My first smoke....in progress right now

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steve1199

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
10
10
Pensacola, Fl
finally breaking out my smoker. Have my first load of meat in there right now.

Currently cooking:

Three racks of St Louis ribs approx 3.5lbs each

Two bone in boston butts approx 4.5lbs each

Got them dry rubbed and smoking over some apple wood chips.

The prep work begins


Dry rubbed and wrapped to sit overnight




Just getting ready to put everything in there (note to self, remember to put rub on the ribs before you lay them in there next time).


got the smoke going on this rainy day.


And now i play the waiting game.....
 
Looking mighty good there, congrats!

I am doing my second ever smoke right now, three racks of pork spare ribs.

I am trying that Lamberts rub out for the first time today as well, it smells good so figured I would give it a try.
 
finally breaking out my smoker. Have my first load of meat in there right now.

Currently cooking:
Three racks of St Louis ribs approx 3.5lbs each
Two bone in boston butts approx 4.5lbs each

Got them dry rubbed and smoking over some apple wood chips.


The prep work begins


Dry rubbed and wrapped to sit overnight






Just getting ready to put everything in there (note to self, remember to put rub on the ribs before you lay them in there next time).


got the smoke going on this rainy day.



And now i play the waiting game.....
Pre-mature QView... hehe. Rub helps..
Good luck and keep smokin. .
Mike
 
Question now. It's been on smoke for just over three hours. Should I keep it on smoke the whole time or should I pull the chips at some point and just use heat?
 
If I don't foil I smoke the entire time. It's a personal preference of how much smoke flavor you like. For me it can never be over smoked.
 
I was going to foil the ribs, doing the 3 2 1 method on them. Wasn't sure how to work it though with the two Boston butts in there if I should keep a little smoke going the whole time or not.
 
I'd keep putting the smoke to the butts while the ribs are foiled, and after they come out of the foil and until they reach an IT of 205*. Lol
 
Way to rock in P'cola with an ambitious first smoke. That's some nice thick looking ribs you have there.....best of luck, keep your eye on the ball and thermometer. Hope the group enjoys your labors.....Willie
 
I've got fresh chips in. I've been doing good keeping the smoker between 225 and 235. The thermometer in the one butt is reading 120 right now. My neighbor was nice and is letting me borrow his digital dual probe wireless thermometer. Definately need to get a one myself after this.
 
I've got fresh chips in. I've been doing good keeping the smoker between 225 and 235. The thermometer in the one butt is reading 120 right now. My neighbor was nice and is letting me borrow his digital dual probe wireless thermometer. Definately need to get a one myself after this.
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Well, all finished finally. If all came out really good overall.

The ribs were pulled at about 7 hours and the two boston butts ended up taking 12 hours in the smoker + 1 hour resting all wrapped up.

Heres the first rack of ribs off the grill. In hind sight, they should have stayed on a little longer. the thicker sections were still a little stuck to the bone but the thinner sections and fully seperated from the bone and would pull off easily. they were all really juicy and tasted awesome, but, lesson for next time.



Here's the plate of ribs coming off the grill. Over 10lbs of ribs.....



Heres boston #1.....melt in your mouth tender.....tasted amazing.....



Heres the inside of #1.....



And here's #2.....


and inside #2


In hindsight, i think i may have been a little to ambitious to do 20lbs of meat for my first smoke, but hey, go big or go home. Overall, i learned a lot and have some takeaways for next time and things i'm going to do different, so, learned some stuff and came away with a boat load of amazing Q.......i call it a success
 
 
Dude 20 lbs first smoke ambitious?  I doubt that.  Sounds like you took lots of time to make sure it was a good maiden voyage & I suspect this is not the first thing you cooked either.  I dunno but I learn something every single time I fire up the smoker.  I am sure your guests were pleased :)
 
Looks great. Did you slice for the picture and pull or just slice the butts? Im a huge pulled pork fan.. but when serving just a few I love some sliced pork!
So.. 40lbs for smoke # 2? Hehhe ;) keep it up ;)
Mike
 
I grill quite a bit but this was my first time smoking anything. we do have some leftovers though, it was only the wife and i and our two younger kids plus the brother-in-law and his wife. we mostly killed the ribs off and would have dug into the port but it wasn't done until 830pm and after letting it rest wrapped up in a cooler it was 930pm before i started in on pulling and cutting it. Looking forward to digging into that today.

It did help that my neighbor smokes so was able to give me some pointers on prep and during the process and all. did spend some time thinking through what i was going to do and timing and all.

I ended up doing a little pulled meat but mostly sliced. the kids eat the thin sliced meat more than pulled port so pulled some and sliced some. did the one bigger slice into it just to see the smoke ring and how it turned out. the meat was SO tender though and tasted amazing!
 
Wow, I was proud of my first smoke last Saturday, a rack of spare ribs, and my second yesterday - three racks of the same.

Yours however is absolutely incredible, big congrats on what you accomplished = looks delicious!
 
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