First smoke on OTG (St. Louis rib photos)


 

MaryGG

New member
Let me begin by thanking everyone for sharing their experiences. This forum is a priceless resource which gave me the confidence to use my 22.5" OTG kettle as a smoker.

I attempted my very first smoke today. I was nervous and excited at the same time. I used the Minion method with fire bricks. 40 unlit Stubbs briquettes, 2 apple wood chunks, 10 lit Stubbs on top, empty foil pan as a drip pan. I wasn't sure when to add the rubbed ribs so I just added them right away and then put the lid on the grill. I set the bottom vent 50% open and the top 100% open. Light colored smoke came out of the top vent for the first 30 minutes or so.
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I didn't have a probe thermometer. I used a candy thermometer in the top vent with the assumption that the lid temperature is 50 degrees F higher than the cooking grate temp. I don’t know if my assumption is correct or not.

Initially the lid temp got as high as 350F. I kept adjusting the vents until I got a fairly stable lid temp of 300F. After 2.5 hours of total cooking time, lid temp began to drop down to 275F. I opened the lid to poke the coals with a skewer to knock off a bit of the ash coating. Did a sweep with the lever on the ash catcher and opened bottom vent to 50% hoping to bring up the temp. Unfortunately the lid temp continued to drop down to 250F. In perhaps a misguided effort to bring up the temp, I added 7 unlit coals.
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The lid temp continued to drop down to 225F, but then it went up a bit and stayed at 250F for the next hour. Not sure if adding those unlit coals helped. I checked for doneness at around the 4 hour mark and the ribs bent when I picked them up. Big sigh of relief!

I brushed some homemade BBQ sauce onto 1 slab and left the other without sauce. Took them off the grill 30 minutes later. The ribs were moist and had a nice smoky flavor. I think the ribs even had the pinkish smoke ring.
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They were tender but not fall-off-the-bone. If I cook them longer to try for FOTB, will they dry out before they FOTB? The candy thermometer in the lid was a temporary thing. I think I will have to buy a probe thermometer to make sure I am really cooking at a "low and slow" temp which I hope will give me FOTB ribs.

I apologize for the lengthy post. I'm just super excited that my first smoke went fairly well. And it's all thanks to you guys!
 
Great job. Just doing it is how you learn and when your first smoke turns out that well it really motivates you. I enjoyed your excitement.
 
Those ribs look fantastic just the way they are. Not a big fan of fotb ribs. You could try foiling if you want them that way.
 
Your ribs look great. Others on here can speak to how to make your ribs more tender/fall off the bone than I can, but foiling for an hour wouldn't hurt. From what I've read it creates a more efficient cooking area around the ribs and the closed environment inside the foil allows them to braise in a moist heat cooking method, like braising, where more juices are retained.
 
Mary those look fantastic! Great first smoke.Next up pork butt? Check out
Michael L's Post on smoking on the kettle. It comes out delicious.
 
Nice looking ribs for your first time. I don't believe there is a 50* difference between lid and grate, but I could be wrong.
 
Thanks for all the kind words. I will try foiling next time I smoke ribs. After reading Michael L's post about smoking on a kettle I think I might tackle pork butt next!
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You make me hungry for ribs with those photos! I bet your pork butt turns out well too. The kettle makes a very good smoker. It was my go to for years before my WSM. Great job Mary!
 
They look great! Try letting the bones expose a little more I usually go with bone exposure and the toothpick test making sure that it goes thru smoothly. If you FOTB do the 3-2-1 method with the foil. I actually had to cook some ribs this past weekend and I was short on time. I cooked them at 300 degrees and foiled when they got to 150, they came out good and they were FOTB. I'm not a fan of it FOTB, its tender for my liking.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">If I cook them longer to try for FOTB, will they dry out before they FOTB? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

There is a chance of that if you don't foil. Not a guarantee, but a chance.

Foiling indeed makes heat transfer more efficient so coking is more efficient, as Daniel notes upthread. I often foil but do not care for FOTB ribs; no problem as it simply means cooking the ribs till tender when in the foil. For FOTB one simply cooks longer in the foil, past the original point of tenderness.

Nice cook Mary.
 
I did really like the way the ribs turned out. I was able to cut the ribs so straight and neatly. And the meat came off the bone pretty easily while eating them. So perhaps I don't really want FOTB. Maybe what I'm really looking for is more tenderness and it sounds like foiling is the key to more tenderness without drying them out.
 

 

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