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smoking First Try Smoking Ribs

Blister

Blister

Well, this is my very first attempt at smoking up some pork ribs. I inherited a smoker from my grandpa a little before he passed away, but this is the first time I've ever even considered taking it out and using it. It's not your usual smoker either. Grandpa, being the guy he was, felt the need to modify it. It's now a propane smoker with burner, pot, and cast iron pan. I had a bit of trouble figuring out all of his gadgets, then getting it started. Now I'm trying to control the heat because of the small gusts of wind.

This is the setup:


smoker001.jpg


Modified to fit the propane burner and iron pan:

smoker003.jpg


Smoking pot with chips then wrapped in tinfoil. The tinfoil wrap is my modification because I had chips where grandpa would use a small log. It's mainly because I needed something to hold the chips in the can while I was putting it on the burner. I left a small opening at the top of the tinfoil wrap to let the smoke out. I put in 1 cup of Hickory chips that were smoked for about an hour. I don't have many options for smoking wood around here. It was either hickory or mesquite. The ol' lady said hickory so that's what I got.

smoker002.jpg


I got everything prepped by 11:30 or so, and put the ribs and tray of water in the smoker about 12 pm. Here are the ribs with a jerk rub

smoker004.jpg


AS of right now the temp is holding at a solid 190*F. Hopefully some of the smoker guru's can jump in here and let me know if I'm doing anything wrong and steer me away from potential problems. If not, then I guess this thread will be used as a 'What the hell went wrong and what not to do' tutorial. Either way, I'm going to drink some beer and watch some more hockey tonight! Wings and Pens at the igloo 5pm Eastern time! Sure it's not my Canucks, but I'll still drink beer and watch the game. Hopefully with some finely smoked ribs!
 
Cool! 190's kinda low for ribs, but that's just a preference, it will just take you longer. I also use a lot more rub than you, I don't see any pink on mine ;)
 
What should the temperature be at? I just opened the chimney all the way and the temp jumped to 200*F. The burner is set to "med" (that's all it reads).

I had no idea how much rub to put on them. They could probably use some more :). That's tip #1 on the learning curve.
 
I cook mine at around 225F for the first 3 hours or so. 190F isn't bad, it will just take you 6-7 hours to cook them at that temp.
 
Alright, I'll see what I can do to get the temps up a bit. I had no problem holding it at 225* last night, but I can't seem to get it to do it today. Other than putting the chips in there, I'm not sure what changed.
 
Ok, I knew it was going to take a bit for me to get this figured out. I took out the cast iron frying pan and substitued a veggie grill plate that has a bunch of holes in it. I then put on what I can only guess is a hood to allow more heat to be channeled into the smoker. The temps instantly jumped to 250 with the burner on 'low' There was smoke coming out of everywhere!

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I've since removed the 'stove pipe' over the burner and am allowing air to get in between the hood and the smoker. I opened a vent and the chimney cover and the temps have dropped to 240*F. What an adventure! :lol: I'm going to keep my eye on it and see how it goes.

Do I add more chips as this goes on, or will the 1 cup I put in there be enough to do the job?
 
JayT said:
Just be careful, too low is ok too high is no good...
Click to expand...

actually too low is not good either... if meat is held too long at too long of temps, you can get some serious food poisoning..

225 is ideal, anything up to 260*F is fine..

you might want to put a oven thermometer on the grates because where your thermometer is positioned, you are not getting a true temperature reading... generally if you are reading 225 at the top of the smoker, your grate level temps are going to be lower..heat rises

i would wrap your next wood chips in a foil pack... put a couple of holes on both ends, and let it smoke away
 
i also have more mods for your smoker if you want to do them...it will make it more effecient and keep your temps more steady... it will also eliminate hot spots that your smoker has
 
Ok, I'm going to run out and get a grate thermometer. I was thinking about getting one of the remote sensor ones so I don't have to open the lid to see what it's doing. I'll post back in about 20. Thanks for the help all.
 
oK, I've got the grill thermometer on the grate and I'm waiting for it to heat up.

I am no longer seeing smoke. Do I need to add more chips or am I still good? I don't want to over do it, but I simply don't have a clue :think:. I will have some beer though. I've been doing too much thinking and not enough drinking :beer:
 
Heh, I'm curious what that 'ol CI pan is. Be nice if it was a Griswold or Wagner...they're awesome and worth money in good condition.

Rust and blackened is fine adn can be cleaned up, pitted isn't except as a user. :)
 
Ok, the grate thermometer is reading a sold 240*F.


I'm not sure what the CI pan is. Other than rust, all it has on the bottom is 8" Skillet and 2. Hopefully the pic works

castironpan.jpg


Ok it did. Well, no Rusty Griswald for me :lol:
 
Blister said:
oK, I've got the grill thermometer on the grate and I'm waiting for it to heat up.

I am no longer seeing smoke. Do I need to add more chips or am I still good? I don't want to over do it, but I simply don't have a clue :think:. I will have some beer though. I've been doing too much thinking and not enough drinking :beer:
Click to expand...

there is an old saying..if you can smell smoke then its still smoking even though you cant see it..... if i am doing ribs on a propane smoker, i add chips for about 3 hours... generally i use chunks now though

best thing you can do is, relax have a beer...if it feels like you want to add some more wood chips/chunks then add more... after everything is finished and you are eating, you will know what you can do to improve it... again crack open another beer, watch your temps, then crack another beer..lol

heres a whole thread on modding your smoker
 
Thanks BAM!

13 pages of smoker modding is going to keep me going for a bit. Grandpa would shit himself if he knew what all the possibilities were! He LOVED to mod things. "It's not broke? Oh well I can still fix it!" I wish I had him over to show me how he smoked fish before he passed on. He showed me once, but that was sooooo long ago now.

As for the smoker the temps are holding at 230-240*F at the grate ;) and things are smelling AWESOME! I did add some more soaked chips, but this time I used a Mr. Bar B Q Smoker Box to hold the chips. I did find some chunks at the grocery store today, but that's a bit late. Anywho, I haven't got a clue as to when things started cooking, but I read in a previous thread that you like to wait until the meat pulls back about a 1/4" from the bone before you wrap it. I'm going to use that method today.

And yes, I'm having another beer. I'm going to take your advice and relax. Well that and the game is on in 8 minutes :)

Thanks to everyone for your help so far! :cheers:


Neil


P.S. With all the smoke that's going on, I smell friggen DELICIOUS! Of course the ol' lady's gonna make me shower before bed though :(
 
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