Beginner To Smoking Meat

[ryanrheil]

First off I want to start off by apologizing in advance if this is posted in the wrong thread.

I smoked some spare ribs from Sam’s club for my fiancé and I this weekend. I just bought a new charbroil electric smoker cabinet style. I’ve also just learned about wagyu beef tallow and am new to smoking. All noted things for this smoke.

I started off by letting smoker preheat. Ribs marinated in Dr Pepper for 30 min then I patted dry and rubbed half rack in Smokey Honey Habanero & other half with brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika. I let each side sit 15 min before sticking on smoker for 2 hours @ 250 degrees. I did open it up at 1 hour and spritz with apple cider vinegar / water and opened it up again at 1.30 and brushed it with a wagyu beef tallow & bbq sauce mixture as I am just trying to use it and experiment from things I’ve read and watched.

Took out at 2.15 hours and wrapped in butcher paper with bbq sauce and tallow meat side down. Stuck back in smoker for another hour. Took them out and let them rest for 30 minutes.

All in all they cooked for a total of 3 hours 15 min @ 250 degrees. The internal tempt read 195. The tenderness wasn’t near as close as what I thought it would be. My crockpot recipe was way more tender which was disappointing…and I had 0 smoke ring with minimal to no bark. Used hickory chips soaked 30 min before smoke. Filled chip box almost all way and stuck a handful of dry chips in too because if I don’t I feel like it takes too long for smoker to actually start smoking. Please give me any and all advice and critiques.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Welcome, glad to have you. Those appear to be baby back ribs, but anyway when it comes to tenderness, there are two main camps. One is "bite through" and the other is "fall off the bone". Three hours doesn't seem long enough to achieve either. With "bite through", the meat offers some resistance or a slight tug when bitten kind of like this...

With "fall off the bone" ribs, the bone will pull out clean from the meat kind of like this...

If you've been cooking them in a crock pot, then FOTB is probably what you're used to. To achieve this in a smoker, wrap the ribs tightly in aluminum foil for 1-2 hours after smoking for 3 hours. Everyone has their favorite additions to the foil including squeeze butter, honey, more rub, apple juice, etc.

When cooking ribs, either spares or baby backs, most folks use either a 3-2-1(usually for spare ribs) or 2-2-1(usually for baby backs) method. That's 3 (or 2 hours) hours smoking, 2 hours wrapped, and 1 hour unwrapped and sauced. These are BASIC guidelines and everyone has their own tweaks that they like. SmokinAl has a good technique HERE, but the SEARCH feature will help you on your quest for your perfect ribs. Search titles only for 3-2-1 or 2-2-1 and you'll have plenty to read...

And don't forget the TBS...Thin Blue Smoke...

 

[tbern]

welcome to the forum from Minnesota, glad you joined us! Charles gave you great advice above!

 

[Newglide]

Welcome from North Carolina. Gonna Smoke gave you what you need to know for the next batch of ribs. Can't expect perfection on the first batch, that's what keeps us trying new things. You've come to the right place for good advice.

 

[Bigtank]

Welcome from NW Iowa

 

[TripleLindy]

I’m in the quick cook camp for ribs. Baby backs are usually ready in less than 3 hours with no wrap. I’ll cook around 300° and pull when they “crack” doing the bend test.

In regards to comparing to a crockpot cook, you’ll probably never get ribs that soft when smoking. But that’s a good thing. Crockpot tends to steam the ribs due to all of the trapped moisture. That just takes flavor away, IMO.

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!
Sounds like you just need to wrap them & cook them longer. I think you are looking for fall off the bone ribs, and foiling is the easiest way to get that!
Al

 

[TripleLindy]

Also, don’t soak your chips or smoking wood. You want the wood burning clean with the smoke hardly visible. I wait until the charcoal is burning hot, add my wood, and wait for combustion before putting meat on.

 

[JLeonard]

Welcome to the forum. All above is great advice. And I'd steer away from soaking your chips. It takes time to cook the water out of them before they get dry enough to start smoking.

Jim

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Welcome from SE Arizona.
Everyone above has you coved on the cooking methods.
Though, I will add that you will not get a smoke ring on meat using an electric smoker. It's just the nature of the beast since the wood chips smolder instead of getting hot enough to produce nitric oxide and carbon monoxide which then interact with the myoglobin in meat.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Welcome from Iowa! Very good advice given already! I'll add to do a search for mailbox mod for your smoker and get an amnps tray to burn pellets...way easier than constantly having to add chips to your smoker.

Ryan

 

[ryanrheil]

Welcome from Iowa! Very good advice given already! I'll add to do a search for mailbox mod for your smoker and get an amnps tray to burn pellets...way easier than constantly having to add chips to your smoker.

Ryan

Okay this makes me wonder how often should chips be changed out. I’ve been leaving them in entire smoke cause I’m only smoking 4-5 hours and filling chip box up? I also am afraid when I open smoker to adjust anything I lose all of my heat? Should I not worry about that

 

[SmokinEdge]

Welcome from SE Arizona.
Everyone above has you coved on the cooking methods.
Though, I will add that you will not get a smoke ring on meat using an electric smoker. It's just the nature of the beast since the wood chips smolder instead of getting hot enough to produce nitric oxide and carbon monoxide which then interact with the myoglobin in meat.

Agree, and will add that in order for the nitric Oxide to function it needs to mix with oxygen, this requires ventilation and circulation, something an electric smoker does not do. That’s why the mailbox mod is so popular, the full mod solves these issues and produces a smoke ring.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Okay this makes me wonder how often should chips be changed out. I’ve been leaving them in entire smoke cause I’m only smoking 4-5 hours and filling chip box up? I also am afraid when I open smoker to adjust anything I lose all of my heat? Should I not worry about that

Just gonna extend your smoking time...everytime you open the door you're losing your heat

Ryan

 

[DougE]

just gonna extend your smoking time...everytime you open the door you're losing your heat

Looking isn't cooking, as they say. The same applies to opening up the smoker for spritzing, or adding chips, or any other reason. I open my smokers usually twice .......to put the meat on, and to take it off ....... 3 times if I'm wrapping.