- Jul 21, 2013
- 35
- 11
Today I smoked some St. Louis spares on my 22.5" WSM. This is only my second time smoking anything, but I found a good base on this forum. My goal was the 3-2-1 method aiming for 225 degrees. I purchased my ribs from Costco and was pleased with the cut of meat. I used a simple rub i found on this forum and will add and subtract to get the rub i want. Here are the ribs with the rub applied. I went light on the rub because my first go around the bark was thick and a little tough.
I chose apple and hickory wood for my smoke and used the fuse method for my charcoal layout. It was nice to have different "waves" of smoke during the first three hours. The real surprise in this cook was how far off my dome thermometer was in the WSM. It started reading 20 degrees low and later read 10 degrees high compared to my electric thermometer. which explains my sub par ribs the first go around. Needless to say I will only trust my digital from now on. Here are the ribs when i pulled them for tinning. Great thin crust and pools of moisture on them.
I wrapped em in foil on a light bed of brown sugar and honey. I added 1/2 cup of apple juice and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. wrapped them and put them back on for two more hours. My temps were VERY stable with the WSM and the Kingsford competition briquettes. I pulled them and un wrapped them for the last hour. I dressed each rack with some BBQ sauce and put them back in some smoke for the last hour. I watched them closely the last hour either spritzing with AJ or brushing with more BBQ sauce. my last cook the ribs dried out in the last hour, probably because of inconsistent temp readings. Not this time though ! The ribs got pulled at hour 6, they passed the bend test and the "looked good as hell" test. Here they are ready to get split. It was a great cook and now I want to tweak my rubs and sauces, looking for a little more "bite". Thanks for all the info you guys have in this forum!
I chose apple and hickory wood for my smoke and used the fuse method for my charcoal layout. It was nice to have different "waves" of smoke during the first three hours. The real surprise in this cook was how far off my dome thermometer was in the WSM. It started reading 20 degrees low and later read 10 degrees high compared to my electric thermometer. which explains my sub par ribs the first go around. Needless to say I will only trust my digital from now on. Here are the ribs when i pulled them for tinning. Great thin crust and pools of moisture on them.
I wrapped em in foil on a light bed of brown sugar and honey. I added 1/2 cup of apple juice and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. wrapped them and put them back on for two more hours. My temps were VERY stable with the WSM and the Kingsford competition briquettes. I pulled them and un wrapped them for the last hour. I dressed each rack with some BBQ sauce and put them back in some smoke for the last hour. I watched them closely the last hour either spritzing with AJ or brushing with more BBQ sauce. my last cook the ribs dried out in the last hour, probably because of inconsistent temp readings. Not this time though ! The ribs got pulled at hour 6, they passed the bend test and the "looked good as hell" test. Here they are ready to get split. It was a great cook and now I want to tweak my rubs and sauces, looking for a little more "bite". Thanks for all the info you guys have in this forum!
