Hey guys, have some questions for you. This should maybe go in two separate threads, but figured I'd ask both sets of questions here.
Background: Cooked St. Louis ribs on my 22.5 WSM for the 5th time ever on Father's day. Started late (1pm) because I had to take my mom to the airport. Wife was ok with eating late, just means more beers in between. Used the fuse method versus Soo's Donut for the first time to be more economical with charcoal and keep temp down as recommended here. Here were my problems, let me know what your thoughts are on what I could have done better.
1. Took an hour to get to an acceptable temp after putting in the charcoal, don't remember that happening using the Soo's Donut method. Used 1/4 chimney full of charcoal because of the fuse method for 22.5" WSM. Is this normal? Also, is there a feasible way to get clean blue smoke on a bullet smoker? I used chunks to have the meat smolder versus chips. Does the picture below look ok for smoke quality? Don't worry about the garden hose and extension cord, was doing yard work to stay productive...cleaned that up later.
2. Vastly different temperature gradients between the two racks. I had 3 St. Louis cuts on the top rack, and the rib tips on the bottom rack. Maverick showed 40-60 degree difference most of the cook. I filled up the water pan 1/2 full with boiling water before I started. It was a really hot day, so maybe the sun was super heating the top and there wasn't much heat coming from the bottom. No idea. By the way, can't make that picture right side up when I uploaded it. I put the rib tibs on the bottom figuring they would finish before the 3 St. Louis cut on the top rack. Expected a difference in temperature gradient between the two racks but not that much.
3. Meat took forever. Never pulled off the bone. Never passed the bend test. Only 1 crack when I tried the bend test, I read that you should look for more cracks. I checked the meat at 7pm to see how they were, then checked every 30-45 minutes until finally at 10pm my wife and I just pulled them off and sauced them. After all we had to work the next day. Even after all that, meat was still under cooked in my opinion. My wife and I want ribs to be clean off the bone, but I know competition ribs you need to have some pull to them. These still had a lot of "stuff" on the bones when eating. Is this the desirable way to cook ribs is to have a little meat and connective tissue on there? Can you just have some tough ribs that take forever to cook? I know I didn't do the best of jobs cutting the ribs. I left some of the tips with cartilage on there, chalk it up to a crappy knife. I also didn't crutch the ribs because I wanted some hard bark on there. If you crutch the ribs, is there a way to harden up the bark again?
At the end of the day, we sauced the ribs and seared them and the ribs tasted great. But I didn't want all the headaches this time. Granted we had some beers to hold ourselves over for the super long cook time that never seemed to get there, but leftovers the next day were great after we put them in the oven for an hour at 250.
Thanks guys, your help is much appreciated.
Background: Cooked St. Louis ribs on my 22.5 WSM for the 5th time ever on Father's day. Started late (1pm) because I had to take my mom to the airport. Wife was ok with eating late, just means more beers in between. Used the fuse method versus Soo's Donut for the first time to be more economical with charcoal and keep temp down as recommended here. Here were my problems, let me know what your thoughts are on what I could have done better.
1. Took an hour to get to an acceptable temp after putting in the charcoal, don't remember that happening using the Soo's Donut method. Used 1/4 chimney full of charcoal because of the fuse method for 22.5" WSM. Is this normal? Also, is there a feasible way to get clean blue smoke on a bullet smoker? I used chunks to have the meat smolder versus chips. Does the picture below look ok for smoke quality? Don't worry about the garden hose and extension cord, was doing yard work to stay productive...cleaned that up later.
2. Vastly different temperature gradients between the two racks. I had 3 St. Louis cuts on the top rack, and the rib tips on the bottom rack. Maverick showed 40-60 degree difference most of the cook. I filled up the water pan 1/2 full with boiling water before I started. It was a really hot day, so maybe the sun was super heating the top and there wasn't much heat coming from the bottom. No idea. By the way, can't make that picture right side up when I uploaded it. I put the rib tibs on the bottom figuring they would finish before the 3 St. Louis cut on the top rack. Expected a difference in temperature gradient between the two racks but not that much.
3. Meat took forever. Never pulled off the bone. Never passed the bend test. Only 1 crack when I tried the bend test, I read that you should look for more cracks. I checked the meat at 7pm to see how they were, then checked every 30-45 minutes until finally at 10pm my wife and I just pulled them off and sauced them. After all we had to work the next day. Even after all that, meat was still under cooked in my opinion. My wife and I want ribs to be clean off the bone, but I know competition ribs you need to have some pull to them. These still had a lot of "stuff" on the bones when eating. Is this the desirable way to cook ribs is to have a little meat and connective tissue on there? Can you just have some tough ribs that take forever to cook? I know I didn't do the best of jobs cutting the ribs. I left some of the tips with cartilage on there, chalk it up to a crappy knife. I also didn't crutch the ribs because I wanted some hard bark on there. If you crutch the ribs, is there a way to harden up the bark again?
At the end of the day, we sauced the ribs and seared them and the ribs tasted great. But I didn't want all the headaches this time. Granted we had some beers to hold ourselves over for the super long cook time that never seemed to get there, but leftovers the next day were great after we put them in the oven for an hour at 250.
Thanks guys, your help is much appreciated.
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