First smoke on ME electric smoker

[John Goostree]

Ribs came out black and super salty. Meat inside was still juicy and not dry. I used too much rub I'm pretty sure and any other advice?

 

[John Goostree]

I smoked at 275 degrees for about 4 and a half hours with hickory wood chips.

 

[BuckeyeSteve]

Were they bitter? Could be creosote. Serch for the mailbox mod for the MES. I did a variation of it, the popcorn tin mod. The results are amazing.

 

[mike243]

rubs the culprit on salt,black or dark will happen with different woods and is normal,hickory is my favorite flavor ,back it down to 225 or 250 max,temps will move 50 degrees either way and wont affect the final out come most of the time

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Mike nailed it. To hot, and to much salt in the rub. The dark colour is fine, that is bark.

 

[gmc2003]

What was in your rub? I agree those ribs look a little on the burnt side for my liking. Back off some on the salt and sugar if they're part of your rub.

Chris

 

[uncle eddie]

I smoke my ribs until they hit an internal temp in the 200-205F range...of course this works best for meatier ribs. It does not matter if I smoke them at 225F or 275F or any temp in between. I use the smoker temp to control the time of my cook (do I want to eat at 4 PM or 7 PM?)

I also agree to back off on your rub. I use a simple salt, pepper, garlic powder rub. I also do not remove the membrane and I do not use the water pan for anything other than a drip pan.

A great add on for your smoker would also be the A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker. Here is the link:
http://www.amazenproducts.com/product_p/amnps5x8.htm
Also available on Amazon.

 

[John Goostree]

What was in your rub? I agree those ribs look a little on the burnt side for my liking. Back off some on the salt and sugar if they're part of your rub.

Chris

Coarse sea salt, brown sugar, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper

 

[gmc2003]

I would say the brown sugar and paprika are the probable culprits.

Chris

 

[megabrisket]

Hi John. I'd like to link you to a post I posted a while back about ribs on an MES. Mines an MES 30 and I started with a bunch of questions but about half way down the page you can see my results and what I did to achieve them. I'm usually here asking for advice but I think/hope you'll find something useful in my post. :) I'm actually doing ribs today the same way but using apple wood chips.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/whole-spare-ribs-to-wrap-or-not-to-wrap.274508/

Edit: So I did some spare ribs today basically the same way as in that thread only I used apple pellets. Didn't plan on taking pics but I did snag a couple. They came clean off the bone but didn't fall off. Did 3 hours unwrapped, then wrapped in foil with brown sugar, butter, honey, and a bit of bbq sauce. 2 more hours in the foil then pulled. Was only going to let them rest for 15 min but the wife was really ate getting home so they sat in the foil for an hour and still turned out great!