Yesterday was mostly a learning experience although it included some pretty decent ribs. My 9# pork shoulder *finally* turned out pretty good, too.
I smoked both with a mix of 2 parts apple and 1 part mesquite. That turned out to be a good ratio with the mellower apple reining in the sharp flavor of the mesquite just enough for a nice balance. I used the wood chips for about 4 hours on the shoulder and for 2 on the ribs.
My biggest hurdle was temperature, though. Being the first time I've used the MasterBuilt Pro smoker combined with a few newbie errors, things really didn't get stabilized for a while. No matter how carefully adjusted the flame, I was suddenly at either 325° or 150°. I finally hit the 230° mark about 3 hours in. [emoji]128563[/emoji]
The first rack of ribs were tender but could have stayed on a couple hours longer. The second rack, which did get an extra 3 hours, were perfectly done and tasted phenomenal. Literally melt in your mouth. I paid the highest price for my goofs for the shoulder, which took 18 hours.
Hmm, pics won't upload from my phone. I'll try on my computer later.
I smoked both with a mix of 2 parts apple and 1 part mesquite. That turned out to be a good ratio with the mellower apple reining in the sharp flavor of the mesquite just enough for a nice balance. I used the wood chips for about 4 hours on the shoulder and for 2 on the ribs.
My biggest hurdle was temperature, though. Being the first time I've used the MasterBuilt Pro smoker combined with a few newbie errors, things really didn't get stabilized for a while. No matter how carefully adjusted the flame, I was suddenly at either 325° or 150°. I finally hit the 230° mark about 3 hours in. [emoji]128563[/emoji]
The first rack of ribs were tender but could have stayed on a couple hours longer. The second rack, which did get an extra 3 hours, were perfectly done and tasted phenomenal. Literally melt in your mouth. I paid the highest price for my goofs for the shoulder, which took 18 hours.
Hmm, pics won't upload from my phone. I'll try on my computer later.