My first ribs and ABTs w/QView

[chubbabubba]

So I got home late tonight, and started prepping for my first long smoke in the morning. I prepped my thawed ribs, and pulled out the jalapenos, cheeses and bacon for the ABTs. All ready to go for the morning, I'll update as I go.

Here are the ribs cut up for ease of handling, and rubbed down ready for the rub.

I bought this spice grinder 2 years ago for use in making rubs, but never used it until tonight. Works great.

Here are the ribs rubbed down, and ready to go back into the fridge until the morning. Smells so wonderful when I open the fridge, can't wait to smell them when cooked.

Here are my japs, I made sure to get the biggest ones I could so I can fill them as much as possible.

Here they are split open and filled, ready for wrapping with bacon.

And here they are wrapped and skewered. I'll cut them up into smaller skewers in the morning so I can place them right side up and keep all of that delicious cheese.

Thanks for viewing, I'll have more pics as I start the smoke in the morning. Wish me luck, my first ribs and first long smoke. I'm getting hungry posting the pics. Snack time. lol

 

[jrod62]

it all looks so good . will be checking back in the morning to see how its going

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks good so far!

            

 

[chubbabubba]

HELP!! Had my minion set up, like suggested in my last post put the briqs all around and left a hole in the middle. Then I put on 4 applewood, 2 hickory. Well all of it's lit now. Temps got up to over 600 degrees, trying to cool it down. My smoker's all black on the outside. lol.

Removed quite a bit of the briqs back into the chimney, but still over 350 degrees. How do I get the temps under control, it's like a wildfire. I put 30 oz. of cold water into the water pan with boiling water, hopefully that helps some. Also closed my bottom vents, so only air getting in is through sides of fire pan as ECB was made to do.

 

[chubbabubba]

Figured out what I did wrong. Coffee_junkie suggested I use a 1/3 full chimney to light it...I thought that it wasn't enough to keep things going so I filled it a little over halfway...that's what I get for not listening to someone who's been doing it longer. lol, well just wasted some good chunks of wood. Trying to cool her down now, then I guess I'll just have to manually feed her the rest of the day.

By the way, I don't remember seeing any mods to cut off the air flow from the sides of the fire pan in an ECB. I think it would give me more air control, then again these things may not be made to work as well like that. Any suggestions?

Well needless to say, if my smoker wasn't seasoned before it is now. =D

Now that things are under control, I looked the smoker over since it's lighter now. The temp got over 700 degrees, and there's bubbling along the sides of the lid...hopefully that's not paint, but it could be. I hope I didn't damage my smoker.

 

[jrod62]

Well looks like your having fun this morning . Is this the smoker you have ?

3rd full chimney that a lot !! if your using the minion set up I would do it like u did but only a 1/2 chimney .

You said "Also closed my bottom vents"

not sure what vents your talking about if this is the type of smoker u have.

 

[SmokinAl]

That's a classic Jrod!

 

[chubbabubba]

Sorry, I meant a 1/3 full chimney. I put vents on the bottom of my fire pan that I can open and close for air flow. I worked at a place with a machine shop, and the guys were kind enough to mod my ECB for me. =D

Anyway, my poor ECB she used to be a pretty shiny red. Now she looks like I burnt her all to hell. But I guess if mine looks like Jrod's and still works it'll be fine. I'll post pics in a sec. Getting them off camera now and I'll update this post. Btw, how long have you had that bad boy Jrod? lol

Temps are now steady at around 230 - 240.

 

[jrod62]

Sorry, I meant a 1/3 full chimney. I put vents on the bottom of my fire pan that I can open and close for air flow. I worked at a place with a machine shop, and the guys were kind enough to mod my ECB for me. =D

Anyway, my poor ECB she used to be a pretty shiny red. Now she looks like I burnt her all to hell. But I guess if mine looks like Jrod's and still works it'll be fine. I'll post pics in a sec. Getting them off camera now and I'll update this post.

Temps are now steady at around 230 - 240.

it does say 1/3 in your post . (I need to put my glasses on) That not my smoker. Just found it on one of the post on here.
 

