This time I'm using a modified aluminum drip pan. The photos describe pretty well what I did, and the box is full of Apple wood chunks. Finished product is maybe 8" by 6". Those are SRF Kurobuta ribs. They are nicely trimmed, but as SRF advises, a bit small. Others have said that they have received racks that aren't very meaty, but these are pretty decent, with a nice spread between the bones. Oh yeah, it's sunny, but cold! About 32*, thank goodness the air is really still.
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Smells like smoldering apple wood. We'll see how the box holds up. -
Mosca, Tom I often use little Bread Pans for my Apple Wood Chunks! I wrap the pan and wood with foil and poke holes in the foil with a pencil? Seems to work for me! Bought the pans at a thrift store! 💰 Shows me for the TIGHT WAD I AM! Eat Well and Prosper! From Fargo ND, DanComment
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Dan, that's what I wanted to use! But I had these here. CeramicChef says to poke the holes in the bottom, though, so they get drawn down into the fire and all the bad VOCs burn off, leaving the thin blue smoke. So I put my pan in holes down. I had tried it once before using aluminum foil, but the foil disintegrated in the fire. (The ribs were outstanding though.) This experiment is to see if the drip pan holds up better. The smoke is beautiful. You can barely see it, but it is there.Comment
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Mosca thanks for the update. I am hoping Santa brings me a 1 quart cast iron Duch oven. If he does I will need to get my courage up to drill holes in the bottom. I may try cooking in it before I drill the holes. I am getting pretty good results on short cooks (1-2 hours) with my Brinkman cast iron smoker box covering the top with foil and punching some holes. It seems to work better with small chuncks rather than chips.Comment
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Over 4 hours, the wood inside the box turned into charcoal. At the four hour mark I was having trouble maintaining a steady burn because all the lit coal was under the box, so I removed it and dumped it in the fire, and finished the cook.
This works. However, depending on how many long burns you do, it is probably more cost effective to find an old cast iron pot at a flea market, or yard sale, etc. One pan is only a buck or two, but 30 of them makes using the cast iron the better choice.Comment
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@ Mosca help me understand. Did you light the coals in the center and put the makeshift smoker pot on top? If so, does that mean when you had trouble maintaining the temp the coals under the smoker pot went out, and you didn't have any burning on the sides of the smoker pot? Your pan to make the smoker pot really looks large. I assume it was folded in half? How large was it folded? It looks like it would have almost covered the entire fire box. -
That is pretty much correct. The pan folded in half was about 6 inches by 8 inches. A different cook might have burned a different way. I don't usually pay attention to arranging the coals on a cook unless it is brisket or pork butt, which go all day. I would probably have had better results had I done so.
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Oh: the ribs. Two racks were excellent, and two were skimpy. I really didn't get anything extra from it being Kurobuta, they tasted the same as the ribs I get from the local grocery, which are pretty good.
Bottom line, I would not recommend buying ribs sight unseen.Comment
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