I grabbed the last three half racks of babybacks at the butcher shop on Tues. I was hoping for spares and some giant beef ribs, but these will more than make for a tasty dinner.
The original plan was to smoke 'em yesterday, but rain clouds and some pretty strong winds rolled in, so I decided to wait until today. I didn't realize it was supposed to only get up to ~20. D'oh!
I mixed up a batch of rub last night and got the ribs ready for their big debut.
LAST NIGHT:
Rub!
Ribs!
Rubbed Ribs!
In their PJs...
Tucked in for the night...
=============================================
THIS MORNING:
Zoinks! It got chilly overnight.
All dressed up and ready to go!
=============================================
I set the temp at 275 to get the box heated. I also filled the water pan with boiling water to help it out. The smoker lives in a quasi-heated garage, so it was 35 through and through until I opened the overhead and rolled it outside, where the air had actually dropped a degree to a frosty 18.
When I went out to check on the heating element's progress 40-45 minutes later, I was greeted by the sight of steam puffing out the vent and wisps of TBS drifting out around the chip loader. The MES impressed me by hitting 256 in under 45 minutes--I was expecting it to take at least an hour, possibly an hour and a half.
I put the ribs in and quickly closed the door. I was happy that I cranked the heat as the 10 seconds it was open dropped the internal temp to 180.
It took the better part of another 40 minutes to hit 220, at which point I dropped the t-stat to 225. It's been holding a pretty constant 220 (+/- 2deg) for the past hour and a half. That seems pretty good to me, especially with the strong breeze that's kicked up.
My initial plan was to do a 2-2-1 smoke, but I think I'll just leave the door closed and let it do its thing w/out making it recover from another big drop in temp.
It sure is smelling nice in my neighborhood right around now... =o)
I'll post a couple pix of them once they're done and have had a chance to rest.
The original plan was to smoke 'em yesterday, but rain clouds and some pretty strong winds rolled in, so I decided to wait until today. I didn't realize it was supposed to only get up to ~20. D'oh!
I mixed up a batch of rub last night and got the ribs ready for their big debut.
LAST NIGHT:
Rub!
Ribs!
Rubbed Ribs!
In their PJs...
Tucked in for the night...
=============================================
THIS MORNING:
Zoinks! It got chilly overnight.
All dressed up and ready to go!
=============================================
I set the temp at 275 to get the box heated. I also filled the water pan with boiling water to help it out. The smoker lives in a quasi-heated garage, so it was 35 through and through until I opened the overhead and rolled it outside, where the air had actually dropped a degree to a frosty 18.
When I went out to check on the heating element's progress 40-45 minutes later, I was greeted by the sight of steam puffing out the vent and wisps of TBS drifting out around the chip loader. The MES impressed me by hitting 256 in under 45 minutes--I was expecting it to take at least an hour, possibly an hour and a half.
I put the ribs in and quickly closed the door. I was happy that I cranked the heat as the 10 seconds it was open dropped the internal temp to 180.
It took the better part of another 40 minutes to hit 220, at which point I dropped the t-stat to 225. It's been holding a pretty constant 220 (+/- 2deg) for the past hour and a half. That seems pretty good to me, especially with the strong breeze that's kicked up.
My initial plan was to do a 2-2-1 smoke, but I think I'll just leave the door closed and let it do its thing w/out making it recover from another big drop in temp.
It sure is smelling nice in my neighborhood right around now... =o)
I'll post a couple pix of them once they're done and have had a chance to rest.