Howdy all...Smokin' ribs

Phlyfisher · January 17, 2011, 05:52:07 PM

I've been absorbing (or at least trying to) all of the knowledge this forum has to offer for about the past week. I recently purchased an OBS and it has been awesome. What a great site!

After seasoning my smoker, I decided to play it safe and smoke something I was familiar with - trout. After spending a day pulling trout through the ice, I took a couple home, brined 'em, and smoked them with Alder. I have NEVER had trout come out so well. I gotta say, the OBS is quite the upgrade from the "little chief" or whatever I was using before.

Anyway, seeing how my fish turned out so well, I decided I needed to try myself some baby backs. After reading what seemed like hundreds of posts over the course of a week, I decided I better just quit reading and try my hand at smoking something.

I began with 3 full racks of baby back ribs from costco. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but it seemed like the membrane on the back of the ribs had already been removed. Anyone familiar with costco know if that is typical? A quick google search showed that a few people had experienced the same thing.

After deciding that the membrane actually had been removed, I smeared the ribs with mustard and proceeded to coat them with a rub that someone had given me a while back. Some people might be familiar with "Corky's." I believe they're out of Tennessee.

After applying the mustard and the rub and letting meat sit over night:

I decided that I would smoke the ribs for 3 hours with hickory smoke. I preheated the smoker to about 250º, though I would smoke at a much lower temperature. I just wanted to compensate for the heat loss when I opened the door. The outside temperature was between 32º and 40º.

I invested in a talking, wireless thermometer (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RL2ZGO/ref=oss_product) recently and it has been awesome. It lets you set a target temperature, and it will literally tell you "almost done" when the temperature nears. It also features a timer (count up and count down) and you can set it for several varieties of meats and/or use several different languages. Quite a neat little toy.

It took the smoker quite a while to come back up to an internal temperature of 200º - about an hour. After applying 3 hours of smoke, the internal temperature of the meat was between 180º and 185º. Because of the cold weather outside, I opted to finish the ribs indoors, in the oven. I placed the ribs in a large baking pan, poured about 1/4 inch of apple juice in the bottom, covered with foil, and stuck it in the oven at 225º for another 3 hours. After 3 hours, I removed the ribs and tried a sample. They were pretty tasty at this point, but I opted to sauce most of the ribs, so after applying a liberal coating of Bull's Eye Original Barbecue Sauce, I stuck the ribs back in the oven, uncovered, for another 30 minutes. They came out looking awesome:

I'm looking forward to experimenting with different types of rubs and smoke to see which one is to my liking. And although I've heard a lot of caution and all-out bashing about using mesquite, I have a box of it, so I'm going to have to experiment with that too. BUT, I've read quite a few threads on mesquite, so I will experiment "cautiously." ;) Any suggestions for mesquite meat will be graciously accepted. ;D

Anyhoo, I look forward to trying some more of everyone's recipes!

FLBentRider · January 17, 2011, 05:58:48 PM

W E L C O M E to the Forum Phlyfisher!

Congrats on your first smokes.

You will want to get your smoke generator feed tube aligned, it should be vertical. If you take the tube out you will see where the inside part of the generator is a little out of alignment. This will cause misfeeds if not aligned properly.

muebe · January 17, 2011, 06:09:11 PM

Nice looking ribs and great pictures. As far as mesquite some people object to it because it is a very strong flavored wood. I think the problem is most people will oversmoke with it. A strong flavor wood does not require a long smoke time. I do like to do a mix of mesquite in with the hickory on my gas smoker. Most of your fruit woods are not as strong and more mellow so you can apply more smoke without issue. And remember it is all about taste and practice. We all have different likes and dis-likes. The key is to find what you like and go for it...like you did with the ribs ;D

Next time you do some baby-backs try them nekkid for the smoke and then apply your sauce. And grill for a few minutes on high to set your sauce. They turn out excellent that way.

Phlyfisher · January 17, 2011, 06:15:14 PM

Quote from: FLBentRider on January 17, 2011, 05:58:48 PM
You will want to get your smoke generator feed tube aligned, it should be vertical. If you take the tube out you will see where the inside part of the generator is a little out of alignment. This will cause misfeeds if not aligned properly.

When I first put the unit together, I thought that the tube didn't look quite right. Is aligning the tube something that a person can easily do themselves, or is it better to have the generator serviced?

