So I am one of those people who are struggling with "smoke flavor" or lack thereof from my pellet smoker, compared to my WSM (which ironically I am battling the opposite issue with; more to come with that). I have a very busy family life, and as a result, my pellet smoker and weber gasser get the brunt of the work. There's give and take with all types of cookers, so I know some sacrifices are made. In the pursuit of trying to maximize said flavor on the pellet smoker, I decided to do a few upgrades and mess around with pellet choices.
So for this cook, I did 1 rack pork spare ribs, basic 50/50 S&P rub (kosher salt, coarse ground pepper). Sprayed with 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water if meat got dry. 4 hour smoke 225 ("smoke level 10"), 1 hour wrapped at 275, 30-ish minutes unwrapped and glazed at 275. If it sounds familiar, Jeremy Yoder did a video on this and I wanted to follow it as close as possible.
Fuel was a 2:1 mix of Lumberjack Oak Pellets and Royal Oak Charcoal pellets.
So ribs turned out GREAT! Just 3 things I would change (I am my own worst critic)
1. I trimmed them poorly. Tiny bones on ends, not very uniformed. Been a while since I've done spare ribs, we usually go babyback...that will change
2. I think I got more "smoke flavor" than previous attempts, but I'm looking for more...so next go I will do a 1:1 wood/charcoal pellet mix in the hopper.
3. May have been more fall of the bone than I'd like, but my family loves them this way.
Anyway, here are some pics (I Hope). After I feel I come to the conclusion of my pellet experiment, I will probably mess around with my WSM and different charcoal other than KBB.
So for this cook, I did 1 rack pork spare ribs, basic 50/50 S&P rub (kosher salt, coarse ground pepper). Sprayed with 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water if meat got dry. 4 hour smoke 225 ("smoke level 10"), 1 hour wrapped at 275, 30-ish minutes unwrapped and glazed at 275. If it sounds familiar, Jeremy Yoder did a video on this and I wanted to follow it as close as possible.
Fuel was a 2:1 mix of Lumberjack Oak Pellets and Royal Oak Charcoal pellets.
So ribs turned out GREAT! Just 3 things I would change (I am my own worst critic)
1. I trimmed them poorly. Tiny bones on ends, not very uniformed. Been a while since I've done spare ribs, we usually go babyback...that will change
2. I think I got more "smoke flavor" than previous attempts, but I'm looking for more...so next go I will do a 1:1 wood/charcoal pellet mix in the hopper.
3. May have been more fall of the bone than I'd like, but my family loves them this way.
Anyway, here are some pics (I Hope). After I feel I come to the conclusion of my pellet experiment, I will probably mess around with my WSM and different charcoal other than KBB.