This first cook of beef ribs resulted in great seasoned, smoked beef. Reheated not so much but a lot of good notes and thoughts here.

10/30/2016 – 5.01 lbs. following Malcolm Reed’s recipe here. Ambient temp is 93-87 and humidity is 50%. This was a beautiful fall afternoon.

11:00 AM – Pulled silver skin even though he said to not do it. Rubbed with Big Bad Beef Rub by Meathead at AmazingRibs.com and put into refer uncovered.

BB Beef Rub:
3 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons mustard powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili or ancho powder
1 teaspoon chipotle or cayenne powder

12:00 noon – Set MES to 275 and prewarmed.

12:45 – Had lite Amazen Tray with Trafalger Hickory Pellets that had been nuked for 2+2 minutes. Put Thermoworks air probe on third grate about an 1.5″ from box probe. Placed the beef ribs on the third rack with drip pan below and air probe is only 1″ from cold meat..

1:45 – MES is up near 270 but air probe is about 260. Maybe cool air blanket around cool meat. Good TBS from vent.

2:45 – MES is at 285 with heavy fast smoke and air probe is 283. Push chip loader all the way in and smoke velocity reduce some but still fast. Watched and 10 minutes later closed vent port to 25%. Heavy drip runs on what had been a clean window.

After 3 hrs. smoke & before oven rest

4:05 – Pulled to put into convection over but the bones are protruding and one pulled out clean. Mary said they are done and carried on so we left the oven door open to cool down some (not enough for Mary) and I checked the IT that was around 295. Wrapped the exposed top of the ribs sitting in a sheet pah in alum foil and put into 300 degree oven that had cooled down some. Left it to rest ab hour or so.

5:30 – Ate dinner and the ribs had a mildly flavorful bark and were great tasting dark red beef. The rub had become very dark but did not taste burned.

11/1/2016 – Warmed three ribs in the microwave at work. Meat was dry and a bit chewy but not to much so. Flavor was ok but had been clearly overcooked.

Note that the MES was set on 275 but I several times found the temp was in the 280’s.  I do not think it coast there as we were well past the initial temp swings. Perhaps it was the pellets in the tray burning fast — as evidenced by the heavy fast smoke plume– kept the box temp high and that overcooked them. Per the recipe I followed they should have needed time wrapped to reach 205. Also did not fully wrap them so that could have led to being a bit dry.

Next – Smoke at 250 and insert the probe early.