First Smoke today

[Bill O.]

Hello everyone. You first heard from me in the Total $ Investment? post. From that post you may have got the impression I'm a cheap ba@#$%^. I prefer frugal... thrifty... careful... something later in this post will probably give you a laugh.

I did wind up pulling the trigger and my WSM arrived on Wednesday. Did my first smoke today. The plan was to try the BRITU recipe, but availability of certain items locally lead to some improvisation.

The ribs came from a local butcher. I'm guessing I paid a little more by going to a butcher rather than a supermarket. Or maybe $38 for two slabs weighing slightly over 5.4 lbs is a good price? (Frugal jokes welcome with the reply button). Here are the ribs:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...&current=01-ribs.jpg

Prepared the rub as described in the BRITU recipe. Here are the ribs right after the rub application:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...rent=02-ribswrub.jpg

Fired up the WSM per the instructions in BRITU, except for the smoke wood. Couldn't find oak and cherry locally. Hickory chunks and apple chips were as close as I could come. So four chunks of hickory and two foil packets of apple chips substituted for the specified oak and cherry. About an hour after lighting that first chimney I assemble the WSM and add water to the water bowl. The lid from the water pitcher winds up in the water bowl. Not too bad of a splash, but this rookie won't make that mistake again.

Instructions say to let the cooker set for about an hour with top vent open and bottom vents closed and temperatures will come down. I don't pay much attention and by the end of the hour my temperatures are down further than I expected, around 190. Open the three bottom vents 1/3 each. (all temperatures using the built in lid thermometer). Time to add the ribs.

Here are the ribs after absorbing the rub for two hours and ready to hit the smoker:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...ribsreadytosmoke.jpg

And here they are loaded up:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...=04-ribsonsmoker.jpg

Temperatures vary between 200 and 255 during the three hours before it's time to turn the ribs. I probably mess with the vents too much...

Three hours in and it's time to turn:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...5-ribsbeforeturn.jpg

And after the turn, with some ABT's squeezed in between:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...06-ribsafterturn.jpg

(I didn't have enough bacon on hand to wrap, so these ABT's are bacon topped rather than bacon wrapped)

Set all three vents at 50% after the turn and temps stayed at 250-255 for the rest of the cook without my messing with the vents again.

About an hour and 15 minutes later the ribs pass the tear test, or at least this rookies interpretation of the tear test, and I'm ready to pull (ABT's came off 15 minutes earlier, but forgot to take pics):

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...-ribsreadytopull.jpg

Here's a half rack with sauce:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...nt=08-ribswsauce.jpg

This shot didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but here is the smoke ring:

http://s745.photobucket.com/al...ent=09-smokering.jpg

There really is a fairly decent ring, but the shadows in the picture don't show it.

Overall, very good. There's one local BBQ joint that I love that does better, but I'll get there.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Bill

 

[Dave Russell]

No frugal person would pay what you paid for ribs. I usually pay no more than a couple bucks a pound for spares, a buck or so more for baby backs.

If you were happy with your results, that's all that counts. There's no reason to turn them, though. Just cook bone down the entire time.

 

[Wolgast]

Yea the price seems HIGH even for swedish prices.

But the ribs you got seems really good.

And for a first try i think they turned out great,but as dave said i never turn my ribs.

And give it a few more tryes/tweaks and you wont visit the local bbq joint again

Thx for sharing

 

[DaleW]

Nice looking ribs! I usually just buy whatever ribs the local grocer has at a good price, and they always come out good. I agree no flipping necessary. Thanks for the post and pics!