Hi all! I feel like it's been forever since I last smoked some meat (I checked my last BBQ smoking session and it was 2015!). So I was eager to get back on it and decided to try and smoke some beef short ribs. I still haven't really nailed down my process or technique yet so still learning a lot and was prepared to mess up the meat if things went wrong!
Using my Weber kettle, I set up a small snake method with briquettes and then used my chimney to try and light a few pieces of briquettes to get the snake going - this took forever! Still need to figure out the best way to start a quick fire as these briquettes were really hard to light at first (using some wood wool firelighters as well which burn for 10 minutes straight). When I finally got the briquettes lit, I put them on one end of the snake and closed the kettle lid with my Maverick ET732 measuring temperature - I waiting so long for the temperature to get pass 250F! I felt like it took forever to get the temperature to rise high enough for the meat to go on (I checked and it took about just over an hour for temperature to rise to 270 ish).
Finally, meat went on. I bought an extension rack to create a 2-level cooking area and put the beef ribs on top. I had some cheap and skinny pork ribs lying around (they were cut in half already) so I just threw them on as well underneath the beef ribs. I used only hickory wood chunks throughout the cook. Temperature was held steady between 275-290F (I was aiming for 285F so I was fine with the higher end of temperature range).
After 3 hours, I spritz with apple cider vinegar and water mixture. At the 4 hour mark, I wrapped the pork ribs for another hour or so in foil. The pork ribs were overcooked but they were skinny to begin with anyway. I didn't care as much as today was about beef ribs! Although at some point I will try to perfect my pork ribs process.
I kept spritzing the beef ribs every hour or so (was longer than an hour between each spritz actually). By the 6 hour mark I was hoping they were done but internal temperature was only around 150-170F. I was starting to panic as I thought things were going wrong but kettle temperature was still holding steady between 275-290F. At the 7 hour mark, beef ribs internal temperature was around 170-180 and I didn't want this to go on for too much longer as I was running out of time so I wrapped in foil and inserted the ET732's meat probe into the ribs (I didn't have it inserted the whole cook, just checked temps every time I spritz). I was hoping the foil would help speed things up and it worked! The ribs stayed wrapped for one hour and during this time, I saw the internal temperature go up quickly from 180F to 205F! Probed like soft butter.
Exactly 8 hours into the cook, the beef ribs were done. Rested for 30 minutes before slicing. They were incredibly tender and juicy! I was so happy that I didn't fail for my first time smoking in 5 years!
Any feedback and tips for future cooks would be appreciated!
Using my Weber kettle, I set up a small snake method with briquettes and then used my chimney to try and light a few pieces of briquettes to get the snake going - this took forever! Still need to figure out the best way to start a quick fire as these briquettes were really hard to light at first (using some wood wool firelighters as well which burn for 10 minutes straight). When I finally got the briquettes lit, I put them on one end of the snake and closed the kettle lid with my Maverick ET732 measuring temperature - I waiting so long for the temperature to get pass 250F! I felt like it took forever to get the temperature to rise high enough for the meat to go on (I checked and it took about just over an hour for temperature to rise to 270 ish).
Finally, meat went on. I bought an extension rack to create a 2-level cooking area and put the beef ribs on top. I had some cheap and skinny pork ribs lying around (they were cut in half already) so I just threw them on as well underneath the beef ribs. I used only hickory wood chunks throughout the cook. Temperature was held steady between 275-290F (I was aiming for 285F so I was fine with the higher end of temperature range).
After 3 hours, I spritz with apple cider vinegar and water mixture. At the 4 hour mark, I wrapped the pork ribs for another hour or so in foil. The pork ribs were overcooked but they were skinny to begin with anyway. I didn't care as much as today was about beef ribs! Although at some point I will try to perfect my pork ribs process.
I kept spritzing the beef ribs every hour or so (was longer than an hour between each spritz actually). By the 6 hour mark I was hoping they were done but internal temperature was only around 150-170F. I was starting to panic as I thought things were going wrong but kettle temperature was still holding steady between 275-290F. At the 7 hour mark, beef ribs internal temperature was around 170-180 and I didn't want this to go on for too much longer as I was running out of time so I wrapped in foil and inserted the ET732's meat probe into the ribs (I didn't have it inserted the whole cook, just checked temps every time I spritz). I was hoping the foil would help speed things up and it worked! The ribs stayed wrapped for one hour and during this time, I saw the internal temperature go up quickly from 180F to 205F! Probed like soft butter.
Exactly 8 hours into the cook, the beef ribs were done. Rested for 30 minutes before slicing. They were incredibly tender and juicy! I was so happy that I didn't fail for my first time smoking in 5 years!
Any feedback and tips for future cooks would be appreciated!
