I dunno always gotta play it by ear.
I usually cook hot & fast around 300F which would take about 6 hours. But since I’m actually working at the office today I’m letting this one ride low & slow at 230F. (wife is “sheltered-in-place” and can hopefully keep the house from burning down) The meat is sitting at 145F right now, I’m hoping it will be ready to pull off the fire when I’m home for lunch.
I turned the fan off on the controller and am just using a damper with a servo for more passive air control but goofed on some other settings, I lost control fire last night and it spent most the night under 200F. Opened some vents and the temp rocketed back up, we’re good now.
I take pepper corns and coriander seeds and grind them in the spice grider and then rub the corned beef with it to get the pastrami effect. It is amazing smoked like this.
And that’s pretty much exactly what I did. I used a ‘gourmet’ peppercorn blend that had black, white and pink in it, coriander and mustard that I ground myself and garlic and onion powder from my spice drawer. I smoked until the meat was at 165 then braised using a nice lager for the liquid until it was at 200. Came out a little dry, but really well flavored. I think mine was a 4.5# flat cut, so less fat than it really wanted. I’m going to do hash and eggs for dinner tomorrow with the leftovers.
So the key to perfect ribs is simple. Baby backs, 3-1-1 method, SLS 3-2-1 method.
Example, SLS Ribs using the 3-2-1 method. 3 hours on the smoker, getting hit with smoke. take off, wrap in foil with (my recipe is…) Apple juice, butter, brown sugar. Place a bed of brown sugar and butter slices in the bottom of the ‘foil boat’ and lay the ribs meat side down onto the bed of goodness you just put in. pour in some apple juice, i’d say 2-3 tbsp. should do it. Wrap it up tight, and put it back on the smoker, meat side down for 2 hours. Same temp, no smoke. After 2 hours, unwrap, meat side up, rub down with sauce if you want them wet, or add more dry rub, or do nothing, the last hour really is about glazing if you sauce, but it also locks in the stuff that was in the foil earlier. Leave 'em on there for an hour like that, and pull 'em and eat 'em.
That’s how I do it, and they come out perfect every time.
My method for ribs has been working well. It was using the new controller on the pit that made things different.
The ‘smoke’ setting on the pellet smoker doesn’t maintain a certain temperature. You have to do more of your cook based on the temperature of the meat and less on ‘time’. What I’ve discovered since that first cook is to let it run on ‘smoke’ setting until the meat hits around 130-140F, then set the temperature on the smoker to 225F to finish out the cook. The smoke setting fluctuates anywhere from 170F all the way to 210F depending on outside air temp and how breezy the weather is. My last few racks of ribs have come out quite well. Just a little pull to the meat. Very juicy. I personally don’t like them falling off of the bone. I’ll do pulled-pork if I want that.
I need to try to do some braised beef ribs. Maybe for father’s day this year. The last time I did them, they were awesome. The ribs were smoked for 4 hours and then put into a pan of juices and red wine and covered to braise for another 2-3 hours.
Yea you and I share that. I don’t like mushy, fall off the bone ribs. I like a little ‘tug’ to them. And you’re absolutely correct, TEMP is really what you go by. Bend tests, 3-2-1’s, all that stuff will get you in the ballpark, but knowing the internal temp is the only sure fire way.
GAH those braised ribs look incredible… Might have to try that myself!! Just look at them… Wish I had stocked up on ribs and butts before this dang ‘shelter in place’ order came down the wire.
My GMG pellet smoker doesn’t have a special ‘smoke’ mode, only chamber temp. You can reliably run it as low as 150° and as high as 500°. It’s got a lot more smoke in the lower temps than in the higher… I tend to run the smoking portion at 165-200° and braising at 200-250°, the only times I go hot is when I want to caramelize the glaze quickly.
I’ve got a couple of larger chuck roasts in the freezer, I wonder if I can do one of them the same way I’d do pork shoulder?
The smoke setting is pretty interesting. It has multiple settings. The settings changes how long the controller waits before triggering the igniter to keep the pellets smoldering. The higher the number, the longer the wait. The longer the wait, the more the embers die down, so that when the igniter hits, it produces more smoke. Although, the longer the wait the colder the pit runs. When I smoked the Turkey last Thanksgiving it was a rather cold and wet day. I had to move the smoke setting from the normal P4 down to P2 to keep the pit above 150. It didn’t produce as much smoke at that setting. I ran it that way for about an hour before setting it to 225F.
The pit boss has a setting for 500F/Grill… at that setting, the auger is running at full tilt and it’s throwing a huge flame against the bottom of the diverter. I’ve used that for grilling a few steaks and hamburgers a few times now. It’s not quite as good as cooking over direct coals, but it works well enough. It’s a whole lot cleaner to setup and use than charcoal.
I do my chuck roast exactly the same as I do my brisket, well seasoned and low and slow over pecan wood or mesquite wood. But, not nearly the cook time as brisket. Stick a probe in the middle of it, and cook it to 150 IT, let it rest in some foil, or a faux camo and it will be incredibly tasty!
8 hours into your cook now, how’s it going? And what time ya want me to show up? HAHA! Good luck with your cook, and mannnnn those burnt ends can’t be beat!! I used to make chili with them!!
Didn’t have to get up that early, but I was up at 6:00AM to setup the Easter egg hunt and at about 10AM the spiral ham went in…and at 1PM the Bacon Mac & Cheese went in.
Late lunch early dinner.
Spent the day building a Chicken Coop. I knew I’d be too tired to cook dinner, so we put a pork shoulder on the pit. I tried something new. When the pork hit 165 I put it in a pan to catch juices. I think I should have tried that sooner.
Ooh, and I take it you re-added the juices after shredding?
Lately I’ve been too lazy to add seasoning or smoke, because I don’t see the point when it adds flavor only to the outer 1/4 inch, but if it goes into the juices and gets incorporated, that could change everything.
always gotta play it by ear.
I tend to run the smoking portion at 165-200° and braising at 200-250°, the only times I go hot is when I want to caramelize the glaze quickly.
