Today I had the first smoke today on my new Masterbuilt Dual-Fuel smoker; I did two racks of baby back pork ribs. I tried the 2-2-1 method and was very impressed (thanks SMF)! To be honest, I was at little nervous a first (considering it was a new unit for me with which to smoke), but the end-result was by far the finest ribs I've done yet! Here are a few pics...
1. Brought the ribs to room temperature:
2. It was a somewhat impromptu decision to do ribs, so I didn't have time to marinate - but I did give them a rub with a basic homemade rib rub:
3. Into the pre-heated smoker they went (bone-side down); cooking away at 225* over lump charcoal and apple-wood chips:
4. Here they are after the first 2-hours of smoking:
5. Back in for another two hours all foiled up (no wood-chips added for this next 2-hour stint):
6. After a combined 4-hours I took them off, unwrapped and sauced one rack with BBQ sauce for the misses (next time I'll do my homemade honey-brown BBQ sauce). I kept one rack 'naked' as that is the way I prefer them. Then, they went back in for for one last final hour:
7. After 45-minutes (I'm not sure if I used my spidey-sense or I was just getting impatient!) I decided to take them off and gave a touch-up on the sauce:
8. The end result was impressive!
The ribs were absolutely perfect and by far the best I've cooked - a welcome surprise as I wasn't sure what to expect with this being my first cook on the new unit. The ribs didn't fall apart when picked up, but they pulled away from the bone very easily. I will definitely be using the 2-2-1 method whenever I cook ribs in my smoker in the future; I highly definitely recommend this method. My only complaint is that I think I used a little too much smoke (my wife said it was a little to smokey for her liking).
Thanks for looking and thanks to all for the help and useful posts!
1. Brought the ribs to room temperature:
2. It was a somewhat impromptu decision to do ribs, so I didn't have time to marinate - but I did give them a rub with a basic homemade rib rub:
3. Into the pre-heated smoker they went (bone-side down); cooking away at 225* over lump charcoal and apple-wood chips:
4. Here they are after the first 2-hours of smoking:
5. Back in for another two hours all foiled up (no wood-chips added for this next 2-hour stint):
6. After a combined 4-hours I took them off, unwrapped and sauced one rack with BBQ sauce for the misses (next time I'll do my homemade honey-brown BBQ sauce). I kept one rack 'naked' as that is the way I prefer them. Then, they went back in for for one last final hour:
7. After 45-minutes (I'm not sure if I used my spidey-sense or I was just getting impatient!) I decided to take them off and gave a touch-up on the sauce:
8. The end result was impressive!
The ribs were absolutely perfect and by far the best I've cooked - a welcome surprise as I wasn't sure what to expect with this being my first cook on the new unit. The ribs didn't fall apart when picked up, but they pulled away from the bone very easily. I will definitely be using the 2-2-1 method whenever I cook ribs in my smoker in the future; I highly definitely recommend this method. My only complaint is that I think I used a little too much smoke (my wife said it was a little to smokey for her liking).
Thanks for looking and thanks to all for the help and useful posts!