# Hello! Or as we say down here in Florida, "Alligator hurricane tourist hockey"



## scrumtiousruckingBBQ (Jun 15, 2022)

Hi all,
Checking in from beautiful Seminole, FL. Moved down here with the military last year, and that's part of my serendipitous foray into smoking meat!
I'm originally from Massachusetts, and growing up there meant that "BBQ" was burgers and dogs, steaks, and grilled seafood. The Army has had me live in Alabama a few times, and while I always enjoyed eating barbecue I never thought seriously about making it myself. When I lived in CA, an Army buddy of mine had me over to drink beer and smoke ribs with him on his stick-burner, and I was absolutely ASTOUNDED by how delicious it was. However, I walked away thinking "no way I'm spending a bunch of money on a smoker and meat and then spending hours ruining good food doing something I don't know how to do."

Well, that all changed a month ago when a neighbor set a smoker on the curb by his house with a sign on it that said "free! it works!" Encouraged by the empty Big Green Egg box he'd also set on the curb, I figured maybe it did actually work and was worth a shot. It's free, why not? So I brought home what appears to be a 7ish-year-old Master Built 30" electric smoker, bought two racks of ribs from Publix, and started reading. I latched onto Meathead at amazingribs.com (I know he is a controversial figure, whatever), and decided to follow his recipe for my first racks of ribs. Dry-brined in kosher salt, rubbed with (probably not enough) Memphis Dust, and set in the smoker at 225 for 6ish hours. Finished with a KC style homemade sauce and carmelized on the gas grill. Here were the results:










Verdict: nice bark, very very tasty, pretty moist, no smoke ring to speak of, no smoke flavor to speak of. I was happy, and my customers were happy. Overall success.

After poking around, I realized I was getting nowhere near as much smoke as I should have from the little wood-chip tray in the smoker, despite working very hard the whole cook to keep it going. So I bought myself a pellet tray and gave that a shot. Once again I did two racks of grocery-store baby backs, dry-brined the night before, and sprinkled with Memphis Dust before going on the smoke. I put the pellet tray in the bottom of the smoker and did some spritzing on the ribs starting at 90 minutes and every 30 there-after. I decided before this cook that I wanted to try the 3-2-1 method I always read about. I figured I'd try it on one rack and do the other one like I'd done the first and compare. Neither rack ended up with decent bark on it, though the unwrapped one was slightly better. Both were still very tasty and moist enough. Here they are:









Once again, neither really had a good smoke ring or smokey taste. I had to mess with the pellet tray quite a bit throughout the cook, which i think led to me having the door open a lot. The ribs were not as tender as I'd have hoped, and I believe they were undercooked. With hindsight they needed a little more time and definitely needed the door closed more.

Here is a picture I stumbled upon while scrolling through my photos for this post. This is what we like to call "peak Florida:"





So after a bit more reading I decided I was going to modify my smoker. I did the tried and true mailbox-mod and holy hell did it make a difference. Here's a picture of the modification:





Pellet tray goes in the mailbox, chimney action creates good airflow that keeps the pellets smoking consistently for 12 hours, and whenever I need to mess with the pellets I don't need to mess with the main door to the smoker. Marvelous. For the third cook, I didn't change much. I planned to once again 3-2-1 one of the racks and just smoke and spritz straight through for the other rack. Here were the results:










Gorgeous bark, nice smokey taste, and finally a teensy tiny smoke ring. 2nd best ribs I've ever had in my life (my Army buddy's mentioned above are still a stand-out #1). Truly proud of that cook and can't wait to smoke some more ribs this weekend. But first, I'm gonna smoke my first pork butt!
Here she is, all trimmed up and dry-brining in my fridge as we speak:






Sorry to write a whole book. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the journey. And if you have any tips from what I've written, I'm all ears!

Will

*a note on my username: My other true passion in life is playing and watching rugby. I hope to parlay these two hobbies by bringing delicious smoked meats to the infamous "drink-up" after matches with my local club. Go Pelicans!


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## bauchjw (Jun 16, 2022)

Greetings from Alexandria Will! Great post and awesome evolution into smoking! A free MES40 is like lottery luck, those are perfect gateway smokers, I loved mine. Man, that mailbox mod rib cook was awesome, definately something to be proud of! I’m impressed with how rapidly you evolved. I think you’re going to love this place, tons of inspiration and information from great people, and can’t wait to see what you bring.

In response to your Alexandria comment on the other thread, we love Alexandria. We just moved here last summer and really enjoy it, I can’t say I enjoy the Pentagon though I’ll keep an eye out for your old Rugby Club, I used to be a Prop at the University of Iowa back in the 90s. I’ve been wanting to introduce my oldest to it, with limited free time I’ll have to prioritize it now that you remind me 

Great to have you aboard! Can’t wait to see how that butt turns out, trussed or chunked!


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## Sven Svensson (Jun 16, 2022)

Welcome, from California. Great write-up. We hope to see more of your adventures.


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## GonnaSmoke (Jun 16, 2022)

Nice write-up, Will. Welcome aboard from the Palmetto State and thank you for your service...


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## scrumtiousruckingBBQ (Jun 16, 2022)

bauchjw said:


> Greetings from Alexandria Will! Great post and awesome evolution into smoking! A free MES40 is like lottery luck, those are perfect gateway smokers, I loved mine. Man, that mailbox mod rib cook was awesome, definately something to be proud of! I’m impressed with how rapidly you evolved. I think you’re going to love this place, tons of inspiration and information from great people, and can’t wait to see what you bring.
> 
> In response to your Alexandria comment on the other thread, we love Alexandria. We just moved here last summer and really enjoy it, I can’t say I enjoy the Pentagon though I’ll keep an eye out for your old Rugby Club, I used to be a Prop at the University of Iowa back in the 90s. I’ve been wanting to introduce my oldest to it, with limited free time I’ll have to prioritize it now that you remind me
> 
> Great to have you aboard! Can’t wait to see how that butt turns out, trussed or chunked!


