- May 22, 2022
- 25
- 29
Hi all,
Checking in from beautiful Seminole, FL. Moved down here with the military last year, and that's part of my serendipitous foray into smoking meat!
I'm originally from Massachusetts, and growing up there meant that "BBQ" was burgers and dogs, steaks, and grilled seafood. The Army has had me live in Alabama a few times, and while I always enjoyed eating barbecue I never thought seriously about making it myself. When I lived in CA, an Army buddy of mine had me over to drink beer and smoke ribs with him on his stick-burner, and I was absolutely ASTOUNDED by how delicious it was. However, I walked away thinking "no way I'm spending a bunch of money on a smoker and meat and then spending hours ruining good food doing something I don't know how to do."
Well, that all changed a month ago when a neighbor set a smoker on the curb by his house with a sign on it that said "free! it works!" Encouraged by the empty Big Green Egg box he'd also set on the curb, I figured maybe it did actually work and was worth a shot. It's free, why not? So I brought home what appears to be a 7ish-year-old Master Built 30" electric smoker, bought two racks of ribs from Publix, and started reading. I latched onto Meathead at amazingribs.com (I know he is a controversial figure, whatever), and decided to follow his recipe for my first racks of ribs. Dry-brined in kosher salt, rubbed with (probably not enough) Memphis Dust, and set in the smoker at 225 for 6ish hours. Finished with a KC style homemade sauce and carmelized on the gas grill. Here were the results:
Verdict: nice bark, very very tasty, pretty moist, no smoke ring to speak of, no smoke flavor to speak of. I was happy, and my customers were happy. Overall success.
After poking around, I realized I was getting nowhere near as much smoke as I should have from the little wood-chip tray in the smoker, despite working very hard the whole cook to keep it going. So I bought myself a pellet tray and gave that a shot. Once again I did two racks of grocery-store baby backs, dry-brined the night before, and sprinkled with Memphis Dust before going on the smoke. I put the pellet tray in the bottom of the smoker and did some spritzing on the ribs starting at 90 minutes and every 30 there-after. I decided before this cook that I wanted to try the 3-2-1 method I always read about. I figured I'd try it on one rack and do the other one like I'd done the first and compare. Neither rack ended up with decent bark on it, though the unwrapped one was slightly better. Both were still very tasty and moist enough. Here they are:
Once again, neither really had a good smoke ring or smokey taste. I had to mess with the pellet tray quite a bit throughout the cook, which i think led to me having the door open a lot. The ribs were not as tender as I'd have hoped, and I believe they were undercooked. With hindsight they needed a little more time and definitely needed the door closed more.
Here is a picture I stumbled upon while scrolling through my photos for this post. This is what we like to call "peak Florida:"
So after a bit more reading I decided I was going to modify my smoker. I did the tried and true mailbox-mod and holy hell did it make a difference. Here's a picture of the modification:
Pellet tray goes in the mailbox, chimney action creates good airflow that keeps the pellets smoking consistently for 12 hours, and whenever I need to mess with the pellets I don't need to mess with the main door to the smoker. Marvelous. For the third cook, I didn't change much. I planned to once again 3-2-1 one of the racks and just smoke and spritz straight through for the other rack. Here were the results:
Gorgeous bark, nice smokey taste, and finally a teensy tiny smoke ring. 2nd best ribs I've ever had in my life (my Army buddy's mentioned above are still a stand-out #1). Truly proud of that cook and can't wait to smoke some more ribs this weekend. But first, I'm gonna smoke my first pork butt!
Here she is, all trimmed up and dry-brining in my fridge as we speak:
Sorry to write a whole book. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the journey. And if you have any tips from what I've written, I'm all ears!
Will
*a note on my username: My other true passion in life is playing and watching rugby. I hope to parlay these two hobbies by bringing delicious smoked meats to the infamous "drink-up" after matches with my local club. Go Pelicans!
Checking in from beautiful Seminole, FL. Moved down here with the military last year, and that's part of my serendipitous foray into smoking meat!
