Cold Weather Ribs Disaster


 
Tim S (Timbo)

Tim S (Timbo)

New member
OK, maybe it wasn't a total disaster. But I need some help on this before I do a Prime Rib on Christmas.

I cooked 6 racks of baby backs Wednesday night on my WSM in temps in the teens(F). I have an ET-73 therm and set it up at grill level. Once I got the WSM fired up (it was out of the wind), the ET73 indicated no higher than 194, so I kept the vents wide open trying to get temps up to at least 225, and hopefully 250. Checking on it 30 mins later, the temp had not risen above 200 according to the ET73. Yet when I looked at the lid temp, it was showing over 300. I closed the vents trying to lower temps, but the momentum was too much to lower it significantly. The Et73 had worked flawlessly until Wednesday. Turns out that the ribes were close to being done before I could foil and "Trigg" them for my office Christmas luncheon potluck. I ended up glazing, saucing and pulling them after about 4 hours cook time but they were overcooked with a char beyond bark. I brought them to the pot luck even though I knew they were substandard, and got few comments on them other than the usual polite compliments folks get for average food.

The last 5-6 rib cooks before this I received comments like "best ribs I ever ate" etc. but none this time, which confirmed my assessment of this disaster when I tasted the final product myself.

I don't do these cooks for the compliments (I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the good comments)but I expect more from myself now that I know how to cook ribs.

Anyone else have this kind if issue with an et73 or similar therm in cold weather?

I am having second thoughts on trying to do the prime rib on Christmas day....
 
I wish I could help you; I only use a Maverick probe in the meat and monitor the WSM temp using the dome thermometer. I've never had a problem if the dome temp is in the neighborhood of 225 for low and slow.
 
I rely on the dome temp, and I guess our weather out here really lets me do that. I've thought about the probe style, and I forgot to add it to this year's christmas list. Somehow I deleted it out of my amazon cart, but that's a different story.

As for your office group, my gut is they loved the ribs anyway. I've found myself critiquing my own food, and thinking others will do the same. However, the usual response is that it is the best ____ the ever had. I'm not sure if they just are baffled that bbq can actually be done better than a restaurant at home, or it truly is the best they ever had.

Either way, don't sweat it. I'm guessing you had a few people there who still thought they were the best they ever had, but just didn't say it. I've had potlucks at work where I've had some good bbq, and thought to myself, that's some good bbq. I just didn't say anything, but I probably should have.
 
Skip measuring a the grate level. If using a 73, just dangle the probe in a lid vent so that he probe is inside the vent, the wire is outside.
 
Checking the grate temp in the wsm doesn't work too good, as others already aluded to. I hang my Maverick probe in the vent like Kevin suggested. That way, it's in the stream of circulation and not as affected by the meat temp. The grate temp is a little lower, probably by about 15 degrees or so if doing low-n-slow w/ water in the pan.
 
Thanks for all the helpful comments! I believe that the probe being too close to the meat may have been the problem. I filled up both racks with ribs and brats, and that probably caused the temp issue. I will be doing prime rib Saturday, and will have pics. BTW, since there were no pics of the rib disaster, then it never happened...
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I would also check cold & hot water tests.to see if your ET-39 is accurite.There are some good info on this site in regards to calibrations.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
Skip measuring a the grate level. If using a 73, just dangle the probe in a lid vent so that he probe is inside the vent, the wire is outside. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thats what I do when I want to confirm my lid thermometer. I've also stuck my thermapen in a vent hole to make sure I'm on track.
 
Tim I live a little further north near Traverse City and we have had about the same temps lately. I noticed that my Maverick ET73 didn't move for a long time either. I put new batteries in all around and reset it and it worked fine. Don't know what to tell you. Ya have to do the Prime Rib though Christmas just wouldn't be the same with one done in the oven.


Good Luck
 
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