Dry Ribs with upright propane smoker?

[ecompeau]

I am a newbie to this forum, but am impressed at the amount of experience and helpfulness I have read about while surfing this site. I used charcoal smokers years ago, then switched to an electric Char-Broil smoker that always produced awesome results. I now have a Master Forge upright propane smoker. When I smoke ribs, they seem to come out much drier than with the electric smoker. I live in Arizona, so I am usually dealing with fairly high ambient temperatures and very low humidity. I try to keep the temp below 240-250. When I have gone much lower, the ribs did not cook at all. I can't seem to get any advice about the dampers other than "experiment and see what works best", which I have done. My best guesses are: 1. The water pan is much smaller than my previous smoker, I have seen that other members have modified their's to be larger. 2. Some users mentioned that they wrap their meat in foil after the initial smoke, (or about 3 hours into the process). I did this by accident once because I had a huge crowd and I had to do back to back smoking sessions, so I wrapped and finished the first batch in my oven and they came out very moist and tender. Does anyone have any other suggestions out there, or am I on the right track?

Thanks,

Eric

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF. There are a lot of very friendly & knowledgeable folks here to help you. I urge you to sign up for the free E-course. It will give you the basics, & even if you are an experienced smoker you may learn something new. Then start asking questions. Good luck & glad to have you aboard. Don't forget we all love Qview! Now, if you would, go to the roll call section & introduce yourself, so we can give you a proper welcome.

As for the ribs most of us use the 3-2-1 method for spares & 2-2-1 for BB's. Just type in 3-2-1 in the search box & it will explain it.