# Odd tasting ribs



## LT72884 (Mar 22, 2009)

So today i decided i want to smoke some ribs for my family since a few days ago was just a trial run. It was a bad day i tell you what. First off the charcoal was of poor quality. I used a full 18 pound bag of it in less than 3 hours. The temps would literally drop50-60 degrees in less than 10 seconds and stay that way. Once i finally got them up and somewhat stable i added my mesquite wood to the fire. I soaked them for about 30 minutes then added them to the fire. Once the ribs were finished i added the glaze and finished them off. However i noticed they tasted exactly the same as the other ribs that i smoked with hickory. So i am confused why they tasted the same even though i used two completly different types of wood. I used small amounts of wood and you could hardly taste the meat and rub i used. For some reason all i could taste was a charcoal smokey taste. Maybe because i added so much chacoal to the pan that it over flavored the meat or something else went wrong. I could use some help with this.

Also the minion method failed complelty with me. LOL I guess i learned my lesson to not buy cheap charcoal.

thanx


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## sicklyscott (Mar 26, 2009)

There obviously is a lot of opinions on the way to control your fire and the proper way of smoking meats.  What I try and stick to is to only smoke the meats for the first hour or so, especially on something like babyback ribs.  Also if the goals tend to start to die I try and start a new batch outside of the smoker, all that blue smoke that comes off of the charcoal isn't the best flavor.  

What kind of charcoal were you using?  Briquettes or lump?


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## LT72884 (Mar 26, 2009)

sicklyscott said:


> There obviously is a lot of opinions on the way to control your fire and the proper way of smoking meats.  What I try and stick to is to only smoke the meats for the first hour or so, especially on something like babyback ribs.  Also if the goals tend to start to die I try and start a new batch outside of the smoker, all that blue smoke that comes off of the charcoal isn't the best flavor.
> 
> What kind of charcoal were you using?  Briquettes or lump?


i was using sams choice regular charcoal. So i should smoke for one hour then remove them from the smoker and cook in the oven? is that what you are saying? I am going to try it again in a few weeks when i feel like eating them again. I kinda lost my feelings for babybacks since those tasted way funny to me


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## sicklyscott (Mar 26, 2009)

LT72884 said:


> i was using sams choice regular charcoal. So i should smoke for one hour then remove them from the smoker and cook in the oven? is that what you are saying? I am going to try it again in a few weeks when i feel like eating them again. I kinda lost my feelings for babybacks since those tasted way funny to me


 
What I meant was you should only introduce smoke to the meat for the first hour of cooking.  Cooking it in the oven would be sacralidge!  

Basically when I do my babyback ribs I use Kingsford briquetes, fill up the chimney starter and let them get all ashy.  In the meantime I put down a bed of the briquettes in the smoker box.  Once the charcoal in the chimney starter are hot enough I pour them on top, bring the smoker up to temp and let it settle out.  I then place the meat on the rack and add my smoking chips (that have been soaked in applejuice) on top of the charcoals.  I do this once more 1 hour into it, and that's it.  That's all the "smoking" I do.  The rest is just bbq'ing the ribs at a low 225-250 degree heat.

What I think happened in your case was you kept adding in the charcoal which produced a lot of smoke and kreocite which is what threw off the flavor of your ribs.

Also what kind of smoker do you have?


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## LT72884 (Mar 26, 2009)

sicklyscott said:


> What I meant was you should only introduce smoke to the meat for the first hour of cooking.  Cooking it in the oven would be sacralidge!
> 
> Basically when I do my babyback ribs I use Kingsford briquetes, fill up the chimney starter and let them get all ashy.  In the meantime I put down a bed of the briquettes in the smoker box.  Once the charcoal in the chimney starter are hot enough I pour them on top, bring the smoker up to temp and let it settle out.  I then place the meat on the rack and add my smoking chips (that have been soaked in applejuice) on top of the charcoals.  I do this once more 1 hour into it, and that's it.  That's all the "smoking" I do.  The rest is just bbq'ing the ribs at a low 225-250 degree heat.
> 
> ...



I have the brinkman gourmet smoker. BUT i added a real temp gauge to it and added a charcoal grate about 2 inches off of the bottom so that the ash would not smother the charcoal. I dont get how places such as texas roadhouse have a completely different taste than what mine have had. I dont want my pulled pork to taste like my ribs did.

oh by the way. The smoker never had a grate in it. you just put the coal in a pan and the ash would smother the coal in about half an hour or so to the point of actually putting them out.

thanx

Matt Thomas


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## BBQBob (Mar 28, 2009)

LT, try using lump charcaol next time. It burns hotter and produces less ash. The cheaper charcoals have other ingredients included to form the bricket shape. 
Next time you go to a genuine BBQ joint, notice the pit. They will cook with wood the whole time, no charcoal. Those kinds of establishments will have the best BBQ.
I will smoke with lump charcoal and place a quartered log of apple or pecan in my bullet smoker and have smoke the entire cooking time.


