Greetings from Chicago!

[eman]

Thanks for all the great info so far!  I am pretty sure I am cooking a chicken and some ribs next weekend.  Do you guy "par boil" the ribs before or just cook them in the smoker?  I usually boil them before grilling as it make them easily more fall off the bone.

I did get the smoker seasoned last weekend (and actually baked some cookies in it for the kids since I forgot the chips to actually smoke anything.....) so it is ready to rock and roll!

No need to boil any meat if you are going to do the low and slow. Time and temp makes it tender.( we consider boiling to be the 8th deadly sin).

Former scoutmaster here also,  Did some DO cooking but mostly open pit here. BTW, welcome to the family!!!

 

[venture]

You can boil the ribs all you want.  Just don't call it Q if you do that! I can't imagine why anyway?  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[dutchovenchef]

OK, so boiling them is out! (I don't want to commit a deadly sin and get booted out of SMF already!!)

So, here's the plan then: I am planning on using apple wood for the smoke and I'll use my own concoction for BBQ sauce (kicked up Sweet Baby Ray's).  I'll let the ribs get about 3/4 done before adding the sauce and we'll see what happens!

I'm guessing they'll take 2 1/2 to 3 hours or so (but I have to read up on temperature and timing still....)

Thanks again for the good advice!

 

[venture]

If you are smoking those ribs at 220 to 250, 5 to 6 hours would be closer.  For a guy who used to boil his ribs, you might like the 3-2-1 method.  Three hours directly on the grate.  Two hours tightly foiled with possibly a LITTLE liquid in the foil.  One hour back on the grate without foil to firm them back up.  During the final hour you can sauce if desired. After trying the 3-2-1, many modify it a bit to suit their taste.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[dutchovenchef]

Thanks for the ideas Merv.  I just read the 3-2-1 link from a posting in the ribs forum.  I really underestimated the time frame needed to do them right!

I'll watch the video tonight when I'm at home as it won't open here at work......

 

[ben franklin]

You got great advice from Venture. I had been trying to cook decent ribs (in my estimation) by other methods for years. Par-boiling and grilling. Straight up low heat grilling. Oven recipes. Slow cooker recipes. Nothing matched the stuff we pulled out of the pits in the ground back in North Carolina.

Then I bought my first MES and tried Jeff's 3-2-1 method. MAGIC!!!  For my own taste, I find most of the folks I serve prefer them a little closer to "fall off the bone" -- which is what they are when you pull them out of the foil -- so I only "firm them up" for about 20 - 30 minutes. You will of course need to experiment to find your own preferences. But the only thing I can tell you for sure is that you are going to gain a lot of weight and make a lot of new friends in the campground on your way to Nirvana!

 

[alelover]

I found that 2.5 - 1.5 - 1 works for me.

 

[dutchovenchef]

OK, I am doing the ribs and a beer can chicken Saturday,  I am still picking a rub that I want to try on each of them.  I'll (hopefully) post how it went Sunday when I get home!

 

[dutchovenchef]

Well, everything went great!  Except one tiny little detail......we forgot to pack the camera and I only took pictures with my new smartphone that I am having some issues getting the pictures off of.

Here's a Cliff Notes version of the process:

Friday night I applied a smokehouse rub and wrapped the ribs in plastic to sit in the refrigerator overnight.  Saturday morning I unwrapped them and got them into the smoker around 10:30.  The smoker was preheated to 220 and I put the ribs in on two rib racks and one flat grate. (12 half slabs in total).  I used apple wood for the smoke.  After about a half hour the temp only got back up to 180 so I bumped the dial up a little and checked again in about 45 minutes and it was 280 in the smoker. that became the "battle" of the day regulating the temperature!  I sprayed them with an apple juice/water combo after about 90 minutes.  After about 2 1/2 hours, I wrapped the ribs in foil and cooked them for about 2 hours. After that I took them out of the foil and they were about 140 degrees.  So, I applied my favorite sauce to them and put them back in for another hour until they hit 160 degrees and were ready to go!

http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll12/MustardMan55/?action=view&current=ribs1.jpg     http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll12/MustardMan55/?action=view&current=ribs2-1.jpg     http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll12/MustardMan55/?action=view&current=ribbones.jpg

Those are the pics from the finished product in the smoker, in the pan on the table and also how clean the bones were when they were finished being devoured!

Now, I have a question.  When the smoke was flowing very nicely out of the smoker, it was also escaping through the edges of the door (lots of it!!) so I trust that the heat was also escaping during the cooking process!  Is there a way to gasket the door or something like that to keep the smoke (and heat) in the smoker where it belongs??  Also, we like more sauce on the ribs than the amount I was able to put on in one application (I usually put 3 or 4 layers on them when grilling them but the smoker would never get hot enough to cook them if I keep opening the door to add sauce.)

Thanks,

Don