ht01us
New member
The weather was beautiful this weekend; a great time for the inaugural cook on my new Mak 2 Star General smoker. I set up 3 racks of St. Louis cut ribs which I bought at Cash and Carry; I also did 8 brats from New Seasons of various styles. I normally do baby back ribs but thought I'd try the meatier St. Louis cut this time.
Saturday afternoon
The cooker needed to be "seasoned" which I think really means burning off all the machine oil from manufacturing. So, I loaded in some pellets; turned it to high and let er' rip about 45 minutes.
While that is going on, I bust out the ribs and apply some Meathead's Memphis Dust
Sunday after church and swimming, I load the hopper with apple pellets and set it to 225 degrees. Once it gets up to temp, on go the ribs
I let them go for 3 hours. It's a great change from working with the Weber kettle grill with the Smokenator where I had to constantly monitor temps, add water, sweep ashes and so on. While they were smoking, I made my barbecue sauce. This is a smoker board, not a cooking board. If you are interested in the sauce, you can check out my blog entry (hope this isn't breaking a rule)
After 2 hours, I added 8 brats of various flavors on the bottom grill to one side. After they cooked for a bit I moved them to the upper grill. I didn't start them on the upper grill because I was worried about raw pork juice dripping down.
After 3 hours, I wrapped in foil with apple juice for 40 minutes. Then out of the foil and back on the grill for 40 more minutes. While they finished, I heated up the gas grill to high. I transferred the ribs there, painted both sides with my barbecue sauce, and sizzled them.
Cut them up; this picture doesn't do the smoke ring justice. I was pretty happy with the looks
Dinner is served
Summary
They were easy to make, but they weren't my best ribs ever. They had a nice mild smoke flavor, but were a little tough and didn't have a rich meaty pork flavor. The smallest rack was the best leading me to think that they should have cooked longer. But that's part of the fun; figuring out what works and what needs work. I'm looking forward to some feedback.
Saturday afternoon
The cooker needed to be "seasoned" which I think really means burning off all the machine oil from manufacturing. So, I loaded in some pellets; turned it to high and let er' rip about 45 minutes.
While that is going on, I bust out the ribs and apply some Meathead's Memphis Dust
Sunday after church and swimming, I load the hopper with apple pellets and set it to 225 degrees. Once it gets up to temp, on go the ribs
I let them go for 3 hours. It's a great change from working with the Weber kettle grill with the Smokenator where I had to constantly monitor temps, add water, sweep ashes and so on. While they were smoking, I made my barbecue sauce. This is a smoker board, not a cooking board. If you are interested in the sauce, you can check out my blog entry (hope this isn't breaking a rule)
After 2 hours, I added 8 brats of various flavors on the bottom grill to one side. After they cooked for a bit I moved them to the upper grill. I didn't start them on the upper grill because I was worried about raw pork juice dripping down.
After 3 hours, I wrapped in foil with apple juice for 40 minutes. Then out of the foil and back on the grill for 40 more minutes. While they finished, I heated up the gas grill to high. I transferred the ribs there, painted both sides with my barbecue sauce, and sizzled them.
Cut them up; this picture doesn't do the smoke ring justice. I was pretty happy with the looks
Dinner is served
Summary
They were easy to make, but they weren't my best ribs ever. They had a nice mild smoke flavor, but were a little tough and didn't have a rich meaty pork flavor. The smallest rack was the best leading me to think that they should have cooked longer. But that's part of the fun; figuring out what works and what needs work. I'm looking forward to some feedback.
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