Today I smoked my first ribs and they turned out to be the best I have ever eaten (I know that all of you pros have already found that out when you use the WSM).
I bought 3 racks at Sam’s Club ($3.87 per rack), let them come to room temp, wiped Worcestershire sauce over them and then covered them with the Texas rub. Cooked for 5 hours at 200 to 237 degrees and they were great! Used the Dr Pepper sauce recently posted here and while it was good, it was a bit too spicy so next time I’ll use a bit less Tabasco sauce.
Learned from previous smokes that I was chasing temps too much so I “hung back” and let the WSM do its thing this time. Wow! I had 222 degrees at 12:15 pm (with vents at 25%) and it rose to 237 at 12:40 so I closed bottom vents. Wind was blowing between 20 to 30 mph here today (and temperature was 60 degrees outside). Amazing thing was that the temp went to 228 about 25 minutes later and I never touched the vents again until I closed them after the cook That’s almost 4 hours and temps stayed between 228 and 213. Winds probably helped keep coals going with whatever leakage the WSM has.
I post this as a lesson to other newcomers that might chase the temps like I did the first few smokes.
Ribs were delicious and the hickory smoked flavor was superb. Can’t wait to do it again.
Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement.
Ray
I bought 3 racks at Sam’s Club ($3.87 per rack), let them come to room temp, wiped Worcestershire sauce over them and then covered them with the Texas rub. Cooked for 5 hours at 200 to 237 degrees and they were great! Used the Dr Pepper sauce recently posted here and while it was good, it was a bit too spicy so next time I’ll use a bit less Tabasco sauce.
Learned from previous smokes that I was chasing temps too much so I “hung back” and let the WSM do its thing this time. Wow! I had 222 degrees at 12:15 pm (with vents at 25%) and it rose to 237 at 12:40 so I closed bottom vents. Wind was blowing between 20 to 30 mph here today (and temperature was 60 degrees outside). Amazing thing was that the temp went to 228 about 25 minutes later and I never touched the vents again until I closed them after the cook That’s almost 4 hours and temps stayed between 228 and 213. Winds probably helped keep coals going with whatever leakage the WSM has.
I post this as a lesson to other newcomers that might chase the temps like I did the first few smokes.
Ribs were delicious and the hickory smoked flavor was superb. Can’t wait to do it again.
Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement.
Ray