RCBaughn
TVWBB Super Fan
Well after my pastrami fail (way too stringy even after a stint in the presto cooker) I really wanted to try something new. Luckily my dad planned on smoking some spare ribs, but he ALWAYS uses a Brinkmann electric smoker with some hickory in between the elements for smoke. I've done this before in mine and they turned out like jerky, and that was the last and only time I've tried to cook ribs. I'm a bit apprehensive to say the least, but I convinced him to let me try to smoke them on my mini WSM despite the pastrami being terrible. Was a bit unnerving since my grandparents (dad's parents) were going to be there too along with my sister and her fiancé.
I decided to use Kingsford here just because it is consistent and would provide me with even temp control and no spikes. Didn't want to risk it this time. Distributed two pretty big hickory chunks and spread some Jack Daniel's wood chips on top that I got from Walmart, lit 8 briquettes in the chimney and spread them on one side of the charcoal pile. It took about 35 minutes to get up to 225 and I put the meat on right after I dumped the coals. I've read that placing it on there before letting it come to temp helps to regulate the climb in temperature.
The ribs got pretty heavy smoke for 2 hours, then it lightened up for the third. I took them off and wrapped them in foil, then put them back on the smoker for two hours, with the smoker still at 225, with some pineapple juice sprinkled on them before closing up the tin foil. Probably two tablespoons of juice per pouch.
Now I am color blind and have never really been able to distinguish was a smoke ring looks like, but judging by the different shade that was on the outside edge of the inner meat I'm hoping that is what a smoke ring is.
The only problem that I had was that the ribs were too tender. The bones pulled out of the meat when I was cutting them, so they turned into boneless ribs instead of being able to gnaw them off the bone like dad's ribs. I take it I left them in the foil too long, but the foil wrap really didn't do anything to wash away the bark thankfully since I couldn't throw them back on for a bit to get the bark back firm.
They were great tasting to say the least despite being too soft for ribs. I used "3 Beer Rub" on half of them and used this recipe for the other half of the ribs since I had to split the rack in half due to the small size of the mini WSM - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...dd397/rcbaughn/CameraAwesomePhoto-5.jpg[/IMG]
I decided to use Kingsford here just because it is consistent and would provide me with even temp control and no spikes. Didn't want to risk it this time. Distributed two pretty big hickory chunks and spread some Jack Daniel's wood chips on top that I got from Walmart, lit 8 briquettes in the chimney and spread them on one side of the charcoal pile. It took about 35 minutes to get up to 225 and I put the meat on right after I dumped the coals. I've read that placing it on there before letting it come to temp helps to regulate the climb in temperature.
The ribs got pretty heavy smoke for 2 hours, then it lightened up for the third. I took them off and wrapped them in foil, then put them back on the smoker for two hours, with the smoker still at 225, with some pineapple juice sprinkled on them before closing up the tin foil. Probably two tablespoons of juice per pouch.
Now I am color blind and have never really been able to distinguish was a smoke ring looks like, but judging by the different shade that was on the outside edge of the inner meat I'm hoping that is what a smoke ring is.
The only problem that I had was that the ribs were too tender. The bones pulled out of the meat when I was cutting them, so they turned into boneless ribs instead of being able to gnaw them off the bone like dad's ribs. I take it I left them in the foil too long, but the foil wrap really didn't do anything to wash away the bark thankfully since I couldn't throw them back on for a bit to get the bark back firm.
They were great tasting to say the least despite being too soft for ribs. I used "3 Beer Rub" on half of them and used this recipe for the other half of the ribs since I had to split the rack in half due to the small size of the mini WSM - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...dd397/rcbaughn/CameraAwesomePhoto-5.jpg[/IMG]
