4 hours is a strong estimate on the time I cook ribs - 3 or 7 racks took the same time.Fastback, with all your experience now, can you offer some additional pointers?
Must have been good on Christmas, santa got one for me!
I've done babybacks a couple times now and think they need a little longer than 4 hours, but pulled them because I've heard a few folks say that they've had them fall into the coals. But they are not as done as I like, a little hard to pull from the bone still.
How do you do them, and how did the cook of seven come out?
Thanks!
I have another question. I want to do a rack of ribs and a small chicken tomorrow. Seems like a waste to fill it full of 160 kingsford briquettes to me when I will only need it to burn for 4 or 5 hours. It would make sense that the number of briquettes you start in the chimney will determine the initial temperature, and the number of briquettes in the cooker will determine the length of time that it burns.
Does that make sense? I will likely try this, but if someone else has tried it already I'll save myself the test run.
When I use 160 briquettes and start 30 of them (Noah's recommendation when I talked to him).. it gets up to 250 in an hour or so and never gets above 280... but burns at least 8 hours. I figure if I use 120 and start 30 that the temp should be the same, but just not burn as long. I'm at 700 feet above sea level.
Thoughts?
Complete newbie question: has anyone tried to set-up the coals in a C-shape (fuse / snake method) to control the burn rate and maybe lower the temp?
The zinc coating is poisonous when heated.... That smoker could make you violently ill or worse..... You must become aware of idiots putting up ideas on the web that aren't good...
Just jumped into the smoker realm by ordering the PBC and accessories. On one hand, it seems silly to spend so much on a barrel, but on the other, everybody's reviews seem to justify it at least enough for me to part with my dollars.
I was just thinking about the similarity between this and a trash can cooker. One of the best turkeys I've eaten was cooked this way. Technically, the trashcanturkey.com method is more like an oven or Caja China, but it almost seems like you could test out this style of smoker with a trash can and an air hole drilled. Has anybody ever tried this? Seems like a 31 gallon trash can might be an easier way to build a DIY knockoff instead of the thicker metal of a barrel. Something like this but with holes drilled for rebar to be mounted for hanging racks. Something similar to this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Garbage-Can-Turkey-Smoker/