Thanks for all the kind words, I'm already really excited about this new hobby and love having a place like SMF to get some advice and inspiration.

Go figure that it's all Props on the bbq forum  
Alexandria has some pretty good youth rugby options, from U4 through high school. One of the nearby highschools recently won the national championships for boys rugby if I remember correctly. If you're interested in finding a club for your oldest let me know, I'm still plugged into the rugby scene up there.

Thanks again, and don't let The Building get you down!


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## BigW. (Jun 16, 2022)

Awesome!  You went all in on this hobby and it is paying off.  Great looking ribs!  Welcome to the site.


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## bdawg (Aug 13, 2022)

Nice write up!  Welcome from WA-

I started with a MES and it got me hooked big time.  I have since switched to pellet smokers (first a Pitboss and now a Recteq), but the MES is a fantastic smoker, especially for someone just starting out.

I can see from your post that you are as enamored with a nice smoke ring as I am.
You might want to try adding a little bit of charcoal pellets to your pellets in the mail box.
Once I switched over to mixing in some charcoal pellets to my wood pellets (3:1 ratio), it made a world of difference.  Look at my profile pic here.  That photo was taken the first time I tried doing tri-tip as a brisket.  One change I made was with the addition of the charcoal pellets.  The smoke ring I always get now following that change is incredible, and I get the same color ring in everything I smoke, including ribs.
Try it and see if you get the same results that I did.  I'm betting you will.

Oh, and where in MA are you from?  I grew up in RI and used to live in Billerica for a few years after I got out of the Army.


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## tbern (Aug 13, 2022)

Welcome to the forum from Minnesota!! Your ribs look delicious and good luck with your first pork butt! Enjoy your time here!


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## SmokinEdge (Aug 13, 2022)

Welcome from Colorado.
The ribs look incredible and your set up is working great.

One thing ill leave you to think about is to shorten the exhaust tube on the mailbox mod so that the smoke only goes UP into the smoker, never up then down into the smoker. This can and will cause creosote issues. Shorten that exhaust tube by about 2/3 length and move the mailbox closer, or just move the mailbox farther away creating a steady incline on the tube rather than a goose neck.

Happy smoking.


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## bigfurmn (Aug 13, 2022)

Looks good to me. Welcome from Minneota.


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## bigfurmn (Aug 13, 2022)

EDIT: Florida and hockey... damn this world.


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## kawboy (Aug 15, 2022)

Welcome! Looks like you got it! My oldest two sons played rugby, one a hooker and one a prop. The hook is a member here still I believe. Awesome game, I wish it was around in Minnesota when I was growing up!


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## CalgaryPT (Aug 19, 2022)

scrumtiousruckingBBQ said:


> Hi all,
> Checking in from beautiful Seminole, FL. Moved down here with the military last year, and that's part of my serendipitous foray into smoking meat!
> I'm originally from Massachusetts, and growing up there meant that "BBQ" was burgers and dogs, steaks, and grilled seafood. The Army has had me live in Alabama a few times, and while I always enjoyed eating barbecue I never thought seriously about making it myself. When I lived in CA, an Army buddy of mine had me over to drink beer and smoke ribs with him on his stick-burner, and I was absolutely ASTOUNDED by how delicious it was. However, I walked away thinking "no way I'm spending a bunch of money on a smoker and meat and then spending hours ruining good food doing something I don't know how to do."
> 
> ...


Greetings from another newbie. I'm up here in Calgary, Alberta. Great post, nice pics. I couldn't stop laughing at the "Alligator hurricane tourist hockey" title. Brilliant. One side of my family is all from East Douglas, MA., which I got to see 50 years ago but still have fond memories.  

Something I am learning about this hobby/obsession is that the newbies may be more keen than the old timers. I just bought a pellet grill and can't stop experimenting...I may in fact be partially responsible for the Jalapeño shortage due to my new passion for Bacon Wrapped Chipotle Jalapeño Poppers. I could smoke and eat those all day.

Best wishes from Canada and welcome aboard.

​


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## fxsales1959 (Aug 20, 2022)

scrumtiousruckingBBQ said:


> Hi all,
> Checking in from beautiful Seminole, FL. Moved down here with the military last year, and that's part of my serendipitous foray into smoking meat!
> I'm originally from Massachusetts, and growing up there meant that "BBQ" was burgers and dogs, steaks, and grilled seafood. The Army has had me live in Alabama a few times, and while I always enjoyed eating barbecue I never thought seriously about making it myself. When I lived in CA, an Army buddy of mine had me over to drink beer and smoke ribs with him on his stick-burner, and I was absolutely ASTOUNDED by how delicious it was. However, I walked away thinking "no way I'm spending a bunch of money on a smoker and meat and then spending hours ruining good food doing something I don't know how to do."
> 
> ...


greetings from S Florida(broward) started on a MB electric and it's grown to a patio of smokers (literally) tough splitting  money between jeeps, atv's , weapons, and all the other stuff you need in North Cuba,


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## fxsales1959 (Aug 20, 2022)




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## CalgaryPT (Aug 20, 2022)

Holy smoked cow. It's like a parade.


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