How To Make Ribs in a Bradley Pictorial

[Habanero Smoker]

SB1230:

Welcome to the forum. You will find that recipe and others on:
Recipe Site

Maple Cured Bacon

[WetCoast]

Just put 13lbs of pork back spareribs plus 6.8lbs of country style pork ribs in the smoker for our first try at smoked ribs.  Yes, the Bradley is FULL.

Two questions that I should have asked yesterday though.  (1) Do you smoke with water in the pan, or with the pan dry? and (2) Where do you suggest setting the damper at the top?

I've currently got it in with a dry bowl and the damper at 1/4 open, but I'm open to any quick suggestions for adjustment.



The game plan so far:

1) Applied the Kansas City Sweet and Smoky Rub from Steven Raichlen's "Barbecue Bible: Sauces, Rubs and Marinades" book and let sit for 4 hours.

2) Brought up to heat in the conventional oven for 40 minutes at 350*F.

3) Racked and put in the smoker @ 220*F for the next 3 hours with hickory.

4) Foil for an hour in the smoker @ 220*F with no smoke.

5) Unwrap, sauce and back in the smoker @ 220*F with no smoke for the last hour. We've made up the Sweet-and-Smoky Barbecue Sauce from Steve's book above for this step.

The rub and sauce are REALLY tasty so far.  Looking forward to the feast tonight!

[KyNola]

Water in the bowl always.  Open the damper.

Welcome to the forum.

Get some water in that bowl and open the vent wide!

[WetCoast]

Okay, 2 hours into the smoke.  Added water and opened the vent up full.  Not sure why, but following the advice given.

Can't get the BDS up to temperature though. Been fighting with it for 2 hours now.  Even upped the temperature setting to the full 320*F before the reset, but the smoker only came up to 195*F.  Finally got it up to 210*F though after pulling the plug to do a full reset, but it seems to have leveled off there.  The only time it was at 220 was during the preheat.  Once I put the hot ribs in (remember I pre-heated them in the conventional oven at 350*F), the BDS cooled off to about 160*F and then came back up to about 195*F and stayed there. After the full reset, it seems to have come up to about 210*F.  At this point I've added the water to the bowl and opened the vent full.  Let's see where the temperature settles now.

[Up In Smoke]

When you filled the water bowl did you use hot water?

[GusRobin]

Okay, 2 hours into the smoke.  Added water and opened the vent up full.  Not sure why, but following the advice given.

The water has a couple of purposes. One is to extinguish the pucks so they don't continue burning when their time is done and produce an acrid smoke. another is to dilute any grease that is dripping down. Otherwise the grease can drip on a hot puck or form a pool of grease and you have a good chance for grease fire. Always use water and a safe practice is to change the water after the smoking portion is done and before you go to bed n an overnight cook. Always use hot water to reduce any recovery time.

The vent is usually open to allow moisture to escape. How much t open is one of the great debates on the forum. I and a number of the same persuasion, good wide open and some have even removed their vent cap.

[kbranden]

This Recipe will be my first ever smoke and first time using the EBS. I'm really excited! I got 12lbs of Pork Spare Ribs in the frig right now with some Rub on them. I'm Going to get up early and start getting the smoker going because a few friends are coming over at 2 to watch the Bears/Packers game..

I do have a question and I think someone kinda asked this, but I didn't see a reply.  How much is a splash of Apple Juice? Like a tablespoon full sprinkled over it?  Also, what is the purpose of the Apple Juice? More Flavor?

Thanks!  I'll post some pics when they are done.

Kevin

[kbranden]

Update:  I set the oven temp to 250 to give it room to drop, but by the time I got the meat in, it dropped to 175. It's currently climbing back up to 225, but it seems really slow going. After 20 minutes, it's only up to 201. Is this normal??

Update: It seemed to jump from 201 to 225 really quick after I posted this. So, I'm good!

Thanks,
Kevin

[TedEbear]

I do have a question and I think someone kinda asked this, but I didn't see a reply.  How much is a splash of Apple Juice? Like a tablespoon full sprinkled over it?  Also, what is the purpose of the Apple Juice? More Flavor?

Are you referring to the Texas Crutch, where you seal the ribs in foil after the initial 2 hours of smoke (baby back ribs) and pour 1/2 cup or so of apple juice per slab in the foil?  It is to make them more tender and be sure to not pour directly on the ribs so you don't wash off the coating that has formed.

