3-2-1 My Very First Smoke!

Stopped at Pavilions, the store across the street (kind of) from my condo on my way home from work Saturday. They must have been expecting huge Memorial Day sales because as I was looking at the selection of baby back ribs, they rolled out a cart loaded with them. I had the pick of the litter! I chose large racks that looked like they had plenty of meat on them.



I gave them a light sprinkling of a rub, wrapped them up and put them in the frig for Monday’s smoke. Then I did some more reading on the How to’s of smoking, got them out of the frig and rinsed off the rub. I don’t want my ribs tasting like ham!

Being in the barbecue biz you’d think I’ve done smoking by now. Well actually I have but when I gave my electric Cookshack to my brother, I lost it. Do you think I have enough junk? Looks like I need to do some sweeping. Not my job! I loaded the fuel ring half full with Kingsford briquettes, added a couple of chunks of cherry and found that I was out of hickory chunks. No problem as I added hickory chips.  



I have a lot of smoking woods, chips and pellets. This is how I keep them. Chunks in the blue bins and chips in the red, coffee containers.



I reapplied the rub when I got up. The ribs didn’t fit flat on my 18 inch WSM so I rolled them.  Fifteen lit briquettes poured on top and I was ready to go.  At 10AM they were ready for the WSM.



Because this was my first attempt at smoking I was very concerned with the temps. The new WSM’s have thermometers built in to their lids. Not knowing if it was correct I put another in to one of the top vents. Then I didn’t know if either was correct.  There was a 25 to 50 degree difference between the two.  I brought the mobile thermometer in to the house and stuck it in to boiling water. Looking at it and holding it over the hot water I thought…. What temp am I looking for? DUH! I guessed at 100 C and after Googling I found that I was right! It just never reached 100C. Hmmm. It was the hottest reading thermometer and it wasn’t right.  Maybe. Oh well, I’ll trust the Weber thermometer which registers lower.



Three hours after smoking, they were ready for their foil wrapping. I also spritzed them with apple juice. But are they where they are supposed to be? Never having done it before, I was worried. Was I going to kill my guests? 



3-2-1 and they are done!!! I did the toothpick (wooden skewer) test and it went through as if they were butter. They’re done! This is after their last hour with very little sauce. My thought is that if you want sauce, add it yourself!



Here we go!

 

We had coleslaw and potato salad along with the doctored up baked beans. If you haven’t tried it, Tobasco now makes a sweet and hot sauce and it’s terrific in beans with some brown sugar added for more calories.

Look at that, my very first smoke ring. I did good! They were moist, tender and not fatty at all.



So, what do I make next?

Great Job!  It looks great.

I still haven't tried my smoker out.  I did use it as a charcoal grill this weekend for some chicken, dogs, and turkey burgers....  So I'm on my way.

Those ribs look great - congratulations!

How about a smaller butt for pulled pork?  Or a chuck roast for shredded beef?  Or a salmon fillet?

Have you seen the eyelets that replace the bolts for the grate supports?  They'll let you put a thermometer right at grate level.  Unfortunately I can't remember who makes them or where I got them, but I'll bet you could find the info here.

Brad

Those looks AMAZING! :)

Very, Very nice!!!

Hey Brad!  I actually have those eyelets.  I haven't figured out what will hold the grill supports if I install them.  The handles I added are symetrical and I only need 2 of them, but it would look off kilter if I removed two of them.  

I'd love to do a butt, but that middle of the night thing is a problem to me.  I'll have to figure out the timing.  Same thing for a brisket which I would really love.

Thank you for the encouragement.  I appreciated it!

Mike, you should try the smoker!  I was amazed at how good the ribs were.  I read the boards for maybe a year before tackling

Mar52, those look just beautiful! I bet you enjoyed them.

Thank you, all!

Yes, I did enjoy them and the fact that everything worked like it was supposed to.

Great looking ribs...now smoke a Meat Loaf, you'll love it!
BTW, you still got "Boys Market" in Marina del Rey? In the 70's it was the best place in LA to pick up women!!!

