Smoke ring in an MES w mailbox, no curing salt!

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scrumtiousruckingBBQ

Newbie
Original poster
May 22, 2022
18
25
Alright everyone, I’ve done it. After months and months of tinkering, I’ve finally achieved a nice smoke ring on ribs in my MES with mailbox mod!!! And no, I didn’t use curing salts. I considering that cheating, don’t know why.

First off, I used the wet-dry method, but honestly I didn’t know about that method til halfway through this cook. Just kinda did it accidentally. I believe it helped.

The trick was putting white hot charcoal briquettes in a tray inside my mailbox with the AMNPS tray when the meat went on.

I found some Weber brand stainless steel grilling trays on Amazon that are narrow enough to slide into my mailbox. I lit a chimney of briquettes on my grill, and once they were white hot I put about 6 in the tray and slid it into the mailbox.

In the AMNPS tray I had hickory pellets and apple wood chips with the tray lit from both ends to get more smoke volume. The AMNPS went in after the briquettes so I had access to them at the front of the mailbox, figuring with it lit at both ends it would need to be refreshed part way through the cook.

I filled the MES’ stock water pan to the fill line before turning the smoker on, and let it go dry over the course of the cook.

Smoked the ribs at 225 for 6.5 hours and pulled them off at an internal temp of 198, then finished on a blazing hot grill to 203.

Results and a happy client in the pictures attached!
 

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Yep, you need combustion. It's the charcoal that gave you a smoke ring. Smoldering wood chips or pellets in an electrical smoker isn't enough to do it.
 
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Them ribs look fantastic. Would love to see pics of your mailbox set up using the charcoal and chips/pellets. Did the mailbox vent into the MES's chip loader hole?
 
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