The BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS. - New Pit Baptized in Smoke for Fathers Day (with pron)

So it has been an amazing week with an awesome weekend. My new pit from R&O Smokers was delivered during the week and this weekend I got to break it in. Also snuck in seeing Superman - Man of Steel! (great movie by the way).

Pit was delivered Wednesday = Joygasim
Thursday = Pit Burn and Seasoning
Trip to Costco = 6 Racks of ribs (3 St Louis and 3 Pork Loin Baby Backs)
Saturday = Ribs, Wings, Baked Beans, and Coleslaw. The Bean and Wings I have never done before so was fun.

Got up around 6am, pulled the pit out of the garage, fired is up and got it warming up with figured a little more burn in with some pecan sticks.

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Little tweaks to learn the positions of the dampers and stack was easier then I expected. Locked in at 275, 4" sticks 12" in length averaged around 50 minutes of cook time.

Went in and laid out the nom nom nommies for prep and consumption.

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My buddy Josh was over helping and learning and my twin came - so it took a little longer than usual but I love talking BBQ, love cooking BBQ, and love answering questions when I can. I LOVE learning BBQ too and for me the best way I've learned so far is asking questions and getting off my butt and cooking!

Won't bore y'all with all the pics my twin snapped showing him the membrane removal and trimming and seasoning and will fast forward to dropping these bad boys on the smoker.

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Now that the ribs were on - I turned my attention to some bacon slices ... not as thick as I had hoped my wife would bring home but we made it work. I had soaked some beans over night in chicken broth so they were read for some crock pot cooking. Never having smoked bacon or having never made baked beans Josh and I were experimenting and they turned out pretty good.

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I will never fry bacon again lol ... seriously was awesome. With all ingredients in the baked beans and having them cooking I went out and flipped my ribs. YES I cook 2 hours meat up and 1 hour meat down before wrapping.

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An hour passed and the ribs were ready for wrapping. My twin snapped this as I was wrapping them up.

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They went back on the pit for another hour ...

I had the wings inside covered in some rub and was about ready to bring out for the smoker. I knew I was going to cook them at 350 for roughly 1.5 hours (thanks to help from some of the brethren). Problem was that I had 30 minutes of smoker share time. So I took a chance.

Put the wings on at 275 for 30 minutes. Pulled the ribs, threw on another stick, opened the pit up a bit ... was awesome to see it jump from 275 to 350 within about 5 minutes. At around an hour into the wing cook I spritzed them with some olive oil, flipped them, spritzed them and let them finish off. They crisped up awesome and flavor was fantastic as my wife put it. I'll tweak the rub a little but I can honestly I will never fry another wing again!

Ribs before wrapping and being thrown in the warmer box.
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Meant to take some pics of the finished products but with 20+ people there the masses killed it all!

Over all I learned that a quality smoker makes a HUGE difference. I didn't need a water pan, I didn't need to worry about the wind killing temp, the insulated firebox + 4" stick rocked the temp I love cooking at. Over all I had a great Father's Day - which by the way was my first. My son is 5 months old. Hopefully I'll pass the pit on to him one day.