Outside temps in the low 50"s. Not too bad.
So I smoked a couple slabs of ribs today, and used twice as much charcoal and wood splits as normal. Had a heck of a time getting it up to 250*. After a couple of hours of 225*-230*, I hit that temp (even hit 275* for 5 minutes! LOL), but had to always have pre-heated wood, or fully lit charcoal, standing by to add.
Managed to keep them at 245* - 260* after the 1st couple of hours, but it sure used a lot of fuel.
Then....... I ran out of good splits. So decided to try a some of the Gas Station ones, I had tried before.
Remember that story? Soot all over the place?
But I had kept a few covered out of rain since then, so maybe they would work. I split them into small splits of approximately 1" - 2" dia.
Also only used the pieces with no bark on it. Pre-warmed inside sfb for 30-45minutes.
Put one on, and dark smoke all over the place again! Took it off and tried a harder and different wood piece. Same thing.
So I burned them in a separate grill thinking they would quit smoking sooner or later, but they never did. I don't know what woods they really were, but it wasn't what was listed on label. Or maybe they were fresh cut. I don't know. I DO KNOW that all the rest is going on the brush pile to burn though. HA!
I finished my ribs with lump and hickory & apple chunks. Ended up okay.
I did screw up, and forget to salt them in the beginning. I made new rub and left salt out, because if I use enhanced ribs, they are already salty enough. And I didn't get quite enough rub on ribs. So they kind of tasted like the pig roast meat that we were at Saturday. LOL Nice and porky, but just not the usual smoked ribs. I seriously doubt they will get tossed out though.
But I gotta tell ya, that wind is a sure nightmare for smoking!
However, once again I managed to use splits successfully in spite of wind, to maintain temps, until I hit the bad ones. That's twice now I succeded!
I'm slowly getting there Cliff.
So I smoked a couple slabs of ribs today, and used twice as much charcoal and wood splits as normal. Had a heck of a time getting it up to 250*. After a couple of hours of 225*-230*, I hit that temp (even hit 275* for 5 minutes! LOL), but had to always have pre-heated wood, or fully lit charcoal, standing by to add.
Managed to keep them at 245* - 260* after the 1st couple of hours, but it sure used a lot of fuel.
Then....... I ran out of good splits. So decided to try a some of the Gas Station ones, I had tried before.
Remember that story? Soot all over the place?
But I had kept a few covered out of rain since then, so maybe they would work. I split them into small splits of approximately 1" - 2" dia.
Also only used the pieces with no bark on it. Pre-warmed inside sfb for 30-45minutes.
Put one on, and dark smoke all over the place again! Took it off and tried a harder and different wood piece. Same thing.
So I burned them in a separate grill thinking they would quit smoking sooner or later, but they never did. I don't know what woods they really were, but it wasn't what was listed on label. Or maybe they were fresh cut. I don't know. I DO KNOW that all the rest is going on the brush pile to burn though. HA!
I finished my ribs with lump and hickory & apple chunks. Ended up okay.
I did screw up, and forget to salt them in the beginning. I made new rub and left salt out, because if I use enhanced ribs, they are already salty enough. And I didn't get quite enough rub on ribs. So they kind of tasted like the pig roast meat that we were at Saturday. LOL Nice and porky, but just not the usual smoked ribs. I seriously doubt they will get tossed out though.
But I gotta tell ya, that wind is a sure nightmare for smoking!
However, once again I managed to use splits successfully in spite of wind, to maintain temps, until I hit the bad ones. That's twice now I succeded!
I'm slowly getting there Cliff.
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