Mar, they are perfect. I'm with you on no sauce while smoking although if the mood strikes me I will do a quick glaze at the end. From the looks of your equipment I'm guessing you are a Weber dealer (Good move) but I cannot find a part number for the heads in my Weber parts book?

I can walk to what was once the Boys Market.  It's on my corner. Sure do miss them. It's now a Ralphs.  I also miss the California Donut that was inside.  They had the BEST apple fritters!

I am a Weber dealer.  What "heads" are you talking about?
The burners?  I'll send you whatever you need if I have them.  

Would you believe that after being a bbq dealer for 15 years I didn't start cooking with charcoal until last year?  Don't know if I'll ever go back!

Those ribs look great, and I am sure that you all really enjoyed them.  The pictures are making me hungry even after I have just eaten.

mar52


I can walk to what was once the Boys Market.  It's on my corner. Sure do miss them. It's now a Ralphs.  I also miss the California Donut that was inside.  They had the BEST apple fritters!

I am a Weber dealer.  What "heads" are you talking about?
The burners?  I'll send you whatever you need if I have them.  

Would you believe that after being a bbq dealer for 15 years I didn't start cooking with charcoal until last year?  Don't know if I'll ever go back!

JohnA asked about the heads.

Mar,

The ribs look great!  Nice job on a frist try!

I have been using the 3-2-1 method for a while and I like the way the ribs come out.  What I usually do is a 3-2 then do a 1 one what will be served that night and chill or freeze the rest for later.  It's rare that any get in the freezer, they just don't last that long. It seems that the ribs we have the next day are better. 

My problem was that after they rested they were not very hot.

Any trick to serving hot ribs?

mar52


I can walk to what was once the Boys Market.  It's on my corner. Sure do miss them. It's now a Ralphs.  I also miss the California Donut that was inside.  They had the BEST apple fritters!

I am a Weber dealer.  What "heads" are you talking about?
The burners?  I'll send you whatever you need if I have them.  

Would you believe that after being a bbq dealer for 15 years I didn't start cooking with charcoal until last year?  Don't know if I'll ever go back!

The maniquin heads in the lower left corner of the picture.

 

Oh!  The girls.

There are 3 of them, Iris, Rose and Gladiola.  They used to be planted in the thin strip of dirt on the patio.  

I figured if anyone jumped over my fence with uncool ideas they'd jump right back out after seeing them.

They used to wear wigs.

I just can't give them up.

I like that "Roll the Ribs" Idea!!!
I never thought of that and have been wrestling with the how to make them fit my 36 year old Sears, a.k.a. Arkla, Gas Grill for years!!! . I'm off today and will be doing a rack of Spare Ribs and will try that idea on for size. THANX Again!

mar52


Oh!  The girls.

There are 3 of them, Iris, Rose and Gladiola.  They used to be planted in the thin strip of dirt on the patio.  

I figured if anyone jumped over my fence with uncool ideas they'd jump right back out after seeing them.

They used to wear wigs.

I just can't give them up.

 
LOL. Good idea.

Foodbme


I like that "Roll the Ribs" Idea!!!
I never thought of that and have been wrestling with the how to make them fit my 36 year old Sears, a.k.a. Arkla, Gas Grill for years!!! . I'm off today and will be doing a rack of Spare Ribs and will try that idea on for size. THANX Again!

 
Well, I did the Ribs. they were good but not as good as they could have been. I subscribe to a newsletter at http://www.smoking-meat.com/ and I followed  Jeff Phillips 3-2-1- Instruction sheet----almost.
It's a learning process, right?
What I learned----

1. I reduced the final cooking hour---Don't do dat again! They were OK but not falling off the bone good. Should have cooked longer.
2. Used Charlie Vergos Rendezvous Rib Seasoning--- used too much of it. Lighten up. Try other rib rubs. Charlie's is designed as an " after cooking" rub. Don't think it's made for the cooking stage.
3. Used Apple Cider to spray. Use Apple Juice next time and spray much sooner in the process.
4. I trimmed too much fat off the ribs and didn't spray soon enough. They were a little dry but the steam from the juice while wrapped in foil helped a lot.
5. Used my Gas Grill. Had trouble controlling the temp low enough. Solution--Put a Smoker on the Father's Day Wish List! 

