Here are some more Qviews...
The nicely rubbed spare ribs go into the smoker.
I forgot to take intermediate pictures - But followed the 3-2-1 method.
Here's the final result.
BTW - the info on the Smoked Potato Salad can be found here --> http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/107969/smoked-potato-salad-w-qview
This was my first attempt - so here are some lesson's learned...
1) You don't need to open your smoker door every 5 minutes...
2) An overly spicy (or peppery) rub can spoil the meat.
3) Don't use your wife's good kitchen towels to set your meat on.
4) 3-2-1 doesn't necessarily mean 3-2-1.
For item 1 - I figured this out pretty quickly... but still snuck more peeks than I should have
For item 2 - There was too much black pepper and cayenne in the mix. We snuck a small piece of meat and had to drink a lot of water. My wife called me a bad name, then took some heartburn medicine. When I took the ribs out to wrap them for step 2 of the 3-2-1 method, I scraped the bark off. Fortunately, this saved the meal as most of the burn was in the bark.
For item 3 - I guess I'm taking my wife to William-Sonoma tomorrow to get her some more nice towels...
For Item 4 - I kept my eye on the meat and the meat had pulled away from the bone at 2 an 1/2 hours - so that's when I went to the next part (and ruined my wife's towel, if you're still hanging onto that). The last hour (the "1") should have been 30 minutes. The meat was a little dry, but still some of the best, fall-off-the-bone tender, spare ribs that I and my wife have ever eaten.
I know I've learned from my lessons, and I hope I can help someone else not make the same mistakes - especially about the towel...
Happy Smoking...
