Well I jumped in with both feet today. Cranked up two racks of St. Louis style ribs. Last night I cleaned them off, pulled the membrane, mustard all over then some Sweet Rub o Mine stuff. Sat over night in the fridge and got them on the smoker this morning. 2.5 hours of smoke with 3 apple chunks at around 255 - 265. I did use the water pan with hot water since I was a little nervous about the temp fluctuating.
1.5 hours of foil time with no added liquid. Pulled them off, opened them up and holy crap those things looked awesome. Did the bend test and of course it broke. I guess it was telling me it was done. Put them back on the grate with no foil, just a little Sweet Baby Ray's sauce for about another 15-20 minutes. I even had a flap strip that my wife and I tested at the 2.5 hour mark. She just grinned and said wow. Ribs had a good smoke ring, nice bark, (my two teenage boys loved the bark). Both racks got eaten up pretty quick. Only issue was once the ribs were done, both boys had baseball games so I had to let the ribs rest with a loose foil cover. We were gone a few hours so threw the ribs in the oven to reheat when we got back. They were still awesome, but I would have loved to jump on them right after they had the little rest.
What do you gents say about maybe not using any water next time? I have a turkey thawing for the next smoke so I'm open to any tasty nuggets of wisdom for the bird.
Thanks!
1.5 hours of foil time with no added liquid. Pulled them off, opened them up and holy crap those things looked awesome. Did the bend test and of course it broke. I guess it was telling me it was done. Put them back on the grate with no foil, just a little Sweet Baby Ray's sauce for about another 15-20 minutes. I even had a flap strip that my wife and I tested at the 2.5 hour mark. She just grinned and said wow. Ribs had a good smoke ring, nice bark, (my two teenage boys loved the bark). Both racks got eaten up pretty quick. Only issue was once the ribs were done, both boys had baseball games so I had to let the ribs rest with a loose foil cover. We were gone a few hours so threw the ribs in the oven to reheat when we got back. They were still awesome, but I would have loved to jump on them right after they had the little rest.
What do you gents say about maybe not using any water next time? I have a turkey thawing for the next smoke so I'm open to any tasty nuggets of wisdom for the bird.
Thanks!