Helmet,
I'm sort of in the same boat as you, in that I'm fairly new to my WSM and
barbecueing in general. My early experiences were much like your own,
though I have been experimenting and my ribs have improved substantially in
the past couple of months (in fact, I'm suffering some indigestion from
eating half a rack earlier this evening). I'll let you know what made the
difference for me, though certainly keep in mind that I am only speaking to
my limited experience:
1. I keep all vents full open, top and bottom. I would not block any of
the top vents at all, as I have read it will impede the exhausting of the
smoke, perhaps causing it to build up to excess in the smoker. I keep all
vents on full open during the whole cook. For my thermometer, I bent a
paper clip to make a support to hold an oven thermometer, which I put
through the top vent. With the paper clip to hold it, only the stem of the
thermometer is in the vent, with the dial well away from the opening,
allowing for thorough air flow.
2. One of the biggest improvements came when I started monitoring the temp
at the grate, instead of only in the dome, from the vent thermometer. I've
got a remote probe thermometer which I stick in a potato and orient on the
top grate to give a reading at the same level as the ribs. It's weird - the
dome temperature can be between 10 and 100 degrees higher than the grate
temp. I target 235-240 at the grate and try to keep it there.
3. I only start with one good sized chunk of wood per hour - would maybe
come out to 1/2 cup of chips if you cut it up. I soak it in water for about
an hour before putting on coals. I used to put on more wood but ribs came
out too smoky. I typically use fruit woods (cherry and apple).
4. I baste once every hour, and turn the ribs at the same time. Total cook
time is around 5 hours.
I think these four things have improved my performance on the smoker
greatly. My biggest remaining problem is knowing exactly when to pull the
ribs. My ribs come out tender and juicy and pull off the bone pretty well,
but they don't yet have the perfect "bite" to them.
Hope this helps.
Paul
"Dark Helmet" > wrote in message
...
> As a proud new owner of a Weber Smokey Mountain, I decided on 3 slabs of
> spare ribs for my first cook. I would say that the ribs came out ok, but
> not great, and I'm trying to figure out what didn't go as right as it
> could
> have. I'm guessing on a few things - either I had too low of a temp, too
> much wood bringing too much smoke, or I went too long. Thoughts please
> (see
> below).
>
> First, I used 3 slabs of fresh spares, around 3 lbs each. I pulled off
> the
> membrane, but did leave an odd portion of meat that angled across the bone
> side - not sure if I should have trimmed this or not. Then, on both sides
> I
> very lightly applied a mustard slather and sprinkle of a rub I made of
> salt,
> pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and brown sugar. Then onto
> the
> rib rack.
>
> Next, since these seemed like fairly large slabs, I thought it might take
> a
> little more time, so I attempted the Minion method. I purchased 2 20lb
> bags
> of Cleveland Charcoal Supply hardwood lump. The Naked Wiz gave it only a
> 4.2, and I can see why as I received a huge amount of unusable pieces. I
> fairly loaded up the charcoal chamber with cold coals and also started a
> chimney full. Around 20 minutes later, I poured the chimney onto the rest
> of the coals. FYI, the chimney had burned down quite a bit before I
> poured
> it. Could I have let it burn too long and, therefore, lost a lot of fuel
> in
> the process?
>
> Then, I put about 6 chunks of hickory on the coals, added the rest of the
> WSM, including the water pan with water. Placed some BBQ beans in a foil
> pan on the bottom rack and the ribs and some garlic heads for garlic bread
> on the top rack. Closed it all up, set the top vent fully open, and set
> the
> bottom vents around 1/2 open. This is where it got weird. The temp would
> only register around 220-225 from the top vent. I used a Polder digital
> thermometer stuck in a wine cork through the top vent. So, I fully opened
> all the bottom vents - still would not go above 225 (meaning it's probably
> around 210-215 at the great). Keep in mind that it was a nice sunny 80
> degrees and the WSM was placed in a sunny spot. So, at about the 1 1/2
> hour
> mark, I decided to add some more fresh, hot coals. Fired up another
> chimney
> and used tongs to place the coals through the side door. Also added 3
> more
> wood chunks. Got it up to about 230-235 and then put all the bottom vents
> at 1/2. A few times the temp dipped to around 225 and I would stir the
> coals a little to bring the temp back to 235ish.
>
> Given the low temp and large spares, I was looking for around a 6 hour
> cook.
> What was interesting was that the temp in the final 1 1/2 hours did rise
> to
> 250, which I let it do. At 4 hours, I started basting with some apple
> juice
> every 1/2 hour or so. Finally at 6 hours, the ribs were pretty black, the
> meat had pulled back from the bone, but they did not seem very tender.
> The
> meat just didn't easily tear. I pulled them, rested them in foil for
> about
> 20 minutes and served with the baked beans (delicious!), garlic bread made
> from the smoked garlic (great!) and homeade fresh cole slaw (tasty and
> crunchy!). The ribs were fairly juicy, not hugely tender and did have a
> fairly strong smoke taste. I wouldn't say they were bitter, but the taste
> was a little strong for the kids. They had to offset with my homeade
> honey
> bbq sauce.
>
> In the end, my guess would be that:
> a. I used too much wood, creating too much smoke.
> b. I started with too little hot coals, thereby taking way too long to
> get
> a decent temp.
> c. Could I have cooked them too long?
>
> Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated,
>
> Dark Helmet
>
> P.S. Other than being slightly dissappointed in my BBQ skills, it was
> still
> fun and I'm anxious to try a butt or brisket next weekend.
>
>
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