I'm originally from Massachusetts, and growing up there meant that "BBQ" was burgers and dogs, steaks, and grilled seafood. The Army has had me live in Alabama a few times, and while I always enjoyed eating barbecue I never thought seriously about making it myself. When I lived in CA, an Army buddy of mine had me over to drink beer and smoke ribs with him on his stick-burner, and I was absolutely ASTOUNDED by how delicious it was. However, I walked away thinking "no way I'm spending a bunch of money on a smoker and meat and then spending hours ruining good food doing something I don't know how to do."
Well, that all changed a month ago when a neighbor set a smoker on the curb by his house with a sign on it that said "free! it works!" Encouraged by the empty Big Green Egg box he'd also set on the curb, I figured maybe it did actually work and was worth a shot. It's free, why not? So I brought home what appears to be a 7ish-year-old Master Built 30" electric smoker, bought two racks of ribs from Publix, and started reading. I latched onto Meathead at amazingribs.com (I know he is a controversial figure, whatever), and decided to follow his recipe for my first racks of ribs. Dry-brined in kosher salt, rubbed with (probably not enough) Memphis Dust, and set in the smoker at 225 for 6ish hours. Finished with a KC style homemade sauce and carmelized on the gas grill. Here were the results:
Verdict: nice bark, very very tasty, pretty moist, no smoke ring to speak of, no smoke flavor to speak of. I was happy, and my customers were happy. Overall success.
After poking around, I realized I was getting nowhere near as much smoke as I should have from the little wood-chip tray in the smoker, despite working very hard the whole cook to keep it going. So I bought myself a pellet tray and gave that a shot. Once again I did two racks of grocery-store baby backs, dry-brined the night before, and sprinkled with Memphis Dust before going on the smoke. I put the pellet tray in the bottom of the smoker and did some spritzing on the ribs starting at 90 minutes and every 30 there-after. I decided before this cook that I wanted to try the 3-2-1 method I always read about. I figured I'd try it on one rack and do the other one like I'd done the first and compare. Neither rack ended up with decent bark on it, though the unwrapped one was slightly better. Both were still very tasty and moist enough. Here they are:
Once again, neither really had a good smoke ring or smokey taste. I had to mess with the pellet tray quite a bit throughout the cook, which i think led to me having the door open a lot. The ribs were not as tender as I'd have hoped, and I believe they were undercooked. With hindsight they needed a little more time and definitely needed the door closed more.
Here is a picture I stumbled upon while scrolling through my photos for this post. This is what we like to call "peak Florida:"
So after a bit more reading I decided I was going to modify my smoker. I did the tried and true mailbox-mod and holy hell did it make a difference. Here's a picture of the modification:
Pellet tray goes in the mailbox, chimney action creates good airflow that keeps the pellets smoking consistently for 12 hours, and whenever I need to mess with the pellets I don't need to mess with the main door to the smoker. Marvelous. For the third cook, I didn't change much. I planned to once again 3-2-1 one of the racks and just smoke and spritz straight through for the other rack. Here were the results:
Gorgeous bark, nice smokey taste, and finally a teensy tiny smoke ring. 2nd best ribs I've ever had in my life (my Army buddy's mentioned above are still a stand-out #1). Truly proud of that cook and can't wait to smoke some more ribs this weekend. But first, I'm gonna smoke my first pork butt!
Here she is, all trimmed up and dry-brining in my fridge as we speak:
Sorry to write a whole book. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the journey. And if you have any tips from what I've written, I'm all ears!
Will
*a note on my username: My other true passion in life is playing and watching rugby. I hope to parlay these two hobbies by bringing delicious smoked meats to the infamous "drink-up" after matches with my local club. Go Pelicans!
I’ll keep an eye out for your old Rugby Club, I used to be a Prop at the University of Iowa back in the 90s. I’ve been wanting to introduce my oldest to it, with limited free time I’ll have to prioritize it now that you remind me
