Ribs -inprogress


 
P

Paul H

TVWBB Gold Member
I don't know if I need help on this or not. Started my ribs using the MM. The lid thermometer after about an hour and half temp is reading 210 at lid and steady. I have the vent set at 25 opening. The grate temp is about 191. The temps are rising slowly. IS this ok or should I be higher? If I go to low on the temp's will I be eating at 9:00 pm tonight?
 
Jim, Took the lid off, water and ribs and stirred the coals. Looked like a lot of ash. Put everything back and temps now 240 at lid and 210 at grate with 100% vent open. Is this ok?
 
Jim, is there something I can do in the future to prevent the ash from building up so much? tasted the skirts. They were really great. I'm about six hours into this smoke and the WSM is still holding the temps. Thanks for the help
 
Do you mean the ash around the coals? I don't know of anything for it. I bought the cheapest rubber mallet at Wallmart and use it to tap the bottom where the leg bolts to the smoker. Tap lightly.
Let us know hao your ribs taste when you are done. Going to sauce them? Have some spares to do this week while I'm off. Found them on sale for $1.49/pound this week.
 
paul, about the only thing you can do is to use less coal (if possible) or use a low-ash lump. If you find you have lots of coal left when your ribs are done you can cut back a bit on your future start-up amount (providing conditions and what you're cooking are roughly the same).
 
All in all the cook went ok. The ribs were good but not great. Too spicey for the grandkids so I'll cut back on the cayenne on my next rub. Some of the ribs were fall off the bone others were not. Could have left them on longer or foiled toward the end. As far as the ash was concerned thought I'd try to use more charcoal in the chimney and instead of sprinkling on top of unlit coals put them in the center and let them burn outwards. Don't know if that will keep the ash from building on top.Want to get the hang of the smoker before I try "mr. brown"
 
Paul,

Just go for Mr. B! Butts are extremely forgiving, and much easier than ribs. The difficulty with butts is that they really deserve a long slow (15-20 hour) cook and this worries folks that have not done an overnighter. Yeah, I answered the call of the ET-73 in the wee hours a time or two, but it is hard to screw up Mr. B.
 
Thanks for all the help and suggestions. In reviewing the cook. I think next time I do ribs I'll try putting the charcoal in the middle of the unlit and see how that works. Also, The first time I made ribs I put the rub on them the night before but forgot to put more rub on prior to smoking. It actually had a better taste. You could taste a little of the rub and the cherry/hickory wood. Putting the rub prior to cooking this time I think covers a lot of the flavor. I'll be more patient with letting the ribs finish out. They were big pork ribs and could have benefited from more time smoking. Of course I had trouble getting the temps up early on in the smoke which didn't help.The rub was to hot for the grandkids. I like it that way but I'm not the only one eating. My wife says if she has ribs again she's going to scream. So I guess I take Vernon's suggestion and move on to pork butt.Tried something new using the potato as a holder for the ET73 probe. Stuck the potato on a prong of the rib rack. It stayed perfectly positioned the whole time.All in all it was fun doing and I learn something new each time I do a smoke. The biggest plus was this time I didn't set my pants on fire :-)
 
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