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## LT72884 (Mar 29, 2009)

BBQBob said:


> LT, try using lump charcaol next time. It burns hotter and produces less ash. The cheaper charcoals have other ingredients included to form the bricket shape.
> Next time you go to a genuine BBQ joint, notice the pit. They will cook with wood the whole time, no charcoal. Those kinds of establishments will have the best BBQ.
> I will smoke with lump charcoal and place a quartered log of apple or pecan in my bullet smoker and have smoke the entire cooking time.



I could do that but by the time it is ready to go in the chimney it is all burned up. It seems to burn way stickin fast. How do i make lump charcoal last longer than 20 minutes? Remember i do not have the wsm or a high tech smoker. i have the gourmet smoker by brinkman. I will try it though. Should i just use ALL lump charcoal or what? Dont know were i am going to find apple tree logs or pecan unless i find an old dead apple tree.

Thanx bbqbob


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## BBQBob (Mar 29, 2009)

LT, I use less lump charcoal than briquettes. The lump chacoal I use lasts longer, burns hotter, and produces less ash. True lump charcoal is made from hardwoods only. It is irregular in shape and size. I buy it from a local BBQ store here in Kansas City. During a baby back cook, I may add fuel once or twice.
I was fortunate to acquire my pecan and apple wood from my Dad. An ice storm in southern Missouri created a lot of fire wood. The orchards around here will also have fruit wood available. They will prune their trees to make the limbs strong. Even the smallest trigs will add flavor to the meet. I don't soak my wood. I control the air flow to keep it from flaming.


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## LT72884 (Mar 30, 2009)

BBQBob

I have a bag of cowboy lump charcoal. 
Cowboy at Lowe's: 8.8 lb. Cowboy All-Natural Lump Charcoal

I used that at one point in time but it burned up way way fast. I will try to find some apple wood limbs and see what i can do. Any thing else i should be aware of?

thanx


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## jminion (Mar 31, 2009)

I don't know what you are cooking on but I do know the charcoal you used and it is filled with fillers not good stuff. I would choose your wood choice for ribs and there is no need to soak the wood.
 Cowboy charcoal is cutoff wood pieces and burns quickly leaving no coal base, don't like it either, Royal Oak would be a better choice if you can find it.

What cooker are you using?


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## LT72884 (Apr 1, 2009)

jminion said:


> I don't know what you are cooking on but I do know the charcoal you used and it is filled with fillers not good stuff. I would choose your wood choice for ribs and there is no need to soak the wood.
> Cowboy charcoal is cutoff wood pieces and burns quickly leaving no coal base, don't like it either, Royal Oak would be a better choice if you can find it.
> 
> What cooker are you using?



If the pics showed up it is the brinkman gourmet smoker. So royal oak hardwood charcoal mixed with some kingsford would be good? I would either use wood chunks or chips


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## jminion (Apr 1, 2009)

When I came up with the method I was using a WSM which gives you a lot more control than the Brinkman's version. A briquette charcoal like Kingsford or DuraFlame work much better than your last choice. You are going to have to use fire size for pit temp control. 

Ribs can be cooked hotter, say pit temp of 275. Hickory, pecan or fruitwoods are go choice for ribs.

Also just as a side, when you are in smoke cooking you become less senitive smoke flavor, it is a normal reaction, do others feel the same way about the smoke flavor?


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## LT72884 (Apr 1, 2009)

jminion said:


> When I came up with the method I was using a WSM which gives you a lot more control than the Brinkman's version. A briquette charcoal like Kingsford or DuraFlame work much better than your last choice. You are going to have to use fire size for pit temp control.
> 
> Ribs can be cooked hotter, say pit temp of 275. Hickory, pecan or fruitwoods are go choice for ribs.
> 
> Also just as a side, when you are in smoke cooking you become less senitive smoke flavor, it is a normal reaction, do others feel the same way about the smoke flavor?



Every one liked the ribs but me. They tasted way funny and to charcoally, if thats a word. I did use mesquite wood chips though. But i highly doubt that was the problem. Im also trying to find out a way to make one batch of fuel last 3 or so hours but whats his name said that is hard to accomplish with my smoker..

thanx


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