newbie starting this weekend, looking for advice

[smokemandan]

okay, having some temp issues
I have 4 racks worth of ribs, and having a hard time getting temp above 150
been on for about 1hr30 right now. have oven temp set at 310 to try and get temp up, it was at 220 as per a digital thermometer on 2nd rack before i added the ribs, 200 per the bradley
put meat in, dropped temp below 100 and now struggling to come up. ribs were romm temp, or slightly cooler
i did use almost boiling water in pan. set up in garage, so out of wind. temp in garage is about 25F
do i let it run for the 3 hrs and then foil and 2 more? or take out of smoker at 3 and into oven to insure I get correct temp?
or what? do i have to worry that the temp is so low, or is it the smoke that matters most right now?
advice?

[CoreyMac]

i would say stay the course for now. Put your smoke on. If there is temp issues after, finish in the oven in the house. After the smoke is done your really done with the Bradley. If you have temp issues at your foiling time then boat them with some juice and into the oven in the house.

Corey

[Habanero Smoker]

If you are only using the Bradley temperature sensor, and the meat is too close to the sensor, that can cause the sensor to have a reading as low as 40°F difference than the cabinet temperature. Do you have a probe that you can place under the bottom rack? That will give you a better idea of the cabinet temperature.

That is a big load, so you may want to rotate the racks, occasionally. Make sure that your vent is around 3/4 open. If you have it fully open, see if closing it to 3/4 open will improve your cabinet temperature.

[smokemandan]

ok, not all that pleased overall.
the ribs came out quite tough, not tender really at all. flavour was good, but not amazing
i am not upset, just a little disappointed.  :-\
here's a breakdown of my first smoke, can I have some input as to what went wrong?

preheated smoker to 220. ext temp about 25F, some wind
4 racks of ribs in, temp low, around 130, couldnt get it to come up. almost boiling water in bowl
3 hours of apple smoke, temp probably 160-180 at highest point ???
at 3 hrs, pulled them, apple juice, and foiled
in the oven at 225 for 2 hrs (because I couldn't get the smoker temp up high enough)
pulled them, sauced and in bradley again. temp was about 220, went down to about 140 and back up to 160-175
waited 1 hr, and served them

sorry - was trying to serve them, forgot to take pics. a bit of pressure with friends/family over and waiting ;D

so - was it the ext temp and wind that was the problem?
would the low temps make them tough? wrong cut of ribs?
should I have let them go longer?
also, can someone give me input on temps to use through the 3-2-1 process? 10.5's pictorial only mentions 225 at beginning. do i use that temp as guide throughout?
oh BTW i was using a probe on the 2nd rack about 1 inch away from the meat, and also the bradley sensor
it was averaging about 20 degrees in difference throughout, but never was it up to 225 with the ribs in...

anyways, not giving up. I know I will get some food out of this thing that makes the knees weak, just on my learning curve now i guess :)

[kuzzy]

Hi I feel your pain with the temp lol my first smoke was mid January with back ribs did 3-2-1 when I preheated I cranked it all the way up vent wide open in the garage
when I put the ribs in temp droped I left it turned up till it got back above 225 then turned back down kept temp good after that . I used boiling water and kept the puck burner on when its done smoking ribs came out great.

Located in Ontario.

Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk

[KyNola]

Hindsight is always 20/20 but ribs are the last thing I would recommend a person choosing as their first smoking adventure.  Ribs can be particularly challenging.  I would have suggested you start with either a pork loin or pork butt.  Both are easy to do and much more forgiving than ribs.  My guess is what went wrong was that the ribs were most likely undercooked due to the lower smoking/cooking temps you experienced.  You made a wise choice to move the ribs to your house oven but then went back to the Bradley again.  The 3-2-1 method from 10.5 is based on a smoking/cooking temp of 225.  Except for the period that the ribs were in your house oven, your ribs were as much as 65 degrees below that.

Please understand I'm not being critical of your efforts.  I'm giving you the feedback you requested.  Don't be discouraged.  We all had to start somewhere and have had the very same growing pains that you are experiencing now.

One other thing that can be a major factor that you have zero control over.  The bottom line is it is all up to the pig that the ribs came from.  Every pig is different and reacts differently when being cooked.

[SiFumar]

I agree with Kynola....don't give up!  I started with chicken, then went on to butt, bacon and cheese.  When I finally got brave enough to do ribs they were fall off the bone.(which I didn't like but everyone else did!). It takes time to learn with outside variables.  Have fun!

[seb bot]

Hey smokemandan, better luck next time, it's definitely a learning process, I still don't know much!

I did almonds my first smoke, and then ribs the next day. They turned out awesome, but that seems to be the exception, not the norm for 1st time ribs... Maybe it was beginner's luck! ;)
The 2nd time I did ribs they did not turn out nearly as well, even though I tried to do everything the same... The 2nd batch of ribs was from Costco, I have not bought them from there since, but I am not really sure it had anything to do with how they turned out.
As Kynola mentioned, some pigs are just tougher than others... Hopefully you have better luck in the future.

One thing that no one has mentioned yet is that normally you should try to pre-heat the smoker to 25-30 degrees hotter than the planned cooking temp as it will always drop when you put the meat in. I usually pre-heat a little more even, for example if I want ribs at 225 I pre-heat to 260. If I am doing a whole chicken, I try to preheat to 300 for a cooking temp of 250. ( It often won't hit 300, I just let it go until I don't want to wait anymore.)
kuzzy also mentioned to maybe keep the smoke generator on past the smoking time for an additional bit of heat. I do that once in a while, and I do find that it helps as well. Just make sure to clean off the remnant of the last puck if you do this...

Hope this helps, good luck with your next smoke!