Ribs with QView, also need some advice

louballs

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Jan 8, 2013

112

13

Harrisburg, PA

• Feb 3, 2013

• #1

Today I smoked my first rack of ribs. I used baby backs. They turned out tasty, but they were a little tough. I accidentally used the 3-2-1 method instead of 2-2-1 one for the baby backs. Could this have caused the toughness?  Below are my times/temps, etc. As well as some photos of my ribs and my home made pizza for the big game.

Meat	2 lb of baby backs
Rub	Jeff's Rub, on meat for 22 hours
Wood Used	3/4 oz apple wood
Starting Time	12:36 PM
Starting Outdoor Temp	28 degrees
Smoker Temp Setting	225 degrees
Starting Meat Temp	40 degrees
	3:16 PM, wrapped in foil with 6 ounces of IPA (sam adams)
	5:20 PM, unwrapped and back into smoker
	pulled out at 6:20 PM, fairly tough, but tasty

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• louballs
• Feb 3, 2013

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• louballs
• Feb 3, 2013

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• louballs
• Feb 3, 2013

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• louballs
• Feb 3, 2013

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• louballs
• Feb 3, 2013

 

chef jimmyj

Gone but not forgotten. RIP

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• Feb 3, 2013

• #2

Hey Buddy, Looks good but the big question is...225*F measured or based on what, sounds like you were ruuning lower? Did you use a known accurate, calibrated and recently tested Thermometer? Or just the Therm that comes on your Smoker...I don't think any Smoker comes with an accurate Thermometer and the Digital or Dial in settings can be off as well. After the time you describe they were more likely to fall apart then be tough if you were actually at 225*F...JJ

 

jirodriguez

Master of the Pit

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Jun 5, 2009

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Portland, OR

• Feb 3, 2013

• #3

Nice looking for a first go around.

As for rib toughness they should have been falling off the bone. Only thing I can think of is your chamber temp. may have been lower than you thought. I am unfamiliar with your smoker so I don't know how accurate it is. At the very least you want to verify your chamber temp with a calibrated thermometer and make sure your therm on the outside matches what your actual chamber temps are.

 

louballs

Smoke Blower

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Jan 8, 2013

112

13

Harrisburg, PA

• Feb 3, 2013

• #4

Hmm, I didn't use a thermometer today because its been holding very accurate for me the past few tries (within a few degrees), but it was fairly windy today so maybe that made the difference? Ill have to be sure to use the thermometer from now on. Oh well, they still tasted good.

 

chef jimmyj

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• Feb 3, 2013

• #5

Lou, After checking what smoker you have I am even a little more baffled because that style is known to retain more Moisture than most. Take the moisture and added Time and you should have had a pile of bare bones and 1 1/2 pounds of Pulled Pork...

  The Smokin-it is well insulated and accurate but it is still a good idea to run a probe to verify.

It was really cold and windy today, were you doing more Lookin' than Cookin' by any chance?

 ...JJ

 

jirodriguez

Master of the Pit

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Portland, OR

• Feb 3, 2013

• #6

louballs said:

Hmm, I didn't use a thermometer today because its been holding very accurate for me the past few tries (within a few degrees), but it was fairly windy today so maybe that made the difference? Ill have to be sure to use the thermometer from now on. Oh well, they still tasted good.

Click to expand...

Wind is actually the worst enemy of smokers - even more so than just cold. I would guess it was the combo that did you in. I would suggest some way to insulate it and wind break it at the same time during winter smokes.

 

louballs

Smoke Blower

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 8, 2013

112

13

Harrisburg, PA

• Feb 4, 2013

• #7

Chef JimmyJ said:

Lou, After checking what smoker you have I am even a little more baffled because that style is known to retain more Moisture than most. Take the moisture and added Time and you should have had a pile of bare bones and 1 1/2 pounds of Pulled Pork...

  The Smokin-it is well insulated and accurate but it is still a good idea to run a probe to verify.

It was really cold and windy today, were you doing more Lookin' than Cookin' by any chance?

 ...JJ

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was a bit baffled myself. The only times I opened the smoker was to wrap it in foil and then unwrap for the final hour. I never really open it up to look at the food. Oh well, ill just have to make more!