Cooking on the lower rack problems

[dlaslo]

I tried cooking short ribs on the lower rack with the grill. I was somewhat dismayed when I peeked after about an hour and the ribs were bubbling like there was a broiler above them. I guess the diffuser plate above the coals was broiling the ribs with radiation. Or maybe they were just too close to the coals. It is puzzling because I had a thermocouple on the grill (controlling to 225F) and also the bi-metal thermometer in the smoker wall was reading about 20 degrees lower than the digital. So both were OK.

I ended up aborting the setup and moved everything up top (see pic) Most of the ribs had a tough, chewy skin (uneatable) and I bet it was from radiation in the lower grill position.

Next time - I was thinking of putting a pan of water on top of the diffuser plate or maybe even on the lower grill. I have two grills - so I could put some water on the lower one and make it into a Weber-like smoker - cooking on the top. If I put water on the diffuser, I could cook on both locations.

Maybe that lower location is only for setting up the smoker as a charcoal grill?

Has anyone tried using a pan of water? I called Oklahoma Joe tech support and got a generic response to follow the manual. I can't find my manual.

[FishTalesNC]

This sounds very similar to this other cook where you mentioned cooking on the "lower rack" and the ribs looked like they were broiling. My recommendations would be pretty much the same as before - definitely try an entire cook with the cooking grate at the top as in this picture NOT in this "lower position". The cooking grate shouldn’t be any lower, other parts where you're supporting the grate lower are meant to support using the Bronco as a grill not as a smoker.

I personally don’t think you need to use a water pan, if smoking with the meat in the proper position I bet you won’t have that same chewy issue. Another option would be to spritz to soften up the bark, tho it’ll increase your cook time, and I’d still first try an entire smoke using the designed configuration as in your pic.

Here is a link to the Bronco manual online, page 20 has the supported cooking configurations.

Here is a link to a product walkthrough video by OKJ, at around the 5:30 mark he gets into the cooking configurations.

Hope this helps!

[meperea]

Agree with FishTalesNC. I've never used the lower rack for normal low & slow and have always had excellent results on the OK Joe Bronco.

[dlaslo]

This sounds very similar to this other cook where you mentioned cooking on the "lower rack" and the ribs looked like they were broiling. My recommendations would be pretty much the same as before - definitely try an entire cook with the cooking grate at the top as in this picture NOT in this "lower position". The cooking grate shouldn’t be any lower, other parts where you're supporting the grate lower are meant to support using the Bronco as a grill not as a smoker.

I personally don’t think you need to use a water pan, if smoking with the meat in the proper position I bet you won’t have that same chewy issue. Another option would be to spritz to soften up the bark, tho it’ll increase your cook time, and I’d still first try an entire smoke using the designed configuration as in your pic.

Here is a link to the Bronco manual online, page 20 has the supported cooking configurations.

Here is a link to a product walkthrough video by OKJ, at around the 5:30 mark he gets into the cooking configurations.

Hope this helps!

Yep...that was me.....I took your advice and cooked on the upper grill. The bark was ruined however. I had cooked ribs 100% on the top and they were probably the best smoked meat I've had.

My thoughts on using a water pan (like Weber Smokey Mountain bullet smokers) is that it will do two things...cut back on the direct radiation and also stabilize the temperature.

The radiation bothers me..... If I hang meat in the smoker, the bottom of pork ribs, a brisket, or even beef ribs will be down there at the lower grill level where I had "broiling"

[dlaslo]

Agree with FishTalesNC. I've never used the lower rack for normal low & slow and have always had excellent results on the OK Joe Bronco.

Did you "hang" anything or was it all on the grill?

[meperea]

I've only ever hung a whole chicken and it turned out fine. The ends of the legs were somewhat overdone. I think if I do that again i'll put a little foil on the end of each leg. That being said, I've also done a whole chicken on the rack in the top position and it was great. I'm just cooking for my wife and I so we don't need to cook a lot at one time. I've done ribs on the rack. I just cut them up and was able to fit three slabs on the rack.

[meperea]

If I really needed to cook at large quantity and the meat was the type that you might hang like ribs or a brisket I'd put the heat deflector in the lowest position. If I couldn't use the heat deflector and the cut was too big for the rack, then I'd probably consider cutting up the meat into a size that would work on the rack.

[meperea]

As far as using a water pan goes... I seem to recall trying that once. I've read that it can help keep the meat from drying out. In my experience it didn't seem necessary with respect to dryness, however it did seem to moderate the temperature swings when I opened the lid. Temps seemed to recover faster, so it's not a bad idea and probably worth a try.

[bosurinko]

I'm not an expert in that, my father always takes care of barbecue, but as I can understand you use a lower position for cooking that is why your meal is overcooked. I agree with everyone, you just need to set a high position and everything will be good. You know your situation remembers me of one situation with my friend. I was trying to cook cakes but couldn't do this properly. So my friend shares and articles with some reviews about the best immersion blender, and I bought a new one and my cakes were better and better. So maybe you also need a new grill?!