We were on vacation last week so I didn't get a chance to follow up.
To refresh your memory, I'm the guy that made 3 spatchcock chickens on Saturday July 2nd (amazing results!!!), then followed up with the 4th party with smoking 6 slabs of Baby Back ribs and 10 pounds of chicken wings.
I'll tell you what. There's 2 things I regret not doing.
#1 - buying a nice smoker a lot sooner ( I have the propane Master built)
#2 - joining this forum!!! You guys really gave me some good advice - and I read a lot of posts before starting.
Anyway, I dry rubbed the ribs, Set the smoker to 250 max, and smoked them for 3 hours.
Next, I didn't wrap the ribs, I put them in aluminum foil trays, 8 ounces of apple juice in the tray, and sealed the trays with aluminum foil.
Question #1 - do you think it's different sealing in a tray verses wrapping them individually in foil?
I left them in the foil for only 1 hour - don't ask me why except I seem to remember it was getting late.
When I put them in the foil, I put the chicken wings in the smoker.
After the hour, I removed ribs from the foil and put back on in the smoker for probably another hour.
I shut off the smoker, left the ribs in to stay warm, and took all the wings out and put them on the grill - I put bbq sauce on the wings.
Well, this is the best part of all, and I know all of you agree with me on this point.
When I started out, I was worried that I had way too much food for the number of people.
As we were finishing dinner, I looked at the table where all the food was - no wings left, and 2 rib bones. I couldn't believe they ate everything.
Ok, so here's another question. Although everyone ate everything and was looking for more, I tend to be my biggest critic. The wings were absolutely done perfectly. But the ribs? Ugh. Again, I'm looking for that fall off the bone perfection that seems to elude me. As best I can describe it, here's what they were like: They had what people call 'bark', the smoke ring was deep, they were very tasty, but the two things I noticed - they were just a little bit dry, and the bone tips were not sticking out of the meat about a thumbnail like I want to see. In many of the ribs, although they were completely cooked, the meat was in line with the edge of the bones and was not pulled back.
That's what I want to see. I want to pull them out of the smoker and see the bone tips sticking out, and the meat juicy. :)
My guess is, I cooked them too long in the open smoke (3 hours), and I didn't cook them long enough in the foil (1 hour).
Any thoughts?
And thanks again for all your help. I know I don't have to say that, but I'm just so happy to be moving into this smoking arena. I was so tired of just cooking on the grill for every event. Smoking is truly the next level up.
Wayne
To refresh your memory, I'm the guy that made 3 spatchcock chickens on Saturday July 2nd (amazing results!!!), then followed up with the 4th party with smoking 6 slabs of Baby Back ribs and 10 pounds of chicken wings.
I'll tell you what. There's 2 things I regret not doing.
#1 - buying a nice smoker a lot sooner ( I have the propane Master built)
#2 - joining this forum!!! You guys really gave me some good advice - and I read a lot of posts before starting.
Anyway, I dry rubbed the ribs, Set the smoker to 250 max, and smoked them for 3 hours.
Next, I didn't wrap the ribs, I put them in aluminum foil trays, 8 ounces of apple juice in the tray, and sealed the trays with aluminum foil.
Question #1 - do you think it's different sealing in a tray verses wrapping them individually in foil?
I left them in the foil for only 1 hour - don't ask me why except I seem to remember it was getting late.
When I put them in the foil, I put the chicken wings in the smoker.
After the hour, I removed ribs from the foil and put back on in the smoker for probably another hour.
I shut off the smoker, left the ribs in to stay warm, and took all the wings out and put them on the grill - I put bbq sauce on the wings.
Well, this is the best part of all, and I know all of you agree with me on this point.
When I started out, I was worried that I had way too much food for the number of people.
As we were finishing dinner, I looked at the table where all the food was - no wings left, and 2 rib bones. I couldn't believe they ate everything.
Ok, so here's another question. Although everyone ate everything and was looking for more, I tend to be my biggest critic. The wings were absolutely done perfectly. But the ribs? Ugh. Again, I'm looking for that fall off the bone perfection that seems to elude me. As best I can describe it, here's what they were like: They had what people call 'bark', the smoke ring was deep, they were very tasty, but the two things I noticed - they were just a little bit dry, and the bone tips were not sticking out of the meat about a thumbnail like I want to see. In many of the ribs, although they were completely cooked, the meat was in line with the edge of the bones and was not pulled back.
That's what I want to see. I want to pull them out of the smoker and see the bone tips sticking out, and the meat juicy. :)
My guess is, I cooked them too long in the open smoke (3 hours), and I didn't cook them long enough in the foil (1 hour).
Any thoughts?
And thanks again for all your help. I know I don't have to say that, but I'm just so happy to be moving into this smoking arena. I was so tired of just cooking on the grill for every event. Smoking is truly the next level up.
Wayne
