Steve Tiilikainen
TVWBB Member
So I have a River Country thermometer in the lid of my 18.5 WSM (which seemed to be reading the ambient temperature correctly earlier today) and a Thermapen One. I’m currently in the middle of a smoke (spare ribs).
I have been monitoring the lid temperature, and occasionally sticking my thermapen in the probe slot just underneath the cooking grate. The thermapen seems to consistently register 30 degrees hotter than the lid thermometer.
Temperatures have been bouncing all over the place. First things were too cold, and at one point I got concerned enough that I added another half chimney of KBB. That may have been a mistake. Temperature got clear up to 300ish degrees. I closed off all vents, then it became cold again so I opened things back up.
I’m now 4 hours into the cook, spritzing every half hour and flipping every hour. Things look dry as hell in there. The meat is not yet tender.
What am I doing wrong? Am I being overly sensitive to temperature changes? Is measuring temperature at the grate the gold standard for measuring cooking temperature? Have I ruined this set of ribs? Should I stick it out for 2-3 more hours?
I have been monitoring the lid temperature, and occasionally sticking my thermapen in the probe slot just underneath the cooking grate. The thermapen seems to consistently register 30 degrees hotter than the lid thermometer.
Temperatures have been bouncing all over the place. First things were too cold, and at one point I got concerned enough that I added another half chimney of KBB. That may have been a mistake. Temperature got clear up to 300ish degrees. I closed off all vents, then it became cold again so I opened things back up.
I’m now 4 hours into the cook, spritzing every half hour and flipping every hour. Things look dry as hell in there. The meat is not yet tender.
What am I doing wrong? Am I being overly sensitive to temperature changes? Is measuring temperature at the grate the gold standard for measuring cooking temperature? Have I ruined this set of ribs? Should I stick it out for 2-3 more hours?