First Cook on the Marshall

[Dewesq55]

Made 2 racks of chuck ribs. Dry brine, Adam Pretty Lang binding liquid, modified BBBR, topped with extra black pepper. Smoked with Jealous Devil lump and oak chunks.

The smoker worked great. It's not as easy to control the temperature with the damper as they make it seem in the promotional videos + out will take some practice and tinkering, but all in all out want too bad. Cooked mostly between 250° and 275°F.

The ribs were prime from Creekstone Farms. I had them in the upright freezer for more than 5 years in the original cryovac packaging and they were still perfect.

[LA Pork Butt]

Your look like you can cook for a crowd, and judging from your results they will enjoy nit!

[Dewesq55]

Yeah, it's a huge smoker with tons of capacity. It's really too much for me, but I've always wanted one, and at that price, I couldn't resist. It was kind of a bucket list purchase.

[LA Pork Butt]

Dewesq55 Yep! Back in the early days of the give away the Good One was available I would say to myself that would be my choice. So, I get it.

[Donw]

Nice job! And they must have tasted additionally special knowing how little you paid for them compared to buying them today. 🙂

(I have some in the freezers that are about that old too.)

[Dewesq55]

In fact, I paid almost nothing for them. Panhead John did. I bought them with the gift card he gave me as a Secret Santa gift in 2021.

[Andrrr]

The way time exposes those bones, beef ribs are probably the most visually appealing cuts of meat to smoke to me.
Nicely done.

[Dewesq55]

Thanks. I'm happy with the result.

[Steve B]

Perfect. Just Perfect. 👌

[LegoMySearwood]

Looks so good.

[fzxdoc]

You did great! I see you didn't have much of a learning curve with your new-to-you toy.

Kathryn

[Dewesq55]

Kathryn: There's a bit of a learning curve with regard to temperature management, but it's pretty straight forward. I have some ideas for keeping it steadier the next time, so we'll see. As it was, it took a bit of periodic fiddling with the damper handle to keep it in the range I wanted for the cook.

[Jessterr]

Awesome looking ribs! And congrats on the recent cooker acquisition. I have the Open Range model, smaller of course but the same general concept. From the photos it looks like you started fires in three places across the charcoal bed, which is what most available info on these cookers says to do and is what I did as well in my first attempts using the OR. Problem is, once the fire gets going you’ll have to use the damper to keep the temperature down and will likely end up having to keep it almost completely closed. My technique now is to just start a single small fire in the center of the bed and strive to cook with the damper completely open, or as close to open as possible. As the cook progresses, temperatures will rise and the damper will likely need to be partially closed, but the real beauty of this thing is that the temperature drop by tweaking the damper is almost immediate and very controllable.

[Dewesq55]

Jessterr - did you ever experiment with using the intake vent spinners on the firebox to fine tune the temperature in the cooking chamber? That's my idea to try for the next cook.

[Jessterr]

Dewesq55 - Yeah, definitely. I first try to control temps by adjusting the spinners only, with the damper completely open. I’ll typically start with the dampers open 2 turns, then if necessary, close them down a half turn at a time, generally each by the same amount top and bottom. If it gets to the point that each spinner is open by only about a half to one full turn and still need to lower temp, then will start adjusting the damper. Starting with a single small fire is key.

[Huskee]

This makes me smile.

[jfmorris]

Dewesq55 congrats on the first cook on your newly acquired smoker!

From my many years with an offset here, I found mine liked to run in the 250-275 range. Trying to get it to cook at 225 was an exercise in frustration and constant tinkering. Once I realized it liked to run at 275, life became much easier.

I also tended to use a bed of charcoal and add wood chunks or small mini splits to the firebox on top of the charcoal bed, but would light things at one end, letting it burn across the firebox, then I would rake the coals to that end, add more charcoal and wood, and let it burn back the other way. So, somewhat "minion" style, but I avoided lighting the entire charcoal bed at once, as otherwise I had to come back and refuel much sooner - and deal with overshooting the desired temperature due to too big a fire. If I tried to tamp down the fire by closing vents, invariably if using all wood, it would lead to sooty smoke, and if using charcoal + wood chunks, it would snuff the fire too much.

I would try Jessterr 's suggestion and light in just one place, and see if that makes a difference. That said, the fun of a new cooker is figuring out the best way to use it, so YOU do YOU!

[HawkerXP]

Loooks grate! Congrats!