Thanks for your help guys. My pork butt came out perfect. The crowd loved the results. It took 21.5 hours of cooking and FTC'd it for many hours. The ribs came out only OK. I had baby backs and I don't think I had a high enough temp on them. The meat didn't pull back. AT ALL. I smoked them for 3 hours / AJ and foil for 1 hour and another hour bare with sauce. The BDS was set to 220 but the actual tower temp was between 185 and 210 at any given time. Again, they were ok but just not that fall off the bone and melt in your mouth kind of ribs. Oh, the ABTs were a huge hit with the guys who like it hot.
Congrats Bucky! ;)
On the ribs next time you could increase the foil time to get them more tender. When I do mine I usually apply 3 hours of smoke, then let them go another hour after that. Then into foil with a splash of AJ and back into the smoker for around 2 hours. I usually sauce them on my gasser just long enough to stiffen the sauce, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. I like mine to be falling off the bone as well.
You'll get the ribs dialled in! ;)
Mike
Congrats. Were you getting the temp off the bradley thermometer or and independent.
I got the temp off a separate thermometer. The probe was placed about .5" from the top of the meat on the first tray of ribs. I had 3 trays going. Don't get me wrong. They were good and the crowed thought they were great. However, I know they could have been better. Probably just a slight learning curve to dial it in to my preference. OH, and I almost made a horrible mistake. I was making a S.C. style sauce for the pulled pork. Apple Cider Vinegar based. The bottle has a big picture of an apple on the label. I went to go outside to apple juice and foil the ribs. Mistakenly, grabbed the apple cider vinegar. Poured some on the ribs and foiled the first packet. My nose whiffed the acidy and knew something wasn't right. Thanks goodness a I caught it. Just re-foiled with the AJ. Wish I could blame it on the beer but I only had one at this point. HA!
Here's my pork butt.
(http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad79/buckywhitaker/IMG_2527.jpg)
Good looking butt. ;D That bark looks mighty good. :)
Way to go Bucky! I knew this would go well for you. You will dial those ribs in to your preference but sounds like they turned out great for your first run. Congrats my friend. You are now officially hooked.
Reel him in boys! :D ;)
KyNola
hi all, i'm new to the site and smoking, my smoker will get here at the end of the week. in several of the posts i saw AJ what are you refuring too?
Remember there no dumb qoestions just dumb people asking questions ;D
Your absolutely right... There's no stupid questions. Well, except for the ones you don't ask. ;)
AJ= Apple Juice
Mike
That is a nice looking butt you have there.
Great looking meal you got there. Enjoy
HR
Nice Butt... ;D
That butt looks great Bucky! I to have found that spare ribs take a bit longer. Mine have taken from 6 to 7 hours to be falling off the bone tender. Just a learning curve, you will nail those to. ;D
Nice looking bark on your butt, as for the ribs there is a bit of a learning curve to get what you want. I have had some BB ribs take 5 hr and some take 7 hr i think the pig has a bit to do how the ribs or butt turn out.
Yeah, I'll nail the ribs next time. This smoking stuff is truly addictive. I'm doing my own bacon this weekend. I ordered a 9-10 lbs free range - organic pork belly from my favorite meat supplier. (Prather Ranch) I'm lucky to live in Northern California and have easy access to great "old school" farmed meat. Trying to decide if I should brine cure and only cook to the 130 degree range and treat it as raw bacon or fully cook it and not have to worry about cooking it later. I'm really leaning towards undercooking / slicing and cutting lardons to freeze. Something about cooking raw bacon that makes me tingle all over.
You are hooked, join the rest of us. great looking pork butt. You got a pic after you pulled it?
What an awesome first smoke Bucky!
Looking forward to more :)
Carolyn
Great looking butt Bucky. The regular old spare ribs last weekend took me about 7 hours and were just starting to pull back from the bone. I took them out because they were getting pretty dark. I'm sure overall time also depends on the type of ribs.
Great first smoke there Bucky - congrats! And this stuff is addicting. One hint on the butt, kick the cabinet temp up a notch, 225-230 and it won't take 21 hours next time but still plenty slow enough.
On the ribs - you'll get them dialed in, but a couple of things. Baby backs don't always pull back much, so use the twist test also. Baby backs by virtue of their location (just under the loin) are usually mjch more tender naturally than spareribs. So don't usually need as much cook time as spareribs. If I'm maintaining my cooking temperature (225 to 230) they are usually done in 4 hours or less. Did some in my Bandera at 225 2 weekends ago, and they finished in 3 hours, and did some in my Traeger 3 weeks ago using the 2-1-1 method and they were done after just 2-1! I prefer mine tender but with a little bite, so they were not "fall apart". Did you put them in the same time as the butt. If so, then they were probably subjected to lower temps at first and may be why they were not fall apart. Baby back are also called loin ribs and are included in a crown roast or standing rib roast. And most of those have much more meat on them (the loin is still attached) and are usually cooked for 2 to 3 hours at 325 in the oven.
Thanks for the tips. After viewing many pixs on the forum, I noticed the B.B. Ribs don't always pull back. Makes sense now. I did the butt separate from the ribs. I kept the temp on the butt really really low because the party got pushed later by 2 hours. I didn't want to take a chance of having it cook too fast. Even with a FTC time of 5 to 6 hours, it would have been pushing it close. Brining my 10 lb pork belly for bacon this weekend. Should be ready for the smoke in 7 to 9 days. MMmmmm.
Oh that reminds me, I'm out of bacon :( I am going right now to get two pork bellies out of deep freeze. Man I don't know what I'm going to do for1 week without any homemade bacon. I guess I shouldn't have done 45 ABT's this week :)
Nice Butt by the way Bucky. I got one in the fridge resting right now to go into the smoker tomorrow.
Your Butt looks terrific! (That doesn't sound right - lol)
Quote from: muzzletim on September 11, 2009, 09:38:57 AM
Your Butt looks terrific! (That doesn't sound right - lol)
It sure doesn't and in some states It might be illegal and sue-able.
HR
You guys are funny. I live in San Francisco. So, I'm accustomed to hearing guys talking about other guys' butts. Ha ha ha. My wife finds it very entertaining that I've found some new friends on this forum. I told her if she keeps making fun of me... I will not let her indulge in the fruits of my labor. She quickly piped down while scarfing down the left over pulled pork.
Way to go Bucky - gotta keep those females where they belong! ;D
Me worry?
Not anymore!
Just finished my tea-bag bomb shelter!
Is there any fallout from a tea-bag attack?
What's a T-BBS? I'm learnin' I'm learnin'.
A female member of the forum, La Quinta, has a tendency to start flinging teabags at the male members of the forum if she thinks what was posted might be considered derogatory toward the female population of the universe.
Frankly, she's about half crazy but we tolerate her. ;) (Just teasing LQ)
LOOK OUT! INCOMING!!
KyNola