Someone in my neighborhood recently put an old Traeger out on the street. I have always wanted to try out a pellet smoker, so I cleaned it out, unjammed the auger, and replaced the controller. Everything works great now. However, my first cook was a brisket and I was really unhappy with the result. Dried out and bad taste. I’m sure it was user error, so I figured I would dial back my ambitions a bit and post a question to the community.
What is a bulletproof method for cooking ribs on a small pellet smoker? I use the standard ribs preparation with Memphis Dust and generally use St. Louis style ribs. But always on an pit barrel (drum) smoker.
That is a great find and worthy of refurbishing. Like my old BBQ 075 it's made of nice rolled steel instead of stamped.
I use my pellet pooper like any other grill as far as temps are concerned. I used to mess around with water pans, crutching, injecting and such, but have really boiled it down to selecting quality, well-marbled meat and do L&S at 250-275 with a rub of choice. I think you're just going to have to use it to find it's idiosyncrasies.
Not sure about that Traeger, but I have cooked on way to many cookers over the years and IMO pellet cooked ribs are really hard to beat! Personally, I cook them (St. Louis) at 225° for about 7ish hours and I do not wrap. I start spritzing at the 2.5 hour mark and spritz every 45 mins til about the 6 hour mark. At that point I typically glaze and let things tighten up the last hour or so. Sooooo good!
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Grilla Grills Pellet Pizza Oven
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks Square DOT
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Joule Turbo Sous Vide Circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
As far as temps go, I'm with CaptainMike ... 250-275 ... probably because I had a PBC before the pellet smoker and always got great results at its "normal" 275ish operating temperature. I always rub with MMD and then spritz with water (don't want any sugary liquid to gunk up the smoker) every 30-45 minutes then glaze about 30-45 minutes before they're ready to pull and serve. I never wrap.
I tend to cut each rack in half before cooking ... partially because a half rack is a full meal (or more) for just the wife and me and partially because they're much easier to arrange on the round Grilla.
Last edited by MBMorgan; March 23, 2019, 01:33 PM.
Agree with above. Trial and error, but your usual method is a good start. Have you got a good thermometer like a Smoke or Fireboard to make sure the temps on the controller are reading correctly?
I really like "rescuing" something that others want to discard, or sell at a greatly reduced price. Looks like you got a good one there. I have rescued a charcoal grill, gas grill, and a pellet grill. After a bit of work, they all cooked great food.
Awesome Salvage! I Picked one up like that for $100 and I thought that was a good deal! If you're used to a more robust smoke flavor you may want to add a smoke tube to your arsenal. They are like 15 bucks on amazon.
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