I guess it really is "the cook not the cooker"

C

comfrank

Knows what a fatty is.
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Entered a rib-only comp this past weekend where the organizer supplied you with two racks of ribs, and that was all you could cook. We thought, "It doesn't take a whole farking team to cook two racks of ribs, so why not split up." My wife, who usually cooks with me, entered as a separate team.

Now, I have what I consider to be the cadillac of water smokers--a 22.5" WSM outfitted with a DigiQ II--and it did me right. Third place, $100 prize, not bad. My wife was forced to cook on an El Cheapo Brinkman, unmodified in anyway except for the rust and cobwebs it collected after sitting unused underneath the back porch for the last 15 years. Yep, you guessed it. She took 2nd to my 3rd.

She's going to be insufferable for a while. :drama:

--frank in Wilson, NY
 
Better sell the Brinkman so that won't happen again...
 
I'm not a fan of the big bullet-even though it is our Rib cookin' machine!

Will you allow your wife to give us any secret tips on the ECB???
 
boogiesnap said:
you're in for it!
same recipe or different?
Click to expand...

Different recipes. I used a standard-type rib rub--pepper, paprika, salt, sugar, some cumin--with a sweetish tomato-based sauced. She went wacko--lots of five-spice in the rub with a sauce based on ginger, soy sauce, sugar, and sherry.

--frank in Wilson, NY
 
swamprb said:
Will you allow your wife to give us any secret tips on the ECB???
Click to expand...

Ok, I asked my wife for her tips and here they are:

1. If your charcoal pan doesn't have an air hole, put one there. Our ECB is an older model, circa 1988, and there is a nickel-sized hole in the center of the fire pan for (minimal) air flow. The newer models don't have such a hole. If yours doesn't, get a drill!

2. Put a large aluminum pizza plate underneath the smoker to catch any ash or embers.

3. Break down your ribs, appropriately. Standard rib slabs are too long to fit on the cooking grates. Rather than rolling them, or cutting them in half, instead cut off a couple of ribs from each end. That will give you seven or eight choice ribs from the middle of each slab to choose from for turn-in.

4. Do a practice run with a thermometer on the cooking grate so that you can get an idea of the correspondence between actual temperatures and the Brinkman "Warm/Ideal/Hot" thermometers. For our smoker, "d", "e", or "a" is where she wants to cook at.

5. Use a full water pan, but only a half full charcoal pan. If you fill the charcoal pan, your fire will start out way too hot, but by the time the temperature drops to where it should be you'll have so much ash that the coals bank and you'll have trouble keeping the cooking chamber hot enough.

6. When the temperature gets to the low end of your acceptable range ("d" for our smoker), add a few handfuls of lump charcoal and a small wood chunk. Our older model is one solid cylinder, so the cooking chamber cannot be separated from the charcoal section. That means she has to go through the door. She uses a long-handled metal spoon to liberate coals from ashes, pushing some ashes through the hole, and then uses the spoon to add the charcoal. Make sure the hole doesn't get covered up with unlit coals!

7. Don't open the lid at all until it's time to check for doneness.

Follow these tips, and maybe you too can be a master of the ECB!

--frank in Wilson, NY
 
comfrank said:
Ok, I asked my wife for her tips and here they are:

1. If your charcoal pan doesn't have an air hole, put one there. Our ECB is an older model, circa 1988, and there is a nickel-sized hole in the center of the fire pan for (minimal) air flow. The newer models don't have such a hole. If yours doesn't, get a drill!

2. Put a large aluminum pizza plate underneath the smoker to catch any ash or embers.

3. Break down your ribs, appropriately. Standard rib slabs are too long to fit on the cooking grates. Rather than rolling them, or cutting them in half, instead cut off a couple of ribs from each end. That will give you seven or eight choice ribs from the middle of each slab to choose from for turn-in.

4. Do a practice run with a thermometer on the cooking grate so that you can get an idea of the correspondence between actual temperatures and the Brinkman "Warm/Ideal/Hot" thermometers. For our smoker, "d", "e", or "a" is where she wants to cook at.

5. Use a full water pan, but only a half full charcoal pan. If you fill the charcoal pan, your fire will start out way too hot, but by the time the temperature drops to where it should be you'll have so much ash that the coals bank and you'll have trouble keeping the cooking chamber hot enough.

6. When the temperature gets to the low end of your acceptable range ("d" for our smoker), add a few handfuls of lump charcoal and a small wood chunk. Our older model is one solid cylinder, so the cooking chamber cannot be separated from the charcoal section. That means she has to go through the door. She uses a long-handled metal spoon to liberate coals from ashes, pushing some ashes through the hole, and then uses the spoon to add the charcoal. Make sure the hole doesn't get covered up with unlit coals!

7. Don't open the lid at all until it's time to check for doneness.

Follow these tips, and maybe you too can be a master of the ECB!

--frank in Wilson, NY
Click to expand...


DAY-Emmm

If I even READ that post to my wife, i would get a blank stare. The only words she would understand is "pizza" and "bank". Does your wife give lessons? If I try, I would get hit with a shoe.
 
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