First time smoking low temp question for Ribs

[bkbuilds]

Using my new Brinkmann smoker for the first time and I had an issue with the temp dipping to 150 after I opened the door to get the ribs out for foil package. It took me about 45mins to get the temp back up to 220. Then I had the same problem again when I took them out of the foil and put them back in, temp dipped for about an hour.

I raised the temp to 300 for the final hour, are my ribs going to be ok? or am I eating pizza tonight?

 

[bkbuilds]

I took them off and they were not fully cooked. So I fired up my gas grill and put them on there for now. Cut the rack in half and put a temp probe on the thick part and it showed 150.

 

[kc5tpy]

Hello BK.  How long were your ribs cooking and at what temp before your first temp drop?

Danny

 

[bkbuilds]

Before the first drop it was 2 hours and the temp zone was 290 down to 220. I was going for the 2-2-1 method.

End result was strange, one rack was cooked, the other was not. So the wife and I split the half that was cooked and she really enjoyed it.

Used the Webber dry rub recipe, then foil packed with apple sauce and Jim beam for 2 hours, the smoke was Mesquite. Finished with a hickory and brown sugar bbq sauce.

Next time I'll hickory smoke and a different bbq sauce.

 

[kc5tpy]

Hello.  Welcome.  I see this is your first thread.  Please take some time and swing over to Roll Call and introduce yourself so that we may give you a proper "Hello".  All info you can provide us with such as smoker type, location and so on will help us answer any questions you may have. Glad things worked out in the end.  Are you relying on the factory temp gauge in your smoker for your temps?  If you are, those things are notorious for being way off.  You might consider investing in a good dual probe therm.  One probe tells you cook chamber temp and the other tells you internal temp ( IT ) of the meat.  If the average temp was 250 for 2 hours I would say that those ribs should have been cooked which indicates to me your therm is WAY off.  You also mentioned 1 rack cooked and the other not.  I assume these were on different racks in the smoker.  This also indicates a possible problem with the temp gauge and also the fact you may have an air flow problem which causes one part of your smoker to be hotter than the other.  Hopefully one of our members with the Brinkman smoker will come along and offer more solutions.  Hope this helps.  Keep Smokin!

Danny

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Hey, how's it goin ?? Danny give ya some awesome advise for sure and he mentioned gettin a good dual probe thermometer..... Just throwin in my 2 cents here about that... I would highly recommend the Maverick ET-732 !! I have been thru more thermometers than I care to even think about. I seriously was just gonna give up on thermometers I was so frustrated... Then I seen the Mav and thought I will give one more therm a try.... One last try to get a good one and am I ever so glad I did as the Mav is rock solid and easy to use. IMHO, the Mavs are well worth it, wish I would have seen them before wasting a lot of money on the other ones that left a lot to be desired.... Hope this helps !! If ya have any questions, just ask as there are a lot of folks on this forum that swear by them.... Justin

 

[bkbuilds]

Thanks guys.

I do have the Maverick thermometer. My temp probe was giving me readings all over the place and LLL turned out the probe was bad. I switched to using the food probe for temps.

I'll detail my setup in the roll call tomorrow.