A thread for the hardcore grill guys

[xlr8tn]

Just put on hold my char-griller trio at TSC to pick up tomorrow. Think I'm going to smoke some ribs for fathers day.

 

season that smoker first......mix olive oil and apple juice in a spray bottle and hose down the inside of the smoker and fire box real good. Bring it up to temp and keep spritzing it every half hour or so. Do that for a few hours to put a season on the inside of the smoker. I forget if that comes with cast iron cooking grates or not. If so rub those down with straight oil to put a season on those too. You'll be happy with that set up. There's not much you'll need to do that it can't do for you. The only issue I have with it is the size of the barrel. When I smoke I'm usually smoking quite a bit of food. I need a bigger barrel than I have right now. Last weekend I had 6 pork butts on it that went 7-9lbs. It was crowded in there to say the least.

[nurkvinny]

Picked up a new Chargriller about a month ago. I had always just used the < $100 grills. I can't say I notice any taste difference, but the cooking experience is nicer.

[TTQ B4U]

No pics, but I Smoked 8lbs of Baby Back ribs and a 6lb Pork Butt on the grill yesterday and it was so damn mofo good, I'm heating some up right now to have as a mid morning snack! Fall off the bone tender, hickory smoked to perfection.

[Ramsey]

Im not into smoking, but as far as grilling is concerned get a used weber 3 burner ($150) on cl and enjoy.

 

Also, i like to season my grates with steak fat.

[XChris1632X]

I got her all together and seasoned yesterday. Didn't have much time but I cooked some burgers. Tomorrow I am doing ribs for my first time. You guys got any tips to make my first experience cooking ribs successful? I figure it will take 4-5 hours at 250 or as close as I can get it to stay.

[TTQ B4U]

I got her all together and seasoned yesterday. Didn't have much time but I cooked some burgers. Tomorrow I am doing ribs for my first time. You guys got any tips to make my first experience cooking ribs successful? I figure it will take 4-5 hours at 250 or as close as I can get it to stay.

 

Won't take that long. 250-275 for 3hrs. I usually put them in a shallow pan coated with a good dry rub and in the bottom of the pan I put a liquid like water, beer, seasoning,ect. Any number of combos. Wrap them in foil and keep the lid closed except to add season wood chips.

 

Meat will fall off the bone so be careful when finishing them for the last 20 minutes on the grill. Add BBQ sauce if you prefer and finish.

[XChris1632X]

Won't take that long. 250-275 for 3hrs. I usually put them in a shallow pan coated with a good dry rub and in the bottom of the pan I put a liquid like water, beer, seasoning,ect. Any number of combos. Wrap them in foil and keep the lid closed except to add season wood chips.

 

Meat will fall off the bone so be careful when finishing them for the last 20 minutes on the grill. Add BBQ sauce if you prefer and finish.

 

See I saw a couple people do it a little differently and was originally thinking of going that route but i dont know shit either. They put the ribs in a rack in the barrel with Apple juice/water underneath in a pan but the firebox was cooking at a solid 225-250 for over 4 hours. They also used no foil. I know there has got to be 100 different ways but how can smoke get to them well if there is foil on them.

[xlr8tn]

yep....you will see a bunch of different ways to cook ribs. What I do is use a dry rub, put them on the rack at 250 for ~2 hours with heavy smoke, then wrap them in foil. After an hour I open the foil and check them to see where they're at. I take them out of the foil and put my sauce on them. After about 30 minutes I check to see how done they are. I put them bone side down and insert the tongs about halfway up the rack from the end. Pick the ribs up and they should droop down and the meat should start to tear. They're done. If they're fall off the bone they're over cooked. You want the meat to tear away from the bone. It should come off the bone but it shouldn't just fall apart.

[lt1chicken]

Made a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin and a beer can chicken over apple and pecan wood sunday Edited June 22, 2011 by lt1chicken
picture doesn't work

[lt1chicken]

no pic Edited June 22, 2011 by lt1chicken
picture wont work

[XChris1632X]

Such a big ass box and heavy as hell!

 

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk251/XChris1632X/IMAG0180.jpg

 

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk251/XChris1632X/IMAG0188.jpg

 

So damn heavy all put together. I am happy with the product for the most part. There are a few things I wish could be different but I guess thats with everything.

