First Smoke Session - Brisket, Ribs, Loin

MY first smoke session was on April 11th, 2010, and it was a doozy.

Smoked: (lower rack)
Beef short ribs (2)
Baby back ribs (half rack)
Pork Loin (half)

(upper rack):
Full Beef Brisket (no top cut)

Charcoal:
Stubb's briquettes

Wood:
Mesquite chips



Marinade:

Beef short ribs:
http://www.soulfoodandsoutherncooking.com/beef-short-rib-recipe.html
2 cups orange juice, without pulp
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika

Marinade time: 3 days
Baby Back ribs:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,171,156178-230205,00.html

1/2 c. soy sauce
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 lb. baby back ribs
2 tbsp. honey

Mixed first 7 ingredients, marinated in freezer bag overnight. Add Honey (crazy Hawaiian honey) after ribs come off the smoker.

Brisket:
Guinness Marinade http://bbq.about.com/od/marinaderecipes/r/ble30921a.htm
I TRIPLED this recipe. I don't know what moron thought that this recipe would yield sufficiently for an entire brisket, so I had to make adjustments. Ideally, if you marinate your brisket in a freezer bag, the 2/3 of the brisket should be submerged in the marinade.

Marinade time, overnight.

Covered in Salt Lick rub before smoking.

Pork Loin:

Salt lick rub, 24 hours.


Smoking Session
I smoked these meats in my brand spanking new Weber 18.5" Smokey smoker grill smoker. That's not exactly what it's called but its model number is 721001 if you want one too.

For guidance on my first session I relied on the above recipes when applicable, this you tube guys video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y--h4MDeBRw) and the instructions that came with the grill.

I was seriously intimidated - online "smoking" recipes pinned the smoking time from 2 hours to 9 hours, depending on the source. The sites that recommended 2 hours seemed to have only a rudimentary grasp of english, and since we all know BBQing is 100% all American, those sites must be commie pinko plots and should not be trusted. Luckily the video cited above had american guitar blues music blaring in the background plus the host had armpit boobs so I knew it to be legit. His recommendation is "6-9 hours, low and slow". He also rhymed, which is the telltale sign of the soundest of plans.

So my smoker has this fancy thermometer right on the lid, but the internets tell me it can be dubious, so I hung an extra oven thermometer inside. Comparing them yielded a deviation of about 20 degrees, which is significant. The lid thermo was always reading higher, which had an effect on my results, as you will see.

What no redneck video or babel fish translated web site told me was the waiting time starting a smoker. Sure, I didn't have a chimney starter (still in the mail), but even after the goals were all good an grey it was a solid two hours before the smoker dropped to a temperature (260) even smokable. Needless to say this cut severely into my available time. I needed these ribs done for dinner. So I went ahead and at 260 degrees I started smoking.

I filled the water pan, threw in the meat, and put the first of three handfuls of mesquite woodchips on the coals. An hour later the temp was a solid 230 and remained there for the remainder of the smoke. Unforch this was according to the top thermo, so I think was smoking a little hot.

This nagged at my brain, and at three hours I stuck the old meat thermo into the brisket and confirmed my suspicions - it read 166. It should only have read at the msot 160, seeing as the internet told me it would take 4-5 hours to reach 160. So I put the brisket in a disposable drip pan, which is something i should have done from the word go, dropped the temp to around 210 and after a half hour later moved it into phase 2: Wrapped it in foil.

So let's review:
Hour / Comment
-2 hours : Lit charcoal
-1.5 hours : began monitoring temp
0 hours : temp 250, put meats in
1 hours : temp down to 230
3 hours : Brisket reads at 166, put in drip pan, drop temp to 210, wrap beef ribs in foil.
4 hours :

• transferred brisket, bb ribs into foil.
  
• removed pork loin, although left half of pork loin in for experimental purposes
  

At 5.5 hours all meat was removed. Both the beef ribs and the brisket measured a fine 182 degrees, which is perfect

EATING

Short Ribs:

These things rocked, man. Three taste testers all agreed they were absolutely perfect. I do think there's room for improvement on the other meats, but it would be hard to improve on these short ribs. The meat literally slid off the bone, the flavor unbeatable.


Pork Loin:

Excellent flavor, but a bit dry. Need to wrap in foil or smoke at lower temperature. The texture was unparalleled, though, by anything I've every grilled. I even got the holy pink ring!




Ribs:

Almost perfect, just a tad on the dry side. But the flavor was unstoppable.

Brisket:

Haven't eaten it yet, will report later!

Adios for now.