Kudos to the Smoke

[Jaxon]

Y'all...I can tell you without braggin' I had my most successful cook on the offset yesterday.  Here's why:

A coupe of weeks ago Smokesaurus posted about his wonderful, new offset smoker.  Showed pics of how he started his fire.  Well, I thought, that pile of charcoal is a LOT smaller than what I start with. PLUS, he built his fire next to the cookin' chamber - I had mine much closer to the vents in the door and large enough that it stretched the length of the firebox.  I have been usin' a chimney FULL of charcoal and several pieces of wood.  I would struggle with "roller-coaster" temps and had to stay right there tryin' to keep it right.
Well, I know Smoke knows how to cook, so I took his lead and used only half a chimney and a couple of pieces of pecan splits to build the fire.  It was goin' pretty quick and there was lots of room left in the fire box.  Bottom line...I think that his method made all the difference and I tried to figger out why. I THINK the big difference was that with a smaller fire, I had much more control over the air flow - for the first time I was cookin' with the dampers open to 1/4 or less instead of 1/2 open or more.  Without a pile of wood and coals, the fire could "breathe" better and it burned much more efficiently.
It held 225 for almost 5 hours with minimal attention and fewer splits added...and the smoke coming from the exhaust was just right (almost said "perfect").
All of that should have made for great ribs, right?  Well.. the ribs DID turn out. 
But even if they had been only "regular", the cook was the best experience for me because I learned a HUGE lesson about the smoker and I am confident I will be able to cook consistently with what I learned from Smoke's cook.

Part 2: The video
1.  you'll see the temps at 250 early on.  That was just before I put the ribs in.  Temp came down to 225 and I was able to keep it right there for almost 5 hours by adding a few splits from time to time.
2.  you'll see that I should have given the  camera to DEB when we got inside. 
3.  Don was very gracious

Again, this is just a documentary - not a how-to video.

Thanks

[sliding_billy]

Great write-up, but broken link on the video.

[smokeasaurus]

Another great video and thanks for the props. It is always best in an offset to have a smaller and hotter fire that burns clean than a big smoldering pile of coals.

I sure am glad you got a good Old Country. I was sure disappointed when mine was found out to be made faulty and was not repairable. It is the chance you take when you buy something made my hand sight unseen.

My off-set days are not over.....yet......and your videos get me chomping at the bit every time I see them.......

[TentHunteR]

Jaxon, Nice job on that cook buddy!

I totally agree with Smoke's take on fires in charcoal/stick burners for low & slow cooking. You'll find that the same principle holds true for your new-to-you Weber kettle.  Start with a smaller fire (less charcoals) and you will be able to control it more effectively, with a clean burn and no billowing nasty white smoke.

[sliding_billy]

Thanks for fixing the video.  Great work.

[HighOnSmoke]

Great job on your cook and video Jaxon! So how did the beef ribs turn out?

[Albert Rivera]

Jaxon!

Glad to see those beef ribs on your new webbber too!


You are right, an overall successful cook.


Don makes for a pretty good " prop", I want to be a prop too.

[veryolddog]

Another nice production on both ribs and the video by Backyard Video!

Nice to see Don give the taste test.

Ed

[RAD]

nice looking ribs and another great video. Thanks Jax

[Jaxon]

So how did the beef ribs turn out?

Deb picked those up at Wally World and they were pretty much "meatless".  You had much more meat on one bone than we had on the whole rack.  Howsomever, what meat there was tasted pretty good.  I told Deb if we could find ribs like the ones you cooked, we would have some good eats.
Did you get those on the base?

[Jaxon]

Another great video and thanks for the props. It is always best in an offset to have a smaller and hotter fire that burns clean than a big smoldering pile of coals.

Yet ANOTHER great reason to be a member here...great instructions and encouragement for folks like me.

[LostArrow]

Keep cooking "Grasshopper" you'll be as good as Smoke someday

[Jaxon]

Keep cooking "Grasshopper" you'll be as good as Smoke someday

There's a few folks I follow pretty closely for tutorials and help...You are one of them.  You seem to have a cooking style close to mine - only with more experience, etc