I had intended to participate in this forum for a few months, saving up to buy my first legit smoker later this summer. However, this community is just too exciting and fun to wait that long - so I bought a tiny 18" Weber kettle on CL and went for it. I don't have a dual-probe digital thermometer yet, so to play around that limitation, I decided to do ribs. Since you don't really use a thermometer on the meat, that got me half-way there; and for the other half, I decided to use an oven thermometer, that I sat right on the grate in between the meat. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
I bought a rack of St. Louis ribs - the Swift Premium style after hearing good things about it here on the forum. When I woke up Saturday, the first thing I did was dry brine them with salt. I let that sit in the fridge for about 3 hours, and then hit it with some Memphis Dust I had made the evening prior.
I know I NEED a SNS, but lacking one, I used a fire brick instead to set up my 2-zone cooking. I followed Meathead's instructions as much as possible to a T on fire prep, dry rub recipe, cook times, etc. So I put in half a chimney unlit, lit another half-chimney and then added that to the top. I happened to have some chunks of apple sitting around from a tree I cut down last fall, so I used two small pieces of apple wood for this cook. I set a pan of water over the charcoal, but didn't do a drip pan below the meat (though I later wished I had since it got a little messy under there).
I knew I couldn't fit the one rack lengthways on my tiny grill, so had planned to use Dave's method of coiling ribs. However, when I did that, I couldn't get the lid on (too tall). So, I cut the rack in half and did half-coils to get them to fit. It wasn't the most beautiful method, but it worked just fine. I shut the lid, arbitrarily set the vents at the bottom to about 3/8" open, and waited to see what would happen.
This thing performed beyond my expectations. It stayed zoned in on 225 for a while, went up to about 250 and stayed there for pretty solidly. I never added charcoal or anything. In the last hour I did close the vents about half cause it was approaching 260, and that backed it down nicely to 245 where it stayed. Every 45 minutes or so I would crack the lid really fast to check the temp but everything stayed pretty consistent.
(I know these dial thermometers aren't reliable, but I used what I had, and I am planning to get a good digital one soon - my birthday is coming up...)
Around 4.5 hours in, I performed the toothpick test and they seemed to be done. I added a slight glaze of some KC-style sauce and put them over the charcoal for 2-3 minutes, flipping them regularly, and then pulled them and announced to the family it was time to eat. Was pretty happy with the exterior, though I probably could have pushed it a while longer.
Family was happy because they had been smelling the ribs for hours and we cleaned these babies up in no time.
Was very happy that it went so well for my first time. The instructions from the site/book are really great in my opinion. Word has traveled fast through the extended family and I will be attempting to make pulled pork for Memorial Day. Looking forward to it!
I can't say enough how helpful this site and community is. I researched a TON of various little things I had questions about ahead of time, and every question I had was either already on here somewhere, or was answered for me within a day or two.
I bought a rack of St. Louis ribs - the Swift Premium style after hearing good things about it here on the forum. When I woke up Saturday, the first thing I did was dry brine them with salt. I let that sit in the fridge for about 3 hours, and then hit it with some Memphis Dust I had made the evening prior.
I know I NEED a SNS, but lacking one, I used a fire brick instead to set up my 2-zone cooking. I followed Meathead's instructions as much as possible to a T on fire prep, dry rub recipe, cook times, etc. So I put in half a chimney unlit, lit another half-chimney and then added that to the top. I happened to have some chunks of apple sitting around from a tree I cut down last fall, so I used two small pieces of apple wood for this cook. I set a pan of water over the charcoal, but didn't do a drip pan below the meat (though I later wished I had since it got a little messy under there).
I knew I couldn't fit the one rack lengthways on my tiny grill, so had planned to use Dave's method of coiling ribs. However, when I did that, I couldn't get the lid on (too tall). So, I cut the rack in half and did half-coils to get them to fit. It wasn't the most beautiful method, but it worked just fine. I shut the lid, arbitrarily set the vents at the bottom to about 3/8" open, and waited to see what would happen.
This thing performed beyond my expectations. It stayed zoned in on 225 for a while, went up to about 250 and stayed there for pretty solidly. I never added charcoal or anything. In the last hour I did close the vents about half cause it was approaching 260, and that backed it down nicely to 245 where it stayed. Every 45 minutes or so I would crack the lid really fast to check the temp but everything stayed pretty consistent.
(I know these dial thermometers aren't reliable, but I used what I had, and I am planning to get a good digital one soon - my birthday is coming up...)
Around 4.5 hours in, I performed the toothpick test and they seemed to be done. I added a slight glaze of some KC-style sauce and put them over the charcoal for 2-3 minutes, flipping them regularly, and then pulled them and announced to the family it was time to eat. Was pretty happy with the exterior, though I probably could have pushed it a while longer.
Family was happy because they had been smelling the ribs for hours and we cleaned these babies up in no time.
Was very happy that it went so well for my first time. The instructions from the site/book are really great in my opinion. Word has traveled fast through the extended family and I will be attempting to make pulled pork for Memorial Day. Looking forward to it!
I can't say enough how helpful this site and community is. I researched a TON of various little things I had questions about ahead of time, and every question I had was either already on here somewhere, or was answered for me within a day or two.
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