Looking for Tips on Timing

[brownie smoke]

Hello Everyone-

I'm looking for tips and tricks on the timing out of several different items that I plan to smoke tomorrow. This will be my second smoke on my new Masterbuilt Dual Fuel. We will be doing a rack of spare ribs, a rack of baby backs, a london broil, and a chicken. Obviously the ribs will go on first as they will take the longest to cook.Any tips or tricks for a newbie as I attempt to smoke multiple things that require different cook times?

Looking forward to a day of good music, cold beverages and some delicious smoked meats. Thanks for any advice!

Cheers!

 

[slipaway]

My advice (and you will hear from a lot of people who have different ideas...) is to time each product according to some fairly common rules (i.e. Baby back ribs = 5 hours; spare ribs = 6 hours, etc.).

Then pick your end time (say you want to eat at 6:00 pm).

Back off each product from that end time and then move everything back another hour. In other words - if you think you need to start your ribs at 1:00 - start them at 12:00 noon. The reason I do this is  twofold - First is because almost everything you cook will be even better with a little rest time at the end (so resting your ribs for an hour is not going to ruin them; briskets and pork shoulder must have it) so if your food is done exactly when you thought it should be - no problem, and ; secondly -  meat is done when it is done and not before. So if you plan on everything being done in order to eat at 6:00 and 6:00 comes and only 1 or 2 items are ready you either eat over a period of hours or you just wait for the last item to be done before you sit down to eat.

Longwinded answer to a fairly simple math problem..................

Good luck.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Use the 2-2-1 on your baby backs, the 3-2-1 on your spares. 225 degrees.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

It's the easiest way for beginners. Good luck

 

[brownie smoke]

Thanks for your reply. I guess my concern was about over smoking the items that go on first. In my case it will be the ribs. They will get smoke for the first three hours. Then when I throw the london broil & chicken on I will need to fire up the smoke again. I guess at that point I will have the ribs foiled so I shouldn't have to worry about over smoking the ribs. Hopefully that makes sense. 

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

You won't over smoke them. I've smoked them 6 hours straight with no foil. But the 3-2-1/2-2-1 method is a great way to learn. Post some pics when your done I'll be curious on how you did.

Ive used everything from apple juice to beer as my liquid in the foil while doing 3-2-1 ribs.

 

[brownie smoke]

Everything turned out great. Loved the ribs. Here's a few shots of the babybacks....

After 3 hours of smoke. Just before foiling.

IMG_3294.JPG

• brownie smoke
• Jan 22, 2017

Finished product. Ready to eat!

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• brownie smoke
• Jan 22, 2017

Not too shabby for my first shot at ribs on this smoker.

IMG_3299.JPG

• brownie smoke
• Jan 22, 2017

 

[mike5051]

Those look great!  

  Nice smoke!

Mike

 

[mike5051]

I forgot to add my tips on timing, got carried away by the Q-view.!  

  I smoke baby backs for 5 hours between 225 and 250.  I don't even peek at em till they've been on the smoker for 4 hours.  Then I will sauce the rack and continue for another hour.  I've done the 3-2-1 on spares, and 2-2-1 for baby backs, but I really like not wrapping my ribs.  Happy smoking.

Mike

 

[hb99]

As previously mentioned, it all comes down to simple math. The rest comes with experience.

It also helps if you write everything down along with the time of the action. There's a downloadable smoke log somewhere around here. It helps, but like all templates, you may feel the need to tweak your own.