First smoke was fantastic

[TJ]

Two slabs of St Louis style pork ribs seasoned by Costco. Put them in the smoker at 225 with 8 ounces of apple wood chunks for 3 hours. Then decided to move them to the oven in the kitchen figuring it would do a better job at precise temperature control. 3 hours at 235 in the oven wrapped tightly in foil then opened the foil and brushed a layer of sauce on them. Left them uncovered in the oven at 225 for another hour then removed and wrapped them and allowed to sit on the counter for 30 minutes.
The BEST ribs wife or I EVER ate 

Next time I will slow down the time in the oven by 30-45 minutes because the ribs were "fall off the bone" tender" and I like just a little bit of chew.

 

[Pork Belly]

I going say this in the nicest possible way, I'm glad you enjoyed your meal but your doing it wrong. Dude you have to trust the smoker and let it cook, but lets look at a few other details.

Using per-seasoned ribs not an issue if you enjoyed the flavor.

Your smoker was not hot enough, you should be running at 240 (230 Minimum but this increases cook time). You should have a small pan of some type of flavorful liquid next to your firebox (beer, juice, Pop/Soda). This keeps the smoker moist and eliminates the need to EVER foil the ribs.

You used enough wood to smoke a monster Butt or brisket. General Forum opinion is two to three ounces of wood is plenty for two slabs. You didn't get a bitter over-smoked flavor because gave up on the smoker after three hours. But that decision keep it edible.

Try the same style cut and seasoning of ribs again. This time put cold meat in a cold smoker set it at 240 including a "water" pan and 3oz piece of wood. Lock it down, do not open the door. At four and a half hours open the door and check, your ribs the will be done or within thirty minutes of being done.

Sauce the ribs and caramelize them on your gas grill, or under the oven broiler.

I believe you will like the second batch better than the first. If you don't like them, I will eat them.

 

[DivotMaker]

I agree with Brian, TJ.  I'm happy you enjoyed the ribs, but trust the smoker to do its job, and you'll be even more amazed!  I do ribs at 235 (using the Auber), but have smoked tons of them at 225, too, with the analog #1 - just takes a little more time.  Give the technique he's telling you about a try, and let us know how it goes!

Nothing beats the "no peeky" method - so much better bark, and results!

 

[TJ]

I put a large disposable pan on the bottom shelf and poured a cup of apple juice in it so we had moisture

I did give some thought to putting the ribs on the grill at the end but wanted to see how they turned out with no grill the first time.

I'll try the 240F, 4.5 hours of cooking time, and 3 ounces of wood chunks next time and compare them to what we ate and go from there. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Smokster]

Hey TJ,

I have to agree with both Brian and Tony. I am currently smoking two butts at the moment and I am using 6oz in total for 17 lbs of meat. Even if you were to add more ribs to your next smoke, you do not have to add more wood. With these smokers, less wood is more.

On another note, the burner in your smoker works the same as the burner in your oven. Ovens are designed to fluctuate your oven temperature to give you an average to reach your set temperature. Your smoker is designed the same way, unless you have a PID controller on your smoker, only then will you reach a consistent smoker temperature.

 

[DivotMaker]

One other thing I definitely recommend, TJ, is to not put your juice pan on the lower shelf.  Use a small disposable aluminum "mini loaf" pan on the floor of the smoker, right up against the smoke box.  Putting it on a shelf above doesn't allow it to get hot enough to add good moisture, and it blocks the heat to the meat.  Lots of folks have experienced problems with cooking when they place any kind of large pan between the meat and smoke box.  It channels the heated air around the sides of the smoker, and can cause your thermocouple to give false readings (it thinks it's hotter than it is).  Just another tip learned from experience.

 

[TJ]

Will try the mini loaf pan as well next time.
I don't want to reinvent the wheel, just want good meat

 

[gmbrown]

I gotta go with the other guys, TJ: just trust the smoker.

I ended up using about 2 ounces of wood, and ran the smoker at 225 for about six hours (which was actually longer than I intended to go, but they still came out great). I may try hotter next time based on the other comments here, but otherwise, I wouldn't change anything. "Set it and forget it" is the key here. 

 

[DivotMaker]

"Lazy Q" at its finest! 8)