BBQ smoking

[Mungler]

 

 

So, I bought a cheats fire starter off eBay, and filled the fire box 1/3 with charcoal and a couple of bits of wood for smoke. Incidentally, that cheats fire starter was worth every penny.

 

The pork belly ribs went on (pre marinaded in apple juice and rub) - peel the membrane off the underside.

 

Smoked meat side down over the top of a wide shallow bowl full of apple juice (to help maintain moisture).

 

3 hours, fairly decent solid temperature of 160-200 degrees, then when that charcoal was on its last legs - time to top up with more charcoal, at the same time wrap the meet in tin foil with a cup of apple juice, and another 3 hours.

 

Boomshanka

 

I've been getting help off Fatcatsplat off here and he's been a star.

 

Incidentally I asked him if I should soak the wood chips and the answer was no - you want smoke not steam. Also the smoking process occurrs in the first hours - after that a bark forms round the meat and I don't think any more smoke will penetrate it.

 

Brisket of beef this weekend. Standby.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Mungler

[Fatcatsplat]

Just saw this thread - Soaking the wood only helps on skewers and if you're planking food. Soak it in whisky and apparently it imparts some taste, but damned if I'm gonna waste whisky, even bad whisky, doing that!!

 

As said, resin levels and types of wood can really affect it - I tend to use very dry fruit wood or oak and small chunks over the whole cook and embers only

[DrBlox]

...The pork belly ribs went on (pre marinaded in apple juice and rub) - peel the membrane off the underside.

 

Smoked meat side down over the top of a wide shallow bowl full of apple juice (to help maintain moisture).

 

3 hours, fairly decent solid temperature of 160-200 degrees, then when that charcoal was on its last legs - time to top up with more charcoal, at the same time wrap the meet in tin foil with a cup of apple juice, and another 3 hours...

 

When I first started hot-smoking I watched a youtube of "The World Rib Cooking Championships" (or something) and the winning method was called "3-2-1" very similar to everything you've done except:

 

Take your ribs, smother in mustard and "rub". Place in BBQ (at no more that 250 oF) for 3 hours (with hourly sprays of apple juice), remove wrap tightly in foil (I place them in a loosely tied roasting bag for convenience) liberally coated with this stuff (the original US recipe used "butter" in a tube like the flora) and return to bbq for 2 hours (the steam and oil breaks down the collagen membrane) and finally remove the ribs from the bag paint them with your bbq sauce (diluted to 50% with apple juice - repeat this every 20 mins) for a further 1 hour.

 

I also invested in a lidl's rib stand (that was exceptionally poorly made that will be replaced with something better) that mades life much easier.