First BRITU Disaster


 
C

Craig Cole

TVWBB Fan
Well I tried my first smoke with WSM and I choose BRITU ribs. I put the ribs on smoker at 11am figuring around 5-5:30 Dinner. it is now 9:26 and just finished them about 15 mins ago. I followed the instructions fairly well, and things went well at first. After the first three hours, the temp never went beyond 250 and hovered around 225. I know the instructions says to open vents wide and the temp will go up to 275 to 280 for the last 3 hours or so. Is this where I went wrong. At 6pm I added more coals and stoked the hot coals and it did go up to 280. Any help is appreciative.
 
First thing I would do is check the accuracy of your thermometer. I cook ribs using the britu method and hardly ever open the vents up to raise the temp. I keep it around 215 for the first couple of hours then open them a bit to get it to 225. When I do big cooks like 12 slabs I only fill the water pan up about a 1/4 and after a couple hours the temps come up because the water is pretty much gone. I never take my temp past 230 for ribs. Mine are are always done by 6 hours.

Makes me believe your thermometer is not accurate.
 
Hmmm... 10 hour loinback ribs. Can't believe they would be edible. They were loinbacks, not spares? By what method did you determine doneness?

Thermometer checked for accuracy in boiling water? Where was temp measured relative to the cooking grate?
 
They were Pork Loin Back Ribs not Spares. For the method of determining doneness I went by looks and by pulling them apart. At 5pm they were not even brown yet, so I new they weren't finished. By I kept checking on them each hour and it wasn't until the last 2-3 they became brown. Finally at 9pm I could tear the center apart with some pull to them. I tasted them and they taste really good, but we had to take the inlaws out to dinner since we were too hungry to wait on them to finish.

I haven't checked the thermometer. But I just cooked Beef Back Ribs and Pork Butt on my trashcan smoker and had the same thermometer and it worked great. I cooked a slab of ribs for 4th of July between 200-225 for six hours and they were perfect.

I really like the WSM as it was pretty easy keeping consistent temperatures throughout the day. I will most defintely check my thermometer.

Also, the thermometer is a 2.5" and i inserted it through one of the top vents.
 
Assuming an accurate thermometer, measuring 225° at or near the top of the dome translates to 200-210 at the top grate. Over the course of a long cook, things can even out, but that's the conventional wisdom. An inaccurate thermometer could swing things out of whack even further.

Perhaps the characteristics of your trashcan smoker happened to offset the possible inaccuracy of your thermometer.
 
If it took over 10 hours to cook loinback ribs, then your grate temp must have been well under 200 for much of the time.

I would check your thermometer in boiling water to see what it reads. Also, do you have a probe thermometer that you could use to measure your temp at the grate in addition to lid temp the next time you cook or at least for the initial part of your next cook?
 
Water boils at 212°, so that's 13° off. Consider, too, that, typically, such inaccuracies aren't linear, so it may differ the higher or lower you go.
 
Your thermometer is off by almost 15 degrees, becuase Capon Bridge, WV has an elevation of 819 feet, so the boiling point there is 210.6 degrees.

If you are using that thermometer, then I would calculate a grate temp of 35 to 40 degrees less than your reading at the lid. I think the lid-grate discrepancy is a little larger early in the cook and less as the cook continues, but I usually do MM. I would assume that the lid-grate difference would vary based on standard method start vs. Minion Method start.
 
Wow! Very interesting stuff. I think I'll get a new thermometer as my current one is 5 years old, plus I'll get a second digital to montitor the grate as well. Being the grate is 35-40 degrees cooler than the lid that means I was cooking on average around 200 degrees for first 3 hours, and 205 degrees on average for last 3 hours.

I also think my trash can temps would have vary differently from the WSM cause I didn't use a water pan in the trash can, just charcoal under the suspended grate. This would explain why it worked better in the can than the WSM.

Overall, I'm still pleased with the WSM cause I don't have to baby sit it like i did the trash can. Seems like every 30-40 mins I had to feed the can to keep the temps stable, due to the cheap material of the trash can. Can't wait to smoke again and live and learn.

I also kept a pretty decent journal for at least the first 7 hours, so I have that to fall back on in the future.

Thanks for all your advise and help.
 
Final Results are in. 21 hours later from pulling the ribs off the smoker, my wife and I had them for dinner tonight. They turned out awesome. The only complaint is they took forever to get done. Even after sitting in the fridge and being reheated gently in the microwave they are still pretty good stuff. Very impressed.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Being the grate is 35-40 degrees cooler than the lid </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, what I was trying to say is that the difference between lid and grate is about 20 degrees. Add to that the 15 degrees that your thermometer was off, and 20 + 15 = 35.
 
Craig, glad your backs came out okay even if they took a lot longer than you planned. I, too, think your thermometer is off as baby's shouldn't take more than 5 or 6 hours--at most--but they're done when they're done.

Also, your comment that they tasted good even after reheating is interesting. I think they actually taste better the next day--and smokier too. Just my opinion.

Baby backs are probably my favorite bbq, followed by butts. But I have yet to smoke some fatties! Maybe next smoke!
 
Criag..

My first BRITU took about 6 hrs and man they were nice and smokey. I used 5 handfuls of mequite wood chips from a bag. Think my next smoke , which will be tomorrow night, will have three handfuls.

I have smoked a few fatties on my last cooks and they turn out great!. I'd go with Bob Evans SAGE.It's very good!!.

DH
 
I've smoked about 6 butts and now my 2nd set of ribs over the last several years. I can't wait to do a butt in my WSM. In the past I've always grilled my ribs, but now I'm totally spoiled with smoking.

I really learned a lot about smoking with the BRITU recipe. Before i would always add chunks of smoke wood through the process which exposes the meat to a ton of white smoke. All of my butts came out really smelling like a forest fire, but still tasty. I really liked the mild yet flavorful taste of these ribs. They tasted smoked, not like a forst fire.
 
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