Inagural smoke...

[Oriondriver]

Alright... received the OBS yesterday for an early Father's Day gift... promptly seasoned it.. then loaded it with 3 racks of baby backs and a 4 lb pork butt... each rack had a different rub... more on that later...  preheated it last night and loaded it at 9 pm... set it up for 4 hours of smoke with Apple wood... spritzed it with apple juice at midnight then hit the rack... maintained 195-205... got up at the 6 hour mark and FTC'd the ribs... moved the butt down.... lowered the heat due to the reduced amount of meat inside.. and back to bed... at the 12 hour mark I checked the temp and it was on target... FTC'd the butt for 3 hours.... what ensued was some amazing eats... beginner's luck probably but it was simply fantastic!!! Now... for the rubs...

Ribs
Coopers BBQ rub- a bit too salty
McCormicks Pork rub- DW favorite but just okay to me
Salt & Pepper- my favorite

Butt
Coopers- great crust on the butt, very flavorful, less salty than the ribs, fell apart

Things I learned
I will probably rotate the ribs next time... bottom rack dryer
Longer time with the rub on prior to smoking
Spritz more often
Pam spray the racks
Get Bubba pucks

Questions
Any tips on reducing residue on drip pan?
Any reason you cannot just use a piece of PVC pipe cut to size and wrapped with foil as a pusher for bisquettes?

Thanks for all the great information on this site...

Oriondriver

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Any reason you cannot just use a piece of PVC pipe cut to size and wrapped with foil as a pusher for bisquettes?

Even with it not getting directly on the heating plate, I believe it would get too hot next to the last burning puck. Not a good outcome....

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Kummok]

Ditto what Sparks said....my grandkids need the college funding and you don't need the toxic smoke from foil/PVC "burritos"... ;) ;) ;D

Hmmmm on the other hand, as a career firefighter, maybe there's some job security in recommending that you proceed with this "plastic at the burner plate" idea....Hmmmmmm?!?!? ;) :D   Sell some rides in that cool  8) looking Corvette (Me first!) and use the money to buy Bubba Pucks. ;)


Pam spray on the racks is HIGHLY recommended....that's the only way I can "shake" the meat off the rack...and I use the non-stick coated rack which still need Pam!

[kiyotei]

I don't understand the issue you are trying to solve with the PVC, doesn't sound like a good idea anyhow.  I also spray my racks with Pam, makes the clean up a lot faster.  What are bubba pucks?

[Kummok]

....What are bubba pucks?.....

A good question Kiyotei!

A search on "Bubba Pucks" will give you waaaay more info then you'd want to wade through, but the quick version is this, (quoted from: http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5405.0 ) :

"Bubba Pucks were "invented" to avoid excessive waste of expensive bisquettes. BPs take the place of the two bisquettes that would be necessary to push your last NEEDED puck out onto the burner and thus become "sacrificial" because they are "spoiled" by heat as they do their job. If you are only using your smoker a few times a year, you probably don't need them. If, on the other hand, you're using the smoker quite a bit, you're saving two bisquettes per smoking session by using the Bubba Puck. Another advantage is that the Bubba Pucks don't smolder, as do the bisquettes, if you're "cooking" longer than you're smoking. Bradley feels that this smoldering is enough of a problem that they provide the bowl to fill with water and dunk your spent bisquette when its 20 minutes is up....not sure I'm totally convinced that this is a problem but Bradley is......"     Two pucks are needed, some buy three. They are easily cleaned by tossing in the dishwasher. No batteries are required and they can go either side up  ;)  Originally sold exclusively through Chez Bubba, they are now available directly from " [email protected] " because Chez Bubba is in final stages of closing and selling remaining inventory ( http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5339.0 ).