Ribs in my smoker

[Big Guy]

Just put a few racks of ribs in my smoker rubbed with some magic dust and Garlic Plus



These were on special last week for $1.00/lb I got 6 racks :drooling:



they should be done around 5 more pics when they are done.

Here they are just out of the smoker
honey garlic ribs



Bullseye ribs



On the plate

[Jogeephus]

First post on the board but those ribs brought me out. They look fantastic. Do you prefer to cook them to fall off the bone tenderness or do you prefer more texture?

[Big Guy]

I like a little texture , but it should slip off the bone easily. 3-2-1 method works for me

[Jogeephus]

Same here but I don't mind if I err toward pulling off the bone.

What kind of smoker are you using? I've admired the products you've made with it and am really impressed. Does it have a thermastat or do you set it and it keeps the heat once set.

Reason I ask is my smoker is homemade with the intent of using the plentiful supply of pecan I have to pick up each year. It keeps the heat good but Saturday I smoked some sausages and I had to babysit it for 12.5 hours till the internal target temp was met. This was a little much for me plus some could say the summer sausages were too heavily smoked so I'd like to find another way of doing this. But if this is the sacrifice I have to make to have such treats I can continue babysitting.

[Big Guy]

I have a propane powered GOSM (great outdoors Smokey Mountain) I used to have a UDS (ugly drum Smoker) but I couldn't get good control on the temp. The propane you just set it and it holds the temp no fiddling
For smoking sausage you really don't want to get your smoker over 175 F or the fat will render out of your sausages and the outside will be greasy and dry in texture. Ribs I set it at 225 and it might rise to 235 by the time (6 hrs) the ribs are done. Great for pulled pork as a butt can take 12-16 hrs to smoke @ 250 to reach an internal of 190. Low and slow is the way to go. I prefer the propane as you have extra heat capacity to smoke in the winter, electrics just don't have enough power.

[Jogeephus]

My smoker is a 3-section jury rig I built out of old propane tanks. I have good control of the temp but I have to stoke the fire box every hour to keep things going. This can be inconvenient if its going to be a long cook.

This was my first stab at summer sausages. They turned out good and people seemed to love them but to me I thought they had too much smoke on them. 12.5 hours at 155 degrees made them quite smokey.

This is where I think non - wood fired cooking would be better. After 4 hours the sausages looked beautiful but they needed another 8.5 hours to get them cooked. I read in Ryteks book about using a steam chamber and I've read something about poaching sausages but I'm still trying to understand what all this means. Sorry for the ramblings.


edit - here's what they ended up looking like