I need some help from you expert smokers....
I bought a Brinkman vertical smoker and made the recommended modifications to it (drilled holes in the charcoal pan). I cured it per the instructions and yesterday I attempted my first smoke.
I smoked some ribs and a pork shoulder. I applied a rub to both and let them sit overnight. I brought the meat to near room temp before putting it on the smoker.
I used normal kingsford charcoal with a few pieces of hickory wood mixed in. The temperature of the smoker throughout the whole smoke was maintained between 190 and 230 (usually about 210).
The food did not come out well. The ribs never became very tender. I pulled them after about 7.5 hours when their internal temp was around 170. They were fairly tough, EXTREMELY dry and the smoke flavor was overpowering. It was like eating rib jerky.
After 10 hours on the smoker, the shoulder (4.5 lbs) had an internal temp of 145...I brought it up to temp in my regular oven. Like the ribs, the shoulder was dry, tough and too smoky.
Any ideas of what I did wrong? I want to try again and hopefully i'll get better results/
Not an expert by any means (smoked twice), but as I'm learning this new hobby, I've read and collected tons of knowledge so far. Maybe I can shed some light as I just smoked the same spread as you just last week.
First off, you should've got the Weber Smokey Mountain instead.
Just kidding of course.
Anyways, I have a few questions for you:
1) You did keep the water pan full the entire smoke didn't you?
2) Did you soak the wood chips? Soaking the chips leads to more smoke. If you want less smoke, don't soak the chips.
3) When you finished the pork shoulder in the smoker and transfered to the oven, did you be sure to wrap heavily in foil?
4) Did you shred while hot? 30 minutes- hour after cooking?
4) Did you keep the lid shut for the majority of the time? Every time you open, it releases some of the moisture that accumulates inside.
5) What was the top damper open at? The more open, the more smoke. Another way of controlling the desired smoke is to play with the dampers.
Overall, it's possible that you left the ribs on too long. Ribs don't have a ton of meat on them and shouldn't take long. Despite what some say, YES it is possible to "over smoke" and keep on too long. Most recipes I've read, recommends ribs to cook between 4-6 hours. I pulled my two racks of baby backs at 6 hours and actually could've pulled them sooner at the 5 hour mark.
And as for the pork butt, I'm curious to that answer as well. I hear it is more important to stick to cooking times and steady cook temperatures rather than looking at the internal meat temperture. Everything I've read gave the recomendation to use a 1.5x the meat weight. (3lb x 1.5 = 4.5hrs). However I pulled mine on at the 10 hour mark and finished in the oven as well to reach the 190°F recommended internal temperture. I was happy with mine, but could've been a tad more moist.
If I'm wrong on any level, I encourage the more experienced to correct me, but I have learned so much already in my beginning experiences....
