New to smoking

[Seth Sheeder]

I have a question since I’m new to the smoking world. When smoking meat like ribs for instance do you use woods chips the whole time you cook them or do you use wood chips for just part of the time? I have a masterbuilt 30” electric smoker.

Thanks

 

[mowin]

I don't have a electric smoker, but when smoking ribs on my stick burner or pellet grill, there's smoke for the entire cook.

I use the 3-2-1 method for my SL cut. 3 hr smoke, 2 hrs foiled, 1 hr no foil.

Lots of guys never wrap there ribs.

I suggest you try a partial smoke and increase the smoke until you get the flavor profile you like.

 

[cansmoke]

I add wood chips up to 1/2 way through Anything more and the smoke is overpwoering. Vary it until you get the level of smoke you like.

 

[SmokinAl]

I have a stick burner so there is smoke the whole time.
But even before I got it, I would always let the smoke roll, unless the meat was in foil.

Al

 

[sauced]

I use wood the entire time, so there is always smoke. For an electric smoker, try smoking your ribs, using the wood chips, for the first 3 hours, then wrap them for the next 2 hours with no wood chips, then unwrapped for last hour with some bbq sauce added and no wood chips.

 

[McCann519]

When doing my first couple smokes with my MES 30, I used wood chips with the standard chip tray and loader tube. I ended up buying the AMNPS and have been much happier with the smoke. I find it is a less intense smoke with the AMNPS vs. the stock arrangement. Since the heating element is constantly cycling on and off it seemed to produce thicker smoke at different times.

The first time I did ribs, I did the 3-2-1 method and added about 2-3 loads of chips throughout the first 3 hours. The smoke flavour was pretty good and the ribs turned out pretty good. The next time I made ribs I followed the same basic timing, but this time using the AMNPS and smoking for the entire 3 hours. I found the flavour of the smoke was no more intense than the first batch but seemed to be sweeter, better etc.

It will likely take some experimentation to get it dialed in to your tastes.

 

[tc fish bum]

its all about the amount of smoke flavor you want. smoke is an ingredient, treat it like one. I just today made smoked lobster mac and cheese; one small smoke about 30 min is all i gave it. lobster and pasta really cant take a lot of smoke. brisket, shoulder, ribs, chicken much much more. the more you fire up your smoker the more your friends and family will let you know what they like. just start with lightly smoking and move up from there, and enjoy. they will!!

 

[daricksta]

I have a question since I’m new to the smoking world. When smoking meat like ribs for instance do you use woods chips the whole time you cook them or do you use wood chips for just part of the time? I have a masterbuilt 30” electric smoker.

Thanks

I started off using wood chips in my first few months with a MES 30 back in 2012. Then I found out that wood pellets were easier and superior to wood chips. I never liked that I had to refill the wood chip burner every 20-30 minutes. You can get up to 11 hours of smoke out of the AMNPS. Sometimes I've gotten more. The other thing I didn't like about wood chips is that I tended to have a heavy hand when filling the wood chip loader and so everything I smoked turned out harsh and bitter-tasting from over smoking. I've never had that problem using wood pellets.

The favorite wood pellet burner was the A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker. After I set myself up with those, I've rarely used wood chips in my smoker. I tend to use them in my Weber charcoal kettle grill, dropping them on top of the hot coals to impart some smoky wood flavorings to whatever's being grilled. But for hot or cold smoking wood pellets are all I use.