That sure didn't take long!  Way to go!

The Weber sure proved easy to use.  I have the 18 1/2" model.  I highly recommend it.

I sprayed with apple juice every hour during the first 3 hours of cooking and then sprayed before foiling.  

The racks of baby backs were all over 2 pounds so I did the full 3-2-1.  If they had been smaller I would have eased up on the 2 and 1.

I can't wait to do another smoke.

Looks really good. Webers rock!

The head by the grill concerns me too but other than that.........

Marlene those look awesome!  Great job!

VERY NICE!!!
 
Thank you for posting decently sized pictures!! I find that 640 X 480 are the maximum size that this forum will display without adding that obnoxious horizontal scroll bar.
 
I’ve never done ribs, just fish, fowl, and pastrami.
 
When I first read the title of the thread I thought you meant 3-2-1 GO! After reading some of the comments I noticed the word “method” associated with 3-2-1 and Minion so I Googled them and learned what you and others were talking about.
 
Did you, as in the pictures, put the ribs on the top grill only? Did you use the lower grill? As for the length of the ribs, I think I would have cut them in half to fit on the two grills but that’s just me. Would that be a no-no?
 
I see that the smoker has a thermometer at the very top and you placed the second thermometer in one of the vent holes. Could the probe have been resting against the side of the top? It also looks like that it might have been measuring the heated gases as they came around the water pan. This may account for the temperature variance. If the thermometer is touching the metal the metal temperature might influence the reading, that and the gasses moving around the water pan are pretty much near their hottest in that location.

I’ve never seen a smoker that is in 3 sections before so I took a look around and found a plethora of videos on YouTube about this smoker and this extremely informative site.

 
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/tour.html
 
Here are some different ways to install additional thermometers from that site:
 
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/mounttherm.html
 
Here are some more:
(I don’t like the through the handle one because the probe touches the metal top)

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/moretherm.html
 
This is from a site that sells the eyelets and there’s a drawing showing how they are installed in a screw hole.
 
http://www.thebbqguru.com/bbqWsmEyelets.cfm##
 
If you want to check if meat is done you can look for an internal temperature in Fahrenheit with an instant read thermometer. This is a chart that may help.


This is the start point for “The Smoke Ring” web ring, which is a number of websites dedicated to BBQing and smoking food. When on a web ring site there is always a navigation box at the bottom of the page where links will take you to “next” “previous” “next five” “random site” etc. all of whom are members of the web ring.
 
http://www.thesmokering.com/default.jsp


These are videos from the guy that has the Virtual Weber Bullet website.

You have thermometers that read in centigrade? How about Kelvin or Rankine?

Hey Food Fan!  

The Virtual Bullet is one of the sites I hang out at.  They have a wealth of information there and the guys are very friendly and helpful.

This was my very first time using a bullet smoker so I only used the top rack.  Couldn't see me reaching down into the hot smokey cooker to rotate the ribs.  I might try a rib rack the next time although the curling of the racks seemed to work just fine.  The only problem is that they hold that shape.

I did the 2 thermometer thing because I didn't trust the one in the hood.  I'm going to depend on it from now on.  The thermometer in the vent hole was suspended into the air space, not touching any metal.

The water pan was almost completely full when I was finished after 6 hours.  I might try less water the next time because getting rid of a heavy pan full of greasy water is a problem.  I then might try the foil covered clay pot holder instead of the water the next time.

Had a demo of The Big Green Egg yesterday at my store and it was quite impressive.  But I'm going to keep my WSM.

Oh, another site I go to and I see several of the guys from here over there is:

http://www.bbq-4-u.com/forum/index.php?sid=5d525fdb86950dd926cf8d0ca8a1ebe1

Extremely nice board with people who love to barbecue and grill.

There is a difference!