I said the same thing. And I meant it. I like spares fine. They are on sale more frequently. They are pork.
And then you eat baby backs. You see the smoke penetrate to the bone. You hear the raves from people who eat em.
You eat some and agree with them. You wait for sales on BBRs like a girl waiting for her prom date to arrive.
There is nothing wrong with spare ribs. I am confident that you will eat many of them. But make sure and write
a similar post when you change your tune a bit.
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If you want a real treat (IMO) ask your butcher to get you a rib roast!!! Thats the baby backs with the loin still attached. The outer meat taste's like a cross between the tenderloin and pork chops then you get the baby backs for desert...LOL!!!
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I love you.
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smoking 2 pork butts, a brisket and a Tat havana VI nobles

[IMG]Image[/IMG]
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They look mighty tasty Earl and enjoy that Nobles too:-)
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I love the nobles. they're my every day smoke. great for yard work, grillin, whatever. gotta pick some more up soon though, i'm almost out.
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I will be smoking 2 racks of beef ribs and a rack of BB's, along with a few ABT's on my under experimentation, modified set up with a 10" charcoal basket, a rotis ring, and some rope gasket on my 22" kettle this evening.
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Hi gents! Hope you're enjoying a fine Saturday morning...

I recently had an oportunity to harvest several large branches of apple wood from tree that had been uprooted last fall. The tree was tossed on a large burn pile on my parent's cabin property, so I grabbed dad's chain saw and proceeded to cut small 3" diameter logs approx 6 - 12" long. I then used a small hatchet to remove most of the bark. ...in case you're wondering the chain was not recently oiled and it appeared quite dry.

So I return home several days later and decided to cook my first tri-tip on my Big Steeel Keg. The roast itself was cooked flawlessly. I wasn't expecting too much from this stringy cut of meat, but it cooked well beyond my expectations....BUT there was a foul smoke taste that I just can't quite figure out. This was my first time putting larger logs in my charcoal, so I might have gone wrong somewhere. The smoke tasted almost sour and bitter. It was also much heavier than I expected after only a 2 hour cook.

I don't believe the logs are green, but then again they are not 100% dry and cracked like a very old aged peice of log. Is it possible they are still too green?

I'd be surprised that a slighly green peice of wood could impart such a foul taste.

My BBQ's have largely been with lump charcoal and wood chips, so any adivse you can offer a relative newbie would be much appreciated.

Cheers :-)
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Sounds like you might have oversmoked the food, or you weren't burning clean. How much smoke were you making and for how long?
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Got a 3.5 lb beef loin tri tip that's heading for the smoker pretty soon:-)


Earl: I enjoy the Noble too. Good smoke. Have you tried Holt's Verocu #9?

Adam: How you doing buddy?


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:-)
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HIYO!! Another smoke today, and a fun one to boot. First day with woods other than pecan and
oak or hickory. Bought some apple chunks and tried that. I am not sure they were the best ever,
but they were orgasmic for sure, SUPER juicy and the best smoke flavor I have accomplished yet.
It was also the day of the first "Stay the Hell Out of My Yard" event as a squirrel hit the grill.
He smoked up perfectly, and at the risk of starting a joke, it tasted a lot like chicken.:-) Also smoked up
6 pork steaks cut from a butt. They were eaten while the rest of the food was cooking and fed to
dogs as well, so no pics, although I SHOULD have, they looked freaking awesome, fat all sizzling.....yum.

I need to stop shooting inside, the light coming in that window behnd the plate turns the pic blue and black.
The ribs were all red and purple.

I have to apologize, I took a big bite out of the squirrel before I remembered, $HI+....PICS.
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I asked if my buddy was going to soak his wood (for charcoal smoking) he said no because it causes ash to fly. At first I was going to laugh at his ignorance but then thought I'd ask if anyone here has experienced problems with ash. I certainly have not, but then again I'm still a noob.
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I used to go to the trouble of soaking wood, and then I read that no one should ever soak wood, and I knew so
little I didn't argue. I get better, or as good results dry over the wet. In fact I think would say better, but that might
be just my skill level rising. I cook a mean squirrel, lol. Could not corroborate the flying ash results...I think that's WIND, lol.
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You could be right. The smoke was a little white. Not always the translucent blue/black that I was hoping for. I believe it smoked for 1.5 hours.

I didn't expect the small log to over smoke. This particular branch was only 2" x 6".

Should I allow all sides of the wood to become charred before putting food on the grill?

I normally add dry wood chips during the cook and haven't had any problems, so I assumed adding food while the log was not completely charred wouldn't be a problem.

So do you think the flavours I described were not a result of green wood?

Thanks!
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I was wondering this, i just cut up some maple and oak from my dad's property, but havent used it yet, wondering now, is there something you should do to it before using it...
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Smoked 2 chickens and 3 racks of ribs this morning, on pecan wood from my own tree. Everything was good.
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cooked some burgers over pecan wood today. I am doing some reading to find out how to smoke some cheese. Anyone done any cheese smoking? I am smoking a couple of pork tenderloins tomorrow.
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Did you leave the bark on the log/logs or did you remove it? Tree bark can really burn nasty and impart a horrible flavor.

If you still have some of the wood, just split a few chunks and let them sit a day or so and see how much if any sap comes out. That could be the problem too?
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It might be a little green, but hard to say from here. What sticks out to me is that's a lot of smoke wood. Different design pits work differently though, some designs it might be ok. If I were cooking, I would use probably half or a little less than half of that.

When you use chips, think about how many handfuls of chips you use, and now think about how much a handful compresses. Compare the number of compressed handfuls to that log you tossed on to get an idea.

As for char all the way around, I don't worry about that, I put the wood on and maybe bury a chunk or two in the unlit briquettes, and after the flames and heavy smoke have died down (15-20 minutes usually) I put the meat on. That's what works for me with the smoker I use. If it works for anyone else, that's a bonus.
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