Fired up the new WSM for the first time Saturday morning. I bought a 3 pack of ST Luis Cut spare ribs and also a pork tenderloin Friday night and got everything rubbed down and prepped first thing Saturday morning while the smoker was coming up to temp.
Unfortunately, the temp way overshot my target of 250 and kept climbing all the way up to a peak of 400 even with all the vents closed off (my attempt to bing the temp down by starving the fire of oxygen... which didn't work). I had elected not to fill the water pan for this smoke. Since the temps were way out of control I decided to only throw one rack of ribs on. They came out way too dark with a pulled pork style black bark. Luckily all was not lost, as the temps finally came down to 275 (after 6 hours) and I threw the pork tenderloin on, which came out great!
On Sunday I tried again. This time I cut the number of hot coals down to about 8 or 9 using the minion method, and put cold water in the water pan. This seemed to do the trick and I got temps up to 250 +/- 25 which stayed pretty stable for the duration of the cook. I did a modified version of the 3,2,1 closer to 2.5, 1.5, 1 and the ribs came out amazing this time. They got a perfect dark mahogany color, and perfect bite through tenderness that came clean off the bones. I used my own rub and put a little turbinado sugar and honey in the wrap which gave them a nice sweet flavor, but not too sweet and with some heat. I was very happy with the results for my second attempt with the WSM. Pics below!
Unfortunately, the temp way overshot my target of 250 and kept climbing all the way up to a peak of 400 even with all the vents closed off (my attempt to bing the temp down by starving the fire of oxygen... which didn't work). I had elected not to fill the water pan for this smoke. Since the temps were way out of control I decided to only throw one rack of ribs on. They came out way too dark with a pulled pork style black bark. Luckily all was not lost, as the temps finally came down to 275 (after 6 hours) and I threw the pork tenderloin on, which came out great!
On Sunday I tried again. This time I cut the number of hot coals down to about 8 or 9 using the minion method, and put cold water in the water pan. This seemed to do the trick and I got temps up to 250 +/- 25 which stayed pretty stable for the duration of the cook. I did a modified version of the 3,2,1 closer to 2.5, 1.5, 1 and the ribs came out amazing this time. They got a perfect dark mahogany color, and perfect bite through tenderness that came clean off the bones. I used my own rub and put a little turbinado sugar and honey in the wrap which gave them a nice sweet flavor, but not too sweet and with some heat. I was very happy with the results for my second attempt with the WSM. Pics below!
