Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Now summer is approaching what is everyone smoking

OK, so the beef ribs were a disappointment. The cook itself went well (6-1/2 hours or so) but there was essentially no meat on the ribs, just fat. I put enough rub on for meaty ribs, so the few little scraps of meat were way too salty.

Oh well.

Did a practice cook of some pork spareribs this afternoon trying out a new technique for long cooks on the Weber -- alternating between the two baskets so I can do top-down burns and run for 3-6 hours unattended instead of adding a few lumps of charcoal every hour.

Some people are getting 12-13 hour burns on a single load of charcoal by filling up one whole side of the bbq and doing a top down burn with that, but if all the coals light (it happens) you go from 250 to 400F in a flash and there's not much to be done other than shut all the vents and hope it goes out soon.

The spares worked out great -- certainly the best ribs I have ever cooked -- and now I'm 1/2 hour into my first smoked brisket. Roughly 8 pounds after trimming, covered in BRITU rub and sitting awkwardly in a foil pan two sizes too small 'cause everything I read says you gotta use a foil pan if you don't have a water smoker or offset smoker.

The pan is supposed to prevent shrinkage, but if the brisket doesn't shrink a lot it ain't gonna fit in the pan.

Fingers crossed. Time to check the temps then get my first hour or two of sleep.