 

[chubbabubba]

Actually your eyes are fine, I changed it because it was so confusing even after I read it. lol

Well, pics may be out the rest of the smoke, my memory card's acting up. But WOW! Has this been an experience. My temps started dropping so I foiled at 2.5 hours so I could tend to the fire. Temp dropped to 180s in chamber while I was messing with that, and took about 15 - 20 mins to get back up to 250. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up. Quite a learning experience today, and still loving it. Went to the store and got 2 more ribs for the freezer.

I think I will start to prep the second rib in the fridge here in a bit, and smoke it later today. lol, 12 hours of smoking in one day. I'm loving it. I may be ready for a butt after this next rib.

 

[jrod62]

Actually your eyes are fine, I changed it because it was so confusing even after I read it. lol

Well, pics may be out the rest of the smoke, my memory card's acting up. But WOW! Has this been an experience. My temps started dropping so I foiled at 2.5 hours so I could tend to the fire. Temp dropped to 180s in chamber while I was messing with that, and took about 15 - 20 mins to get back up to 250. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up. Quite a learning experience today, and still loving it. Went to the store and got 2 more ribs for the freezer.

I think I will start to prep the second rib in the fridge here in a bit, and smoke it later today. lol, 12 hours of smoking in one day. I'm loving it. I may be ready for a butt after this next rib.

ECB are hard to control. Takes a while to figure them out. My wife bought me one for Father day 7 years ago and my first smoke keep going out. It sat for 5 years until i read the Mod. on Smoking-Meat.com that needed to be done to work right. I have a offset smoker that i use 99% of the time. Still use my ECB at every smoke. Its job now is to hold my chimney while it heats up

 

[SmokinAl]

ECB are hard to control. Takes a while to figure them out. My wife bought me one for Father day 7 years ago and my first smoke keep going out. It sat for 5 years until i read the Mod. on Smoking-Meat.com that needed to be done to work right. I have a offset smoker that i use 99% of the time. Still use my ECB at every smoke. Its job now is to hold my chimney while it heats up

 

[chubbabubba]

Cool, if I continue to enjoy smoking, which I'm sure I will, I'm going to invest into an offset. Ribs are done, and rested. Tastes pretty good, may need a little more sweetness in my rub and may taste even better than it already does. I need a little more smoke too, the fiasco with the temp earlier in the morning threw me off some. It's not dry, but I think it could be a little more moist. I realized though that's it's a little lean for a rack of ribs. Then again I did only have it in for about 5 hrs.

I've learned a lot about smoking ribs in this smoke. So my future rib smoking should be a little more successful. But my poor ECB, went from red to burnt. lol. The ABTs turned out great, almost burned my mouth eating a few as they came out. Here are the pics.

My poor ECB, it was once nice and shiny red. This is what 700+ temps will do to the paint job.

The ribs unfoiled and back on the grill. You can see the pullback starting.

Ribs finished and rested, got some decent pullback. And the crust on it is great. Good flavor, may just need a little more sugar for ribs.

It's pretty moist, but I was expecting a little more moistness. But like I said it's leaner than I would think ribs would be.

My ABTs, I couldn't wait for them to cool down. Almost burned my tongue on a couple. lol. Thanks for viewing. I lost a few pics with my other memory card. It's corrupted bad, couldn't even format it.

 

[jrod62]

That was one hot fire you had going on !!!!!! Glad you didn't give up. fix it and keep going.   

for that !!!      ABT's and ribs looks great. I might have to make some soon.

      

 

[SmokinAl]

Everything looks delicious!

Great job!

 

[chef willie]

hmmmm, looks like the ribs and abt's survived the holocaust.....that's one way to break that bad boy in. That ECB def has a little panache now....

 

[raptor700]

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time 

Experience is life's best teacher!

It looks like everything came out great, the ribs look very nice.

Congrats on your first rib smoke 

 

[chubbabubba]

Thanks all it was quite an experience, turned out good though. Prepped another rack and will probably fire it up tomorrow night. It all tastes great!

 

[sunman76]

 woot woot ....looks like it turned out good how did you last smoke go?

 

[chubbabubba]

Smoking my second set of ribs tonight. Learned a lot from my first attempt. I'll post QView a little later.