- Sep 15, 2014
- 36
- 10
I just smoked (or should I say ruined) a couple racks of spare ribs in my UDS and I know what ruined them, but I'm not sure the best way to fix it. Maybe easier (rather than troubleshoot my wrong way) is to see how more experienced smokers do this. My wife said the ribs were good (nice of her), but I know how they cooked and don't care for any amount of wood gas flavor. Rather than quit the hobby after a few tries, I might as well learn to do it right since everyone in our family likes smoked food.
Here were my problems:
1. Too hot at the beginning of the smoke (375F) because I had a lot of fuel on planning for a long burn. After 20-30 minutes of being closed down the temps came down to 275ish.
2. Since I knew I needed a lot of fuel I got the logs (4" diameter or 6" splits) going well; then smothered it down for 10 minutes once I had a roaring fire. This brought the temp down but it came back up when I opened the lid to put the meat on.
3. This created a lot of wood gas which made for a bitter and thick white smoke at the beginning of the cooking.
Here's what I wish I had:
1. 250F bed of glowing coals that would burn steady for 2-3 hours without adding; simply by controlling the fire.
2. The ability to add more fuel as needed to maintain for longer than 2-3 hours but without the wood gas.
I am not too sure how to achieve this.
I'd like to use wood since I have plenty of it and don't like shelling out $15 in charcoal each time I smoke. Also it makes sense to me to use Hickory or another good smoking wood as a fuel source since that's where the flavor is coming from in the first place.
Here were my problems:
1. Too hot at the beginning of the smoke (375F) because I had a lot of fuel on planning for a long burn. After 20-30 minutes of being closed down the temps came down to 275ish.
2. Since I knew I needed a lot of fuel I got the logs (4" diameter or 6" splits) going well; then smothered it down for 10 minutes once I had a roaring fire. This brought the temp down but it came back up when I opened the lid to put the meat on.
3. This created a lot of wood gas which made for a bitter and thick white smoke at the beginning of the cooking.
Here's what I wish I had:
1. 250F bed of glowing coals that would burn steady for 2-3 hours without adding; simply by controlling the fire.
2. The ability to add more fuel as needed to maintain for longer than 2-3 hours but without the wood gas.
I am not too sure how to achieve this.
I'd like to use wood since I have plenty of it and don't like shelling out $15 in charcoal each time I smoke. Also it makes sense to me to use Hickory or another good smoking wood as a fuel source since that's where the flavor is coming from in the first place.
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