Using the oven...

[Chris_Ryan]

Hey all. Curious about something. I'm a bit low on charcoal and have enough for a nice few hours of smoke - but don't think it'll be a 5-6 hr affair out there for some St. Louis Ribs I have. Wondering if you all have seen any real difference in hitting it with the charcoal and wood - and then moving it to a 225 oven for the remaining hours. Does the bend test still apply? Do you wrap it in foil? Thoughts? Thanks! -Chris.

[Jerod Broussard]

Put a pan of boiling water underneath the ribs to keep a 2-zone. Bend test still applies. NO foil.

I had someone do them the WHOLE cook like that in the oven. Best they ever had since they have not had mine yet. Only brisket and butts.

[Huskee]

Your smoker is just an oven with smoke. If you move them to an indoor oven after smoking a while, your ribs will have absolutely no idea anything different is happening. Bend test away!

[_Keith]

The smoke flavor is mostly absorbed during the first hour of the cook, tops, so you should be fine. I'd recommend taking the thermometer you use to monitor the temperature in your cooker and putting it in the oven, as ovens often are pretty variable.

[Huskee]

The smoke flavor is mostly absorbed during the first hour of the cook, tops,

Dr Blonder will surely elaborate on this in his upcoming smoke seminar, but here's a snapshot of Meathead's take on this subject, from this page, about halfway down:




So it's mostly related to our individual techniques how much smoke food 'absorbs'.

[_Keith]

Thanks. I could have sworn that this site was where I got the "smoke stops clinging after an hour or so" tidbit. Bugger.

[az_que]

I did some brisket this week per meathead's recipe, which called for smoking to an internal temp of 150 and then crutching. Since crutching cuts off the meat/smoke relationship I moved the crutched meat to my oven and finished the cook that way. The meat only smoked for about three hours with hickory but the end result still tasted plenty smokey and wonderful.

[Jerod Broussard]

AZ!! You resemble the guy from the shiner bock commercial. Y'all related?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR8752yfvzM

[az_que]

haha, no but I do enjoy shiner beer!

[HC in SC]

If you needed more smoke you could always put on you gasser (assuming you have one) with some wood chips in a foil pouch or smoker box 2-zone style to keep low and slow cooking.

I ran out of charcoal when doing my last butt and finished it up on my gasser with the 2-zone method and it turned out good; assuming ribs would also.