Cold,
A few weeks ago I smoked 3 racks of pork loin ribs. They came out completely perfect. To me it was a minor miracle. There was dancing in the street and my wife was happy. All was well around the Mallard household. Heres what I did then. I thought I'd try two different rubs to experiment a little to see what taste the best. The two I used were both purchased from wally world. First one was from Lowery, it was a Ducks Unlimited beef rub, it looks a bit strange but by far it taste the best. The second was Corky's, a heavy paprika based rub that still yielded a great taste. I too rubbed them down the night before and rapped each one in plastic wrap. (I pull the membrane off) Preheated the smoker to 225 for a couple of hours. I smoked them with some mesquite pucks(4 hours of smoke) @ 200 for about 8 hours and I pulled them out when the internal temp came up to 187. I used only two BS racks in the center two slots. I only opened the door at four hours to check and stacked my last two pucks on the element. I did not rotate the racks. Could not believe the results. It was one of those days you were glad you bought the BS
As they say "pride goes before a fall"
This weekend I though would get a bit cocky and smoke six full racks of pork loin ribs. Used all four BS racks to accomidate them. And basicly did the same except for the rub, first mistake. I could not get to my local wally world so I stopped in at Kroger's and all they had was Emerald's Rib rub, forget the stuff, it sucks big time...No real flavor. Although thats just the begining. I had to leave the house and ended up coming back about 8 hours later. During that time the temp did rise to about to 250 for a short and had my daughter turn the temp down to 200. I didn't think to much happened but when I pulled them out they were DONE. Way done. The bottom rack of meat looked like from a scene from the Pirates of the Carabean. O' so bad. However the upper 3 racks were at least edible. Poor flavor and kind of dry. It's strange how a smoker can humble you a little.
What I learned:
1. Once you find something that works well, keep using it. Save the experiments on smaller portions of meat. It's a pain when you screw up $50.00 of meat.
2. I am a big advocate of not opening the door. Chez is right, the heat loss is great. At least half way through the process, check and look. And I do agree you can't really mop anything on reoccuring basis. I think with the right rub and temp you don't need to do this with ribs.
3. I think from this failure, you have to rotate the racks if you have the BS full. I thought I knew better and didn't need to do that, I must agree now with everyone else on this forum you need to do this.
Humbly submitted.
SmokeOn,
mski
Perryville, Akansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie
If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...
