My first smoke this weekend

[BigFella]

First of all, this forum is GREAT.  So much idea sharing and everyone is a huge help.

Ok, so recently I had the opportunity to purchase an OBS from a friend of a friend for the low, low price of $0.00!  I'm picking it up tonight. (He's moving cross country)

I'm going to season it tomorrow (yes it's brand new!), and then throw on some ribs Sunday.  I've got my FREE variety pack of pucks (thanks Bradley) as well as a 48 pack of Hickory.  I bought three Bubba Pucks and they were delivered today.  I've got my cooler ready with my foil and towels.

Here's the plan (please tell me what I'm missing):

Friday - Pick up the OBS.  Drive home daydreaming of ribs, pulled pork, brisket, chicken.  My daughter and I will make our special sauce called "B is for Barbecue".  We also make homemade applesauce "A is for Applesauce" and a few other items. :)

Saturday - Season the OBS in the morning.  Head over to Genuardi's for some spareribs.  They've got 10 pounds for $10 cryovac'd!!  Put together Jan's Dry Rub, prep the ribs, season the meat and wrap it up.

Sunday - Bring ribs up to room temperature, preheat the OBS to 200 (how long will this take?), cook for 2 hours with hickory/apple or until meat starts to pull back.  Now, some recipes say to cook w/o smoke for another hour or so.  What does this mean?  Without smoke?  Does this mean in the oven?  If yes, then I'll put them in the oven with some apple juice.  Do you think I could stack them in the oven so the juices flow on each other?  (I do this when smoking on my Weber and it's AMAZING)  Afterwards, I'll FTC them for another hour or two.  Serve with the sauce on the side and eat up!

So what did I miss?  Also, what do all of you use to get your meat in/out of the smoker?  Cold ribs I can get in just fine, but hot ribs?  Moving racks?  What do you suggest?

Finally, I thought of doing one chicken in there as well.  Where should I position this in relation to the ribs?  Below so we get some of those pork drippings on the chicken?

And BTW, I'll make sure to post pictures! :)

http://howsthatburgerbigfella.wordpress.com

[manxman]

low price of $0.00!

(yes it's brand new!)

FREE variety pack of pucks

Pretty much a full house there BigFella, bet there are a few jealous people reading this post!  ;) :D

[Mr Walleye]

BigFella

I gotta agree with Manxman on that one!  ;)

To answer some of your questions...

I would preheat the Bradley with the smoke generator turned on (no pucks) and the water bowl full to about 260 degrees or even 280 degrees. This may take up to an hour depending on your outside temp. By preheating a little higher it will recover the temp quicker when you are loading it with the ribs. If your objective is 2 hours of smoke, when you load the ribs turn off the smoke generator, load your 2 hours of pucks (6 pucks + 3 Bubba Pucks), then turn your generator back on and advance the first puck to the burner.

When some one says they applied 2 hours of smoke and continured for another hour at the same temp, they are just referring to the amount of pucks they loaded into the generator equalled 2 hours of smoke, then they let the item continue to cook without smoke for another hour. Some people do take the ribs out of the smoker at that point and just use their household oven for the remainder of the cook simply because at that point the Bradley is really acting as an oven (no smoke).

I have a pair of leather gloves that I exclusively use for handling the racks and or meat in the smoker.

Everybodys definition of "tender" ribs is slightly different. I like mine pretty tender.

I usually cut each rack of back ribs in half and remove the membrane the night before. Next I give them a rub with olive oil, then hit them with the rub, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge till the next day. The next day I usually spray my racks with Pam and put the ribs on bone side down. I usually apply smoke for 3 hours at 220 degrees, then let them go 1 more hour without smoke at 220 degrees (total of 4 hours). Next I put the ribs in a tin foil roster pan with a shot of apple juice and cover with foil. I throw them back into the smoker at 220 degrees for 3 more hours (this part can be done in the oven as well). Next I take them out of the foil and fire them on the grill just long enough to sauce them. Next.... fill your face! 

Like I said everybody's idea of tender is different. Also, I don't FTC ribs. You may also want to rotate racks a few times during the cook as the lower rack in the cabinet may cook a little faster.

Mike

[FLBentRider]

Saturday - Season the OBS in the morning.  Head over to Genuardi's for some spareribs.  They've got 10 pounds for $10 cryovac'd!!  Put together Jan's Dry Rub, prep the ribs, season the meat and wrap it up.

Make sure you get the membrane off the back.

Sunday - Bring ribs up to room temperature, preheat the OBS to 200 (how long will this take?), cook for 2 hours with hickory/apple or until meat starts to pull back.  Now, some recipes say to cook w/o smoke for another hour or so.  What does this mean?  Without smoke?  Does this mean in the oven?  If yes, then I'll put them in the oven with some apple juice.  Do you think I could stack them in the oven so the juices flow on each other?  (I do this when smoking on my Weber and it's AMAZING)  Afterwards, I'll FTC them for another hour or two.  Serve with the sauce on the side and eat up!

When I do spare ribs, I cook them alot longer than that. up to five hours in some cases.I put 2 to three hours worth of bisquettes in the smoke generator, after that it is just an oven. After three hours, they may be cooked, but they might be tough. I rely on the "meat pulling back from the bone" method.

Most of the time, after the smoke is finished, I wrap the ribs in foil and put them in the oven to finish.

I don't usually FTC ribs.

So what did I miss?  Also, what do all of you use to get your meat in/out of the smoker?  Cold ribs I can get in just fine, but hot ribs?  Moving racks?  What do you suggest?

I have a pair of hi-temp silicone oven mitts.

Finally, I thought of doing one chicken in there as well.  Where should I position this in relation to the ribs?  Below so we get some of those pork drippings on the chicken?

Roger that, ribs over chicken.

[BigFella]

Ok, so my friend's mom ended up in the hospital and so I couldn't make it up to get the smoker.  But an OBS should be here tomorrow and I'm super excited!  Add that in with a few accessories from yardandpool.com (they're packing up today and it will be here by tomorrow!!!!) and we should be seeing some good stuff this weekend. 

And I also found this pretty cool site that shows you all the grocery deals in your area so that you can find the best deals each week!  (Not sure if it works for our folks north of the border...)

www.mygrocerydeals.com


http://howsthatburgerbigfella.wordpress.com

[WhiteSmoke]

When you click on the Canada Icon it tells ya that the site only serves grocery deals in the US.  ~sigh~

Did you get the smoker up this weekend?