So we had Part 2 of our Garage Sale today, selling another ~$400 of junk off to random treasure hunters! The garage sale was, of course, only another excuse to smoke some meat!
Took the ribs out of the fridge and sprinkled them lightly with my own rub, letting them sit for an hour and a half. When I had a chance to get back to them, there was a nice layer of juice on them and I curled them up and blasted a skewer through the middle of em.
DURING that time...
Loaded the smoker 3/4 with unlit, then tossed in a full chimney of lit (Minion Method) and I let it cook off in the assembled smoker for about 45 minutes. The temp flew way up to 300 while I was preoccupied with customers so when I came back to my smoker I had to shut every single vent (including the top one) in order to get the coals under control. I was worried it wouldn't settle down, and figured "Whatever" and tossed the ribs on at around 300 degrees, hoping the cool ribs would bring the temp down slightly and the closed-off vents would inhibit the coals from raging up again.
After about 30 minutes, the temperature had predictably cooled down about 50 degrees and was sitting in my sweet spot of 250 so I was able to focus on the garage sale and let them cook away.
About 3 hours later I turned the ribs over and opened the top vent a little, letting it heat up and settle at 275.
(You can see a few char marks due to the high heat from the beginning, before the smoker settled down)
I let another 2 hours go by and then brushed on a generous amount of my homemade honey BBQ sauce and opened the vents right up to let it bake onto the meat for about 15 minutes.
I guess I didn't wait QUITE long enough because they were still pretty drippy when I pulled them off, but here was the outcome:
Cliffs:
-Preheated smoker and let charcoal burn for about 30-45 minutes
-Used 3/4 ring of KBB unlit, one chimney lit.
-Three chunks of Apple Wood, placed in the smoker after it had calmed down and after I put on the meat.
-Two slabs of back ribs. Was unsure of weight, unfortunately.
-Sprinkled rub on and let sit on counter for 1.5 hours before placing on grill. Curled them, fastened with a skewer.
-Cooked for 3 hours before flipping, then let them cook for another 1.5-2 hours before brushing with sauce and letting the sauce set.
-Used a blend of creamed Manitoban honey and my own BBQ sauce.
PROS:
-GREAT texture. They weren't falling off the bone and left nice teethmarks in them after you took a bite.
-Right amount of smoke wood. I put three chunks in and it was just about perfect.
-Cooking times were bang on for what I was expecting. Ribs were insanely easy to predict and the pull-test worked great.
CONS:
-I let the heat of the smoker get away from me initially. I finished 90% of the cook with ALL the dampers closed. It was right out of the wind, so I'm not sure how it managed to stay that hot for that long with not a lot of oxygen going to it.
-I put too much sauce on for the amount of time I let it sit afterwards. Next time I would probably either put a lesser amount on or just leave it to set for longer. Not really decided yet, because I love the taste of that Honey BBQ sauce way too much.
Took the ribs out of the fridge and sprinkled them lightly with my own rub, letting them sit for an hour and a half. When I had a chance to get back to them, there was a nice layer of juice on them and I curled them up and blasted a skewer through the middle of em.
DURING that time...
Loaded the smoker 3/4 with unlit, then tossed in a full chimney of lit (Minion Method) and I let it cook off in the assembled smoker for about 45 minutes. The temp flew way up to 300 while I was preoccupied with customers so when I came back to my smoker I had to shut every single vent (including the top one) in order to get the coals under control. I was worried it wouldn't settle down, and figured "Whatever" and tossed the ribs on at around 300 degrees, hoping the cool ribs would bring the temp down slightly and the closed-off vents would inhibit the coals from raging up again.
After about 30 minutes, the temperature had predictably cooled down about 50 degrees and was sitting in my sweet spot of 250 so I was able to focus on the garage sale and let them cook away.
About 3 hours later I turned the ribs over and opened the top vent a little, letting it heat up and settle at 275.
(You can see a few char marks due to the high heat from the beginning, before the smoker settled down)
I let another 2 hours go by and then brushed on a generous amount of my homemade honey BBQ sauce and opened the vents right up to let it bake onto the meat for about 15 minutes.
I guess I didn't wait QUITE long enough because they were still pretty drippy when I pulled them off, but here was the outcome:
Cliffs:
-Preheated smoker and let charcoal burn for about 30-45 minutes
-Used 3/4 ring of KBB unlit, one chimney lit.
-Three chunks of Apple Wood, placed in the smoker after it had calmed down and after I put on the meat.
-Two slabs of back ribs. Was unsure of weight, unfortunately.
-Sprinkled rub on and let sit on counter for 1.5 hours before placing on grill. Curled them, fastened with a skewer.
-Cooked for 3 hours before flipping, then let them cook for another 1.5-2 hours before brushing with sauce and letting the sauce set.
-Used a blend of creamed Manitoban honey and my own BBQ sauce.
PROS:
-GREAT texture. They weren't falling off the bone and left nice teethmarks in them after you took a bite.
-Right amount of smoke wood. I put three chunks in and it was just about perfect.
-Cooking times were bang on for what I was expecting. Ribs were insanely easy to predict and the pull-test worked great.
CONS:
-I let the heat of the smoker get away from me initially. I finished 90% of the cook with ALL the dampers closed. It was right out of the wind, so I'm not sure how it managed to stay that hot for that long with not a lot of oxygen going to it.
-I put too much sauce on for the amount of time I let it sit afterwards. Next time I would probably either put a lesser amount on or just leave it to set for longer. Not really decided yet, because I love the taste of that Honey BBQ sauce way too much.
