Some newbie questions?

[curtlow]

Hey all, going to do my very first smoke this weekend so I have a couple of questions. I bought an upright gas smoker with a wood box at the bottom. So for question 1. Do I use wood chunks or chips or does it matter. 2. Some say to soak the wood in water and some say not to. Whats the best? 3. I think im going to do either spare ribs or baby backs. I know everybody is different but what is some of your favorite woods to use on ribs and where I might find some good recipes for dry rubs to use? We like sweet with a little heat. Also I've read that the meat soaks up all of the smoke its going to in the first hour or two. So do you stop putting in wood after its smoked for a couple of hours or do you smoke it the entire time? Thanks in advance for your responses. Curtis

 

[northern greenhorn]

First of all, welcome to smf.
Second, I just did my first smoke, and I did baby backs, I used the 2,2,1 method, and they turned out awesome. I too have a vertical gas smoker, and I used apple wood chips, they worked great, I filled up my chip box, then separated them in two, and soaked half of them for a half hour, seemed to work fine. Good luck.

 

[smokin relaxin steve]

I noticed w/ Chips you get more smoke, but they burn out faster... Chunks a little less smoke, but they last longer...
I personally soak mine (I feel i get more smoke[i soak in beer, juice, water, adds different flavors)
I smoke the whole time, but thats up to you... after 2hrs not much more will enter, but if you got the wood and you like the flavor go for it...
I like fruit wood for my ribs & pork cuts...

 

[newflame]

1. I always use chips in my MES, but that's all I have room for, around here flavored chips are easier to find in different flavors, and not too pricey. Long story short either way you're gonna be fine.
2. I always soak my chips, I think it keeps down creosote formation, but i'm sure someone will come along shortly to confirm or deny this.
3. My favorite woods to use with ribs are a mixture of hickory and apple or cherry, I always use hickory for my base wood on pork and then a little bit of fruit wood. experimenting is half the fun around here. If you want a fantastic rib rub, look into buying Jeff's rib rub recipe, I have it and love it. But there's alot of different ones out there, just do a little research. Personally on ribs I usually use a modified version of the 3-2-1 method depending on which type of ribs i'm cooking, you want to aim for a thin blue smoke or tbs coming out of your smoker, too much smoke can be a bad thing, back to your question, my personal preference on ribs is to smoke them for 3 hours, wrap them in foil and some liquid for 1.5-2 hours with little to no smoke (because they're wrapped in foil) and then out of the foil with a glaze of bbq sauce and a few hickory chips for about an hour. These are all my personal preferences and yours may be different, like I said, experimentation is half the fun :) do a little reading up on the stickys here, and i'm sure they'll turn out great, and don't forget the qview! Welcome to smf