FLBentRider · January 17, 2011, 06:18:15 PM

Quote from: Phlyfisher on January 17, 2011, 06:15:14 PM
Quote from: FLBentRider on January 17, 2011, 05:58:48 PM
You will want to get your smoke generator feed tube aligned, it should be vertical. If you take the tube out you will see where the inside part of the generator is a little out of alignment. This will cause misfeeds if not aligned properly.

When I first put the unit together, I thought that the tube didn't look quite right. Is aligning the tube something that a person can easily do themselves, or is it better to have the generator serviced?

You can do it yourself, I think there was a post on how to do it around here somewhere...

Phlyfisher · January 17, 2011, 06:22:21 PM

Quote from: FLBentRider on January 17, 2011, 05:58:48 PM
You can do it yourself, I think there was a post on how to do it around here somewhere...

Yup. Found it. http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=19940.0

Is there anything NOT on this site? :)

FLBentRider · January 17, 2011, 06:29:41 PM

Quote from: Phlyfisher on January 17, 2011, 06:22:21 PM
Quote from: FLBentRider on January 17, 2011, 05:58:48 PM
You can do it yourself, I think there was a post on how to do it around here somewhere...

Yup. Found it. http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=19940.0

Is there anything NOT on this site? :)

I've not seen anything about Jimmy Hoffa...

GusRobin · January 17, 2011, 07:03:31 PM

Quote from: FLBentRider on January 17, 2011, 06:29:41 PM
[I've not seen anything about Jimmy Hoffa...

I think I saw him in one of the Hamzilla posts

DTAggie · January 17, 2011, 08:05:53 PM

Welcome Phlyfisher, the ribs look great. The meat really pulled back from the bone. It looked like you had the vent over half way closed. If so, this could be a reason for the low temp climb. I keep mine fully open for every smoke.

SouthernSmoked · January 17, 2011, 08:35:07 PM

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the forum...Enjoy!

Awesome looking ribs!

You done gooood!!

Phlyfisher · January 17, 2011, 10:23:32 PM

Quote from: DTAggie on January 17, 2011, 08:05:53 PM
Welcome Phlyfisher, the ribs look great. The meat really pulled back from the bone. It looked like you had the vent over half way closed. If so, this could be a reason for the low temp climb. I keep mine fully open for every smoke.

So if you open the vent more the temperature climbs faster?

Caneyscud · January 18, 2011, 06:24:32 AM

Phlyfisher - love your moniker. Hope there are some stories about some great trout streams contained in it!

Actually it doesn't look like the vent is even halfway open. The vent needs to be open for at least a couple of reasons. First is that there is only two places the smoke, moisture and what might be called cooking vapors (off gasses from the cooking meat and the pucks). They have to escape. If the vent is closed, there is only one other place to escape and that is through the smoke generator. And that is not a good thing. It can eventually wreck things in there.

The other reason is because of the moisture and physics. The Bradley cooks somewhat as a convection oven. Cooks not from direct heat but by heated air.

<warning: uninformed speculation follows>

Now there are far smarter guys on the forum here that can give a better answer.
But my vision of what is inside a Bradley is air containing among other things a combination of water vapor (gas state of water) and condensed water droplets. The water vapor and water droplets not only have a far higher heat capacity than air, but they also have a higher conductivity. To me it means that the limited heat put out by the element will go to this water vapor and water droplets. The water droplets in the air, might be warm, but are not about to give up heat to anything because they don't have much yet - they gave it up to the air already. The Bradley must heat them up to equilibrium with the air before the air or anything else in the Bradley can get hotter.

</uninformed speculation>

Another interest fact about water vapor is that it is said to be the most potent greenhouse gas along with other gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. That is three gases that we as humans produce in quantities. Well with methane some produce more than others. So to stop global warming, everybody needs to seal themselves up in a large foodsaver bag. Problem solved!

OU812 · January 18, 2011, 08:15:11 AM

Those are some mighty fine lookin ribs you got there.

I believe the Corkys Rub comes from Memphis Tennessee.

I keep my vent wide open and its stuck there now.

KyNola · January 18, 2011, 09:31:38 AM

Corky's is indeed in Memphis. You can purchase their ribs locally here in Paducah KY in the frozen food section. They are extremely good!

Welcome to the forum! Nice looking ribs you did.

smoker pete · January 18, 2011, 10:43:28 AM

Welcome to forum Phlyfisher. Good job on those ribs your first time out!!