 

I cooked some ribs the other day and it could have went better. I got the grill up to 250*. Put the ribs in the rack and put them on. The ribs were heavily smoked with apple wood chips for the first hour. After that I checked them, sprayed with apple juice, and added more charcoal. It smoked for two hours at 250. Sprayed with more apple juice and wrapped in foil. Cooked for and hour and 15 mins or so. Took them out and I was only getting 130* in the meat. I let them cook for another hour and they never got over 130. They looked great and I couldn't resist it so I just ate them. They tasted amazing but were a little tougher than I had hoped for.

 

Part of me is thinking that some of the problem could be the exhaust. I know I should extend the exhaust down to the grate so they can cook more evenly. Is this my only problem? What else did I do wrong? It was windy out by I also went through almost a whole bag of cowboy lump charcoal cooking these. I didn't think it should take that much.

[xlr8tn]

first....go to Anderson's and buy the 20lb bag of frontier brand lump......some of the best stuff on the market. Lasts a good long time, doesn't produce a ton of ash, and has some decent size pieces in the bag. I try to cherry pick bags when I buy. The stuff on bottom is well.....on bottom and the stuff on top was most likely on the bottom of the pallet so I pull from the middle. It'll cut down on the amount of crushed stuff you have. Cowboy lump sucks balls......if I can't find frontier I go to Menards or wally world and get royal oak lump. Kroger brand lump is pretty decent too.

Next up is patience. Be patient with your smoking. You won't nail everything right off. It took me a long time before I could nail ribs everytime I cook them. I gave up on cooking them for a while because they were kicking my ass. Once you get a few good racks under your belt you'll start to get the hang of it. Don't take them off until they're done so eat a sandwich halfway through if that's what it takes to keep you from eating them before they're done.

Try to keep from opening the lid and looking at them if at all possible. You lose a ton of heat doing that and everytime you open the lid you're adding time to your cook. I know a lot of people spray their ribs with apple juice and it's a common and popular thing to do. I don't do that......I don't like losing the heat. I inject them with apple juice prior to cooking sometimes but normally don't do any of that. Heat control...specifically consistent heat is the key. You want to keep that smoker at a consistent temp as much as possible. It makes better ribs and if you can consistently keep your heat correct you can keep your ribs consistent.

I just made 2 racks last weekend for my sons b-day party. 2 hours with heavy smoke followed by 2 hours wrapped. Took them out of the foil and sauced them and let them sit on the smoker for a bit to get the sauce nice and tacky. Came out great.

Just like a car you can mod the hell out of that smoker.

This guy did a few cool things to his. There are a ton of other sites out there.....the chargriller pro has basically the same texas style thing going except the duo's cooking box is smaller. You can do the same mods though.

Another thing that will help you is picking out good ribs. Sam's club has some of the best rib packs I've found. The pack of 3 they have. Look for the thicker packages and flip that pack over ( or any ribs for that matter) you want to see meat showing on the bone side too.

I'll give you a shout in August sometime. I think things will be settled down enough by then where I can have a get together here. All my cooking buddies come out and we smoke a bunch of stuff and get drunk as hell. You can come hang with us and watch how we do things. You'd probably pick up a few tricks.

[BBQdDude]

On the new Char I would get some fire bricks, you can also wrap them in heavy duty tinfoil. Place them from one end to the other. This will make the temps consistent from one end to the other. I would also raise the fire pit grate about 3 inches as the old ash tends to choke out the bottom of your fire.

 

Also Google Minion method, this will get you longer burning times.

 

A nice temp unit with a remote will run you around $40...do NOT trust the one that comes with it.

[smokinHawk1647545499]

i prefer to smoke my meats at 225*, more tender that way.

[TTQ B4U]

They tasted amazing but were a little tougher than I had hoped for.

 

Part of me is thinking that some of the problem could be the exhaust. I know I should extend the exhaust down to the grate so they can cook more evenly. Is this my only problem? What else did I do wrong? It was windy out by I also went through almost a whole bag of cowboy lump charcoal cooking these. I didn't think it should take that much.

 

 

Here's what I would do, smoke them for the 1st hour but be sure to put a tray of water over the coals to emit moisture during that time. Don't over do it though....add 4-6oz of wood chips, wait 30 minutes, add 4-6 more and that's it. For the last 2hrs put them on a shallow pan, pour the apple juice, etc. in the bottom and cover them with foil. I keep the temps in the 250* range the entire time. Finish them up on the grates putting BBQ sauce on them for just one application. Be careful not to burn the sauce though. It's easy to go from caramelized good stuff to burnt char'd ruins in that last 20 minutes if you're not careful.