Rant: took me 5 months to figure out why my ribs were always gray

I kept chasing temps and rubs for 5 months, but the real problem was my fire. I was throwing on unlit charcoal and letting the white smoke roll the whole cook, so every rack came out looking like wet ash on the outside. The day it clicked was a Wednesday in April when I noticed the smoke smelled like a matchstick for the first 40 minutes. I started lighting a full chimney and waiting 15 minutes until the smoke ran thin and blue, and the color changed on the very next cook. Then I quit wrapping in foil at 165 and let them ride to 200 with just a spritz of apple juice. Has anyone else wasted a whole spring on dirty smoke because they were too stubborn to change one step?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

verar636d ago

Five months seems like a long time to pin down smoke quality, but I am not sure it is as big a deal as you are making it. Plenty of folks run dirty smoke on purpose and still turn out ribs people fight over at the table. The gray bark you are describing might bother you, but most people eating it would not know the difference unless you pointed it out. Waiting 15 minutes for thin blue smoke is fine if you have the time, but some of us have jobs and kids and cannot babysit a chimney starter all afternoon. You found what works for you and that is great, but calling it wasted time feels like a stretch. Half the fun of this hobby is messing up and figuring it out as you go.

8