Hi guys,
So I am very new to smoking. I introduced my self on the roll call forum, but was advised it may be a good idea to have look on here. Its great to see that there is a smoking community in the UK that isnt just the big guys with expensive trailers on the back of their cars, doing festivals and food events...great that there's a place to ask questions.
So a little about me - i'm Dave, i'm 26 and i'm from Oxford. I have recently purchased a very very cheap offset smoker from eBay, which is pretty much an unbranded Landmann Kentucky smoker (from what i can tell) I've been told i dont need to be embarrassed about this fact...and that i wont get chewed out by you guys for getting something that was probably not worth the money! I promise i'll be upgrading ASAP!
So i did my first smoke yesterday - a rack of st louis style ribs using the 3-2-1 method. The ribs were absolutely delicious, however they turned out quite a bit tougher than i'd like them. I really like them fall off the bone tender, with some nice pull back from the bone...but i didnt really have that. If they were tender, they'd have been some of the best tasting ribs i'd ever eaten!
As i said, i'm using a cheap offset much like the Landmann kentucky smoker, so it has a (cheap) thermometer on the top which i originally thought was massively inaccurate, as after having the coals in the coal chamber for about 2-3 minutes, the smoking chamber thermo was showing 300F...i thought this couldnt be right, so i generally cooked at around 250F-300F to comensate for what i thought was a bad quality thermo.
A few guys mentioned on my roll call post about investing in a particular brand and model of thermometer, which im definitely going to do.
Here are a few pictures of my first cook.
Here's my smoker (ignore the state of the garden...wanted to keep it in an area away from the house...or else everything would smell like smoke!)
When closed, there was very very little leakage in terms of smoke, considering its price....i managed to obtain nice thin blue smoke too.
Two day marinated pork ribs...a typical bbq dry rub using mustard as an adhesive...and LOTS of brown sugar
about to close the lid for the first 3 hours....
These are the ribs after the first 3 hours...i didnt peak once! and was suprised at how good they looked...
This is the final product...Now i'm really really gutted i didnt get the tenderness, as i was hopeful after looking at them after hour 3....
So perhaps i just had too much heat going on?? I have another thermometer on the way, which i'm going to place closer to the grill rack, and between the one that came with it and the one i've just bought, hopefully i can get a realistic temperature.
Anywaya, thats my introduction. Welcome any suggestions :)
Thanks
Dave
So I am very new to smoking. I introduced my self on the roll call forum, but was advised it may be a good idea to have look on here. Its great to see that there is a smoking community in the UK that isnt just the big guys with expensive trailers on the back of their cars, doing festivals and food events...great that there's a place to ask questions.
So a little about me - i'm Dave, i'm 26 and i'm from Oxford. I have recently purchased a very very cheap offset smoker from eBay, which is pretty much an unbranded Landmann Kentucky smoker (from what i can tell) I've been told i dont need to be embarrassed about this fact...and that i wont get chewed out by you guys for getting something that was probably not worth the money! I promise i'll be upgrading ASAP!
So i did my first smoke yesterday - a rack of st louis style ribs using the 3-2-1 method. The ribs were absolutely delicious, however they turned out quite a bit tougher than i'd like them. I really like them fall off the bone tender, with some nice pull back from the bone...but i didnt really have that. If they were tender, they'd have been some of the best tasting ribs i'd ever eaten!
As i said, i'm using a cheap offset much like the Landmann kentucky smoker, so it has a (cheap) thermometer on the top which i originally thought was massively inaccurate, as after having the coals in the coal chamber for about 2-3 minutes, the smoking chamber thermo was showing 300F...i thought this couldnt be right, so i generally cooked at around 250F-300F to comensate for what i thought was a bad quality thermo.
A few guys mentioned on my roll call post about investing in a particular brand and model of thermometer, which im definitely going to do.
Here are a few pictures of my first cook.
Here's my smoker (ignore the state of the garden...wanted to keep it in an area away from the house...or else everything would smell like smoke!)
When closed, there was very very little leakage in terms of smoke, considering its price....i managed to obtain nice thin blue smoke too.
Two day marinated pork ribs...a typical bbq dry rub using mustard as an adhesive...and LOTS of brown sugar
about to close the lid for the first 3 hours....
These are the ribs after the first 3 hours...i didnt peak once! and was suprised at how good they looked...
This is the final product...Now i'm really really gutted i didnt get the tenderness, as i was hopeful after looking at them after hour 3....
So perhaps i just had too much heat going on?? I have another thermometer on the way, which i'm going to place closer to the grill rack, and between the one that came with it and the one i've just bought, hopefully i can get a realistic temperature.
Anywaya, thats my introduction. Welcome any suggestions :)
Thanks
Dave