.About 18 months ago I quit putting water in my water pan in my MES40 smoker. I just wrap it with foil now. I blame Al and Bear for my conversion from difficult to easy. I also used to do 3:2:1 ribs - but no longer - too much of a hassle.
Today's ribs are 5-0-0. They were a little thinner than I would have liked, which is why they got done in 5 hours, but there was a home football game at Mizzou and I waited too long to shop for St. Louis Style pork ribs.
My new method for ribs is as follows:
Note position of small drip pan over the AMZNPS to keep the drippings from putting out the pellets
That's not water in the foil wrapped water pan - that is fat drippings
As you can see (below) with no water in the water pan, and no wrapping the ribs in foil and later unwrapping the ribs for the last hour in the smoker, I still get excellent bark, amazing flavor, fall off the bone ribs and most importantly, a happy wife.
Today's ribs are 5-0-0. They were a little thinner than I would have liked, which is why they got done in 5 hours, but there was a home football game at Mizzou and I waited too long to shop for St. Louis Style pork ribs.
My new method for ribs is as follows:
- About 2 or 3 hours before I put the meat on the smoker I rinse the ribs with cool water after removing from the package.
- Blot dry with paper towels
- trim loose chunks but I do not trim off the membrane
- Brush on a light coat of yellow mustard
- Season with salt pepper and garlic powder
- Wrap and set them in the fridge until I am ready to smoke them
- Warm up smoker to 225F and start the AMZNPS at the same time - I used Pitmaster Choice today
- Place the ribs in the smoker and cook them until the thickest meat is 205F for fall off the bone ribs - which my wife demands
Note position of small drip pan over the AMZNPS to keep the drippings from putting out the pellets
That's not water in the foil wrapped water pan - that is fat drippings
As you can see (below) with no water in the water pan, and no wrapping the ribs in foil and later unwrapping the ribs for the last hour in the smoker, I still get excellent bark, amazing flavor, fall off the bone ribs and most importantly, a happy wife.