[kbranden]

woops, well.. I didn't think think a splash was a 1/2 cup so I did about a tablespoon or so.. I did sprinkle it on the meat tho. Good to know for next time!  I'm almost ready to lather it with some 'Sweet Baby Rays' Barbaque sauce and put it in for another hour! I'm hoping now it won't be too dry.. arrghh

[TedEbear]

Here's a link that describes the Texas Crutch.  I noticed that he says to use 1 cup of apple juice. I guess it depends on whether you're cooking baby back ribs or something larger.

[Quarlow]

Well you probably are done by now but your ribs should be fine as long as you don't over cook them kbranden

Okay, 2 hours into the smoke.  Added water and opened the vent up full.  Not sure why, but following the advice given.

Can't get the BDS up to temperature though. Been fighting with it for 2 hours now.  Even upped the temperature setting to the full 320*F before the reset, but the smoker only came up to 195*F.  Finally got it up to 210*F though after pulling the plug to do a full reset, but it seems to have leveled off there.  The only time it was at 220 was during the preheat.  Once I put the hot ribs in (remember I pre-heated them in the conventional oven at 350*F), the BDS cooled off to about 160*F and then came back up to about 195*F and stayed there. After the full reset, it seems to have come up to about 210*F.  At this point I've added the water to the bowl and opened the vent full.  Let's see where the temperature settles now.

Wetcoast when you smoke that much meat you should sub a larger 13x9 tin pan for the bradley bowl. It gives plenty of room for the pucks to drop in and not stack up which allows them to stay burning and can allow the drippings to set them on fire.
When you smoke with water in the bowl you get a very moist air in the cabinet. This is great for keeping the meat moist but what also happens is that moist air is really hard to heat. The saturation tends to keep you from getting the temp up where you want it.  Opening up that vent gets the moisture out so you can get heat to cook the food. Generally you want 1/2 to 3/4 for most things and wide open for poultry. And brined meat tends to need a more open vent. Some folks just keep the vent wide open all the time.

[kbranden]

Thanks All..

Well, they went 'good'.. but, I can do better.  I think the ribs meat was cooked perfect, but I think next time I will cut way back on the amount of rub I put on. It seemed alittle too 'salty' to me. Also, I think a very light glaze of barbecue for the last hour would be better.The rub and barbecue overtook the taste of the meat. I think it would have been better to let it have more pork taste during the smoking and then let you add more barbecue while eating to adjust to your liking.  Just my thoughts.. friends loved it though.

[Quarlow]

Yeah ribs are not so easy to get great. You need to get the timing right and then tweak for flavour. I have not got it  right yet, in fact I have reverted back to heat and serve ribs.........OK BACK OFF......YEAH I SAID IT....HEAT AND SERVE YOU PACK OF MANGY DOGS.....BACK OFF.  ;D ;D Oh sorry I was just trying to thwart the badgering I will most assuredly get.

[WetCoast]

After yesterday's smoke and feast, thought I'd share some pictures we took along the way.

Here's the four full racks of ribs, all rubbed down and about to go in the smoker.


After 3 hours of smoke, we pulled them out to foil.


Here they are all foiled up and ready to go back in the smoker.


After one hour in the foil, we pulled them out and sauced them.


And here they are after an hour back in the smoker (no smoke though).


They ended up being incredible. Everyone was in awe.  But we did learn a few things along the way that we'll take into consideration next time.

• Leave lots of time between each step for prep.  Dealing with this much meat takes a lot of time and definitely put us well behind schedule.  We'd probably add an extra hour for the foiling and saucing.
• During the "Texas Crunch" phase, use 10.5's advice and do this for 2 hours and not the 1 that we did. The ribs could have been just slightly more tender.
• Apparently a splash of Apple Juice is more than a tablespoon or so.  Who knew?  Anyway, we'll increase this to a 1/2 cup next time, but we really need to work on keeping the BDS temp above 200*F.
• Use water in the bowl and open the vent full.  We're still learning. :-[
• If we use the same sauce, we'd probably make it slightly less sweet. It was incredibly tasty, but quite sweet. We'd turn that down just a tad.
• We'd probably throw the ribs in a hot oven for a few minutes and try and get them hotter when they finally come out of the smoker at the end.  The BDS was running about 210*F at the time and the ribs were warm but not hot. We like our meat a little hotter in temp.

It was around 42*F (6*C) out and no breeze for the whole day/evening.  I'd really like to know why the BDS has such a hard time controlling its temperature. That's the one thing we've been quite frustrated with so far.

Can't wait for the next "project" though.  ;D