New Smoker

ninjaearl · September 03, 2006, 07:04:34 AM

Well, I just went down the street and bought my new Bradley Original. I have never smoked anything but got tired of going to restaurants for beef ribs and babybacks. I'm home with the wife most all day on weekends so I'm going down today for some ribs. I bought some dry rib rub at the store and was going to do the meat and leave it in he frig overnight. Tomorrow, I'll cook em. From what I've read, I'm going to remove the extra layer of fat, put dry rib on, leave overnight, then cook about 4 hours. In not, I'll learn. Oh, yeah, I read instructions on preparing the smoker and I'll do that. I'll take pics of either me eating the ribs or my dog eating them.

Oldman · September 03, 2006, 08:21:18 AM

ninjaearl welcome to the world of smokin' foods.

IMO ribs is one of the harder things to master. Perhaps you might consider doing a pulled pork your first time out. A Boston Butt is almost fool proof.

There are several time test recipes on our recipe site. Just click on the smoker below and it will link you to our site.

Again welcome and good luck with whatever you smoke.

Olds.

manxman · September 03, 2006, 09:32:56 AM

QuoteI'll take pics of either me eating the ribs or my dog eating them.

Welcome to the forum ninjaearl, whilst not hoping the ribs fail be sure to post a picture especially if the dog gets to eat them!1 :-[ ;D

ninjaearl · September 03, 2006, 01:42:25 PM

Too late for the pulled pork. Bought a bunch of beef ribs and baby backs but the baby backs I took back cause they smelled real bad. Already took a dry rub recipe from the net, pulled the membrane and dry rubbed the ribs. Now, early tomorrow, I'll prepare the smoker and I'm gonna put in the meat for 5 hours and then pull one rack to check em. I hope that will work. I'll bet there are others who would love to see pics of the dog eating ribs.

manxman · September 04, 2006, 02:20:28 AM

Good luck ninjaearl, here's hoping the dog has to settle for ordinary dog food on this occasion! ;D

ninjaearl · September 04, 2006, 09:58:09 AM

hmm... something seems wrong. If anyone out there, I prepared my smoker no problem. I put the meat in and it's been in about 45 minutes with the temperature reading about 120 degrees. If it's going up, it's real slow. I have the vents one third closed. How long does it take the temp to go up? I took out the meat till it was room temperature.

owrstrich · September 04, 2006, 10:57:31 AM

to what temp did you preheat...

are you reading the temp by the dial thermo on the door... it may be off and need to be calibrated...

is the slider all the way right and is the light on... the light means there is power to the element...

can you see the glow of the heat element... hard to see on sunny day... it should be glowing...

is the smoke generator advancing pucks... do you have smoke coming from the vent...

is bs plugged into the wall or an extension cord... they say you may not get full power on an extension cord...

is your drip tray in like a A or a V... it needs to be like a V...

was your water in the bowl cold... cold water absorbes lots of heat...

the beast even at room temp absorbs lots of heat...

when you load the bs with beast the temp will fall and it takes a while to recover and rise... especiallywith a full load...

im thinking it all is ok... its just low and slow... be patient... its worth the wait...

you gotta eat...

owrstrich

ninjaearl · September 04, 2006, 11:17:36 AM

yeah, I preheated to 200 degrees but it went down when I opened the door to put the meat in. It is really hot when I put my hand over the vents and I hear the meat sizzling. My thermometer must be off. Yes, I do have light all the way when I move the slider over and I'm not using an extension cord. I think I'll still leave in about 5 hours and see how they come out. Yeah, my water was also cold but I have my drip tray like a v. Thanks for the hellp.

owrstrich · September 04, 2006, 12:24:31 PM

most of the origional bradley owners here calibrate their dial thermo but dont use it...

most use a digi therm... some are dual probe with remote... 1 probe smoker and 1 probe beast...

some folks use a digi temp switch and some use pid temp controllers and some use more fancy devices...

i got a 2 probe remote digi therm and smoke to a desired internal temp... then i got a digi temp switch and use it to control the temp of the smoker... now its set and forget until alarm goes off...

http://www.thegadgetsource.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=tgs&Product_Code=011502013733

ninjaearl · September 04, 2006, 07:00:18 PM

I PM owstritch on the digi therm. Sounds like what I need. Anyway, I left the meat in 5 hours and it was well done. The last hour, my temp went up to about 190 degrees. It tasted good but it was a little dry and stuck to the bone. Maybe with the digi therm, I can get the temp right as it sounds my gauge is out of whack or the meat wouldn't have got done. The dog had dog food today though and everyone was still complimentary of the ribs, especially the rub I used. Not too bad for first time out. Does this happen alot though with new Bradleys with the gauge being off so much? I would post photos but can't for some reason. I hit the insert photos icon but only gives me a text that says img.