Tried making the "Best Ribs in the Universe" NOW WITH PRON

[tenpenny_05]

Last week somebody had a thread about minion method alternatives. The first or second reply mentioned Mike Scrutchfield's "Best Ribs in the Universe Method" when cooking on the WSM. Always open to new techniques I thought I might give it a whirl, and let me tell you, I am NEVER going back tot he minion method!

Going in a was a little skeptical, my normal method is to dump an entire unlit chimney in the bottom, and depending on the temperature I want, 20/30 lit briquettes on top. So the Idea of one entire lit chimney on the bottom, and entire unlit chimney on top of that AND letting the wood on top become fully engulfed seemed foreign and overkill to me. But man, this method made me feel like I was cheating.

Maybe the oddest thing to do was leave the bottom vents entirely closed for the first 3 hours, but I'll be damned if it didn't hold a perfect 225 degrees with the perfect little whisps of thing blue smoke. The only tricky part, was that after 3 hours you where supposed to get the temperature up to 275, this took a little manipulation and some raking of the coals, but after it got there, it held it steady just like you would expect a WSM to do!

For my cook, I had the ribs on for 3 hours at 225 without looking. at three hours I flipped them over and had them going at 250-275 before pulling them after another 1 hour and 15 minutes. And Holy Moly.

 

[tenpenny_05]

For some reason it won't let me upload my PRON. Says I'm missing a security token?

 

[Ray43050]

tenpenny that was my post you referred to and I am so glad it turned out great for you. We are moving this week and before we listed our house we did a partial move to a storage unit to make the house less cluttered. I moved my WSM then and have not yet tried it myself but will immediately after we settle.

The bottom vents closed also got me scratching my head but past experience tells me this is necessary to keep the temps down from igniting all of those coals.

With the wood getting lit up fully like that how was the smoke taste in the meat - stronger or lighter flavored? I ask because my wife is not a fan of strong smoke taste.

What did you use for waterpan? I don't use one but prefer a clay saucer instead.

Glad you tried it and liked it.

 

[tenpenny_05]

Here's what it looked like before assembly

Ribs at three hours

Beauty shot after stirring the coals

After 4.25 hours

 

[kwas68]

This was the first recipe I used and I was really happy with it!

 

[tenpenny_05]

With the wood getting lit up fully like that how was the smoke taste in the meat - stronger or lighter flavored? I ask because my wife is not a fan of strong smoke taste.

What did you use for waterpan? I don't use one but prefer a clay saucer instead.

So per the method, after the wood is fully engulfed, only then do you assemble the smoker with the bottom vents closed and top open. Then you wait 30 minutes to an hour for the temp to settle in. By then, the wood stops putting off visible smoke. These were probably the most appropriately smokey ribs I have made. I don't think anybody would be put off by the amount of smoke they took on.

I did use the water pan, just because I didn't want to deviate from the method on the first time