I will be able to get some decent pictures out of it, but I dont want to be posting pictures of ruined ribs and brisket here, so... we will see

I am excited to begin the learning process... Its hard to accept that patience and mistakes are a major part of the process, but it looks like I have no other option.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Steve Z]

Yes, patience and mistakes are definitely part of the process, but trust me, we learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others. Feel free to share your successes as well as things that don't go so well. When things come out good, it's well worth the work. But when it doesn't, we just get back at it and learn from our mistakes. Good luck to you!
Steve

 

[K Kruger]

I agree with much of marlwarren's post. My two:

I don't recommend rubbing ribs ahead of time. The salt and sugar can make the ribs quite 'hammy'. Not everyone agrees.

There is no need to spray. A single spray does virtually nothing. If you want to spray the ribs before foiling, fine (the foil will contain it), but you can simply drizzle the the spray mix onto the ribs when foiling. Ditto for the flat.

Spraying with a water-based mix is the same as basting with one: it cools the surface and slows cooking. That's fine if that's the intent, but it needs to be done fairly often to have the desired effect. If the intent of the spray is a flavor addition it's better, imo, to simply add the desired flavor(s) either in the rub, a finishing glaze, and/or sauce.

There is no need to monitor the difference between the grate and lid temps on a kettle unless you really want to. A lid temp is sufficient to work with. Load the meat when you fire up.

Cold meat can faciltate smokering formation (but meat does not have to be cold to get a smokering). The temp of meat matters little when it comes to smoke adherence (meat does not absorb smoke, it adsorbs, ie, it provides a substrate to which smoke particulates cling).

Briskets--like any meat--can certainly dry out. If brisket--like any meat--comes out dry, it is overcooked. Covering the brisket with bacon is not necessary if you are planning on foiling. Though bacon, like foil, cuts the evaporative pressure on the surface of the meat, it, unlike foil, does render some fat. This fat, however, does not soak into the meat. It pools on top and/or prevents surface/rub browning and/or drips away. Fine, I guess, if you like that sort of thing. Brisket can still overcook and dry out with bacon.

(Basting with a fat-based baste also reduces evaporative pressure on the meat being basted. It, too, can add flavor, but doesn't prevent surface browning. To be effective though, basting needs to be fairly frequent--not very practical in low/slow kettle cooks.)

Foiling flats at or post-plateau can help them finish cooking without excess moisture loss, a common problem with flats (and even packers) that are cooked low/slow, especially too low/slow.

If you are making your fire on one side of the kettle and putting the brisket on the other rather than having lit on both sides of the kettle with the meat in the middle, rotating the meat (not flipping) so that the side of the meat that was closest to the heat is rotated away from the heat can be helpful. If putting the meat in the middle between fuel piles rotating is not necessary. Flipping is not necessary in any case. Leave the brisket's fatcap down the whole time.

See David Lohrentz's post for a good set-up idea for kettle cooking.

 

[Jeff Calhoun]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
I agree with much of marlwarren's post. My two:

I don't recommend rubbing ribs ahead of time. The salt and sugar can make the ribs quite 'hammy'. Not everyone agrees.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

K Kruger, what do you mean by "hammy"? Are you saying the rub dries out the meat and makes is sweet tasting? Do you apply less rub just before you thow them on the cooker?

 

[Dale Perry]

Hammy is a term used by us BBQers to say that the ribs taste like ham. They should taste like good ribs, not boiled ham.

I have made hammy ribs before and to me that is a let down. And I love good ham. weird.

 

[Nick H]

OK.... Here we go.

Three hours into the cook and I've already learned so much.

I may have used too much wood. When mixing the chunks most of them were smaller so I used about a handful and a half of hickory. For the first hour or so it was a pretty thick smoke but it has since died down and is a very slow/light smoke out of the top vent. Hopefully the strong smoke at the beginning wont overpower the meat.

The temps spiked big time (320-350) at the beginning after I put the meat on. It took about an hour to get a hold on them and they have been around 260-290 lid since. I have removed the lid twice in the past 3 hours which I will explain below. I plan on removing the lid again in about an hour. The temps after removing the lid did not take long at all to get back to where they were.

With all of the nervousness at the beginning of the cook I thought I should add more water to the pan... so I did... I will need to check the water here in about 40 minutes as there was probabaly 2 inches in the pan at the last point the lid was off.

An hour and a half into the cook I checked the meat temp and it was at 141!!!! There goes all hope of a decent smoke ring. Oh well, I started the meat at 58 degrees. I thought that 141 could NOT be right so I removed the lid, reinserted the probe, and once again, 141. I ran into the kitchen to get my handheld instant digital and it was getting the same temp. I thought all was lost at this point. Little do I know. The temp has only risen 5 degrees in the past 90 minutes. I need to practice more patience and trust in the kettle!

I also realize I need a bigger drip plan or better placement of the drip pan. The ash catcher in the bottom of the kettle is filling up with rib/brisket juice... I just hope my drip pan is catching enough to dump back on the finished product.

With the slab of ribs and brisket I did not have enough space for my small pieces after prepping the ribs. I dont know when I will cook those.

All in all its been fun so far and once I made it past the initial hour or so its been fairly smooth sailing since. Live and learn...

If I think the brisket still have 5-6 hours should I even bother foiling the ribs or just flip them in an hour or so? I want tender, moist ribs but I dont really care if they get done sooner than the brisket so speed isnt why I would foil them.

Here are some pictures of the cook so far:

Here is my kettle set up...

Meat is getting ready to go on:

It all begins:

 

[Nick H]

OK..... I just added water to the pan... I notice now I have to open the lower vent more to maintain 250+ ... I also notice there is a smoke leak in the side... this is partly due to the probe wire and partly due to the lid not fitting very tight.

The ribs are starting to get very dark on top... id assume its near time to foil or flip.... is it possible to foil and leave rolled?

 

[David Lohrentz]

I think it will work better to foil the ribs flat.

One other thing, it appears that your meat isn't all directly above the drip pan. You probably will get some meat dripping onto the bottom of your kettle. Over time, that will be hard to clean, since the meat juice gets mixed up with the ash in the bottom. That can be avoided by using foil underneath the meat, spread out across the entire indirect section with the sides raised up, rather than a pan that is smaller than the area used above it.

You say that it started out hot. How many lit coals did you use?

 

[David Lohrentz]

One other thing is that you can use a fire brick placed flat above the fuel area, which will work about as well as water at maintaining temps. The down side is that if it gets too hot, the firebrick will just keep getting hotter and then make it a little harder to bring the temp down, while water never gets hotter than the boiling point. The benefit of the fire brick is you don't have to lift the lid to add water or worry about the water pan running dry and having your temps spike up while you were away. If your temps some how get out of control and the fire brick gets too hot you can swap it with another cool one held in reserve.

 

[Nick H]

David...Thanks for the input.

I started with 6 coals lit... I figured with the 28 degree outside temp and 12 degree windchill I may need to use a little more heat to get it started.

I noticed the drip pan not being directly under the brisket about 30 minutes into the cook, but I didnt want to lift the lid just to move the drip pan.... When I added more water I moved the drip pan under the brisket so that should be taken care of...

What should I do about the ribs? Obviously I dont have the room to foil them flat... should I just go ahead and turn the ribs and let cook until the tear test?

I forgot the apple juice so I dont have anything to spray the ribs with, unless cider vinegar would work... and from what kevin said above it wont make much of a difference...

Im consider adding some soaked apple chips and a handful or two of unlit coals when I flip/or foil the ribs... I want to get it done all at once... the brisket I am leaving alone... After sitting at 144-145 for the past 2.5 hours it has finally started to climb once again and I am now at 152 internal...

I am currently checking the kettle every 15-20 minutes... its right out the door so its not a big deal... I dont know if the lower lid temps is due to the weather warming up outside or fuel running low....

 

[David Lohrentz]

You can make great ribs without foiling. I wouldn't worry about that if you don't have the space. I also wouldn't worry about spraying your ribs. Just flip them to even out the color a bit.

Even in cold temps, 6 lit briquettes is too much for a kettle low and slow. It is ever so much easier to catch the temp on the way up.

 

[Nick H]

Thanks..

I dont think Im going to foil the ribs in the end... too much lid time etc.. temps are holding steady at 280 now with 50 lower 100 upper... ribs have been on for almost 4 hours... im about to flip them...

155 internal on the brisket....I am going to pull the brisket, wrap in foil, and finish in the oven once it hits 165-167... bring it to 188 or so... check with a fork... cooler and towels are waiting..

Last time i checked most of the coals were white except the ones closer to the kettle sides... smoke is flowing slowly... mostly out the sides, but I can deal with that later... When would one add more coals?

I decided to not add the wood chips, i dont want to oversmoke... I will be adding more coals/chips once the brisket and ribs are off and im going to smoke some baked beans and the rib trimmings i have...

 

[Nick H]

Well, I lost track of the kettle for about 30 minutes eating the ribs and it spiked to 340.... have it back down to 290... my guess is about 20 minutes above 300.... hope it doesnt ruin the brisket... broke the plateau about 15 minutes ago and is at 164 right now...pulling at 167 to wrap and send to oven....

pulled the ribs after 5:40, let rest in cooler for 30 minutes....the ribs were a little dry, but I havent had ribs that good in a LONG time... not much of a need for sauce.. well see how the brisket turns out...

 

[K Kruger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">my guess is about 20 minutes above 300 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It shouldn't.

Well--your ribs don't look dry. They look delicious.

 

[Nick H]

kevin.... they were delicious.... i guess since it is my first smoke im trying to be overly critical of myself instead of just enjoying the food.

Thanks for the help... I would have been trying too many things to get the ribs right instead of just letting them cook...

 

[Nick H]

Here are the pictures from the brisket.... I only rested the brisket for 30 minutes due to company becoming very impatient. There is much to be worked on, but I am very pleased with my first smoke attempt! Thanks everyone... I will post my excel log later...I need to stretch out and relax for a little while...

I put on the brisket at 10:50 and was pulling it out of the cooler at 8:30pm. 6 # flat.

About to go into the oven:

Slicing:

Smoked Baked Beans, Boxed Mac n Cheese, Brisket... I topped it with drippings at the table... Very strong smoke flavor:

Once again Thanks Everyone!

 

[Michael C.]

Nice looking smoking ring on the brisket. Thanks for sharing the photos.