DWCowels: I think you are on to something with it being a problem with the smoke. First, they didn't take burned. Second, they were just as black at the 3 hours make as the 4 hour mark (I didn't look at them before the 3 hour mark). Third, they were not overdone. I used commercial apple wood packaged for smoking from the BBQ guys. I did not soak them beforehand. I only put 2 pieces on at the very beginning, each was about 2 x 2 x 2 inches. One had bark on it. Any suggestions was what to do to get "better quality" smoke?
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DWCowels and Breadhead: I used my BBQ Guru to monitor the temp which remained consistently very close to 250. You are right, the thermometer on the dome was very inaccurate. I can't believe you can spend so much money on a grill and they put such poor quality thermometers in them. Fortunately I knew that ahead of time so I wasn't surprised.Comment
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Bonsai Chuck Thank-you. Do you have a second air probe you can test alongside with the one you used, to see if they both read the same?Comment
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I do have another air probe. I'll double check the temp next time with that. Plus I will check the calibration of the CyberQ but for the cost of that unit it better be very accurate. If not, I'll be really disappointed.Comment
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It's the sugar in the rub, I'm sure. I use my own rub with much less sugar to begin my ribs and then wrap with brown sugar. The color turns dark at that point. The Memphis rub you are using has a lot of sugar in it. I haven't tried it yet but it looks very tasty and the color that is rendered is not indicative of the texture or taste. You can try to soften up the color by adding a sauce or mop at the end of the cook rich in ketchup and vinegar, but if you liked the taste of the finished product do not be put off by the appearance. You should see how ugly, crusty and black a good brisket looks. The appearance could give you the impression you were going to bite into shoe leather but once you bite into a good, soft barky (sp) piece, you know you have it just right.Comment
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Hmmmm if all my ribs looks like this I would still be happy. I know it's a picture of a pork shoulder but I LOVE good dark bark on everything!Attached FilesLast edited by jbeck1986; August 24, 2016, 10:54 PM.Comment
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Bonsai Chuck on getting better quality smoke on your kamado, see this article. Here's an excerpt "...a problem with kamados and eggs. They are so well insulated and so efficient with the heat right below the meat that they typically burn small cool fires and smolder white smoke.". I let the white smoke die down some before adding my meat. Here's an article in the Kamado forum on a method to get thin blue smoke (I've not done this yet).Comment
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If you want to prevent blackened ribs, substitute the brown and white sugar in Meathead's Memphis dust with raw cane sugar. It is less prone to burning over high heat. Raw cane sugar can be purchased on Amazon.Comment
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Bonsai Chuck , I would also consider dropping your cook temp to 220-225 range. Some great advice throughout this thread.Comment
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If it didn't taste "burned", I would guess the ribs were just the victim of "dirty smoke". Next time, just fire up the cooker and wait for the smoke to be almost invisible, then add the meat. Good luck & enjoy!Comment
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just like everyone else said; too much smoke or dirty smoke. I am just now myself learning to manage my smoke a little bit better. I always for the longest time put my wood chunks on top of hot coals when I would put my meat in and came out with black meat. it still tasted good, but the color wasn't how I liked it and it had a smoke flavor that was on the heavy side. Last cook I dumped my lit coals on my wood chunks and unlit coals to bring my temp up before putting the meat in. just that little bit of time to get the smoke rolling and thinning out seemed to be the determining factor between black ribs and redish/mahogany ribs.Comment
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The difference between having your smoke rolling before you put your meat on and not adding wood until the meat is on the cooker. Both tasted great, but as they say, you eat with your eyes first. the ones on the left look MUCH betterAttached FilesComment
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He asked me this in a private message and I gave him some thoughts and suggested he post her. Glad you guys had good ideas. I too thought he was getting dirty smoke and suggested he try to cook without the CyberQ since it can starve the charcoal. He may have too many coals and the CQ is choking back the air so he is getting soot. Anybody else have this issue?Comment
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Thanks for all the great advice. This is exactly why I joined this club. Within the next week or so I am going to conduct a BBQ experiment and test all the different ideas I have been given. I'll post the results and hopefully I will figure out which one of these ideas will help my situation the most. This time I will include photos too. Stay tuned.
ThanksComment
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All the comments about a choked fire and dirty smoke are spot on. Clean fire yields tasty food! Bad fire...well, disappointment and lost opportunity for Barbecue Happiness. Sad.
Another though is that the heavy sugar rubs will turn dark, and if you use them, you've either got to wrap, undercook, or be super happy with the dark look.
I've good a fair number of ribs using Meathead's Memphis dust, and unless you wrap them, which I have never done, they will get dark. Here was today's rack, in my new Vault. Temp's right at the end got to 290, so they are a bit darker then I prefer. But since they did not get above 305, as Huskee mentioned, the black is not burnt.
Here is my best Rib Picture yet...6 hours on the Jambo at 250-275. They look dark, but they are perfect, in my book. And this particular rack was Super Great!
Here's another typical example from my pit
Do yours look like these?
How did they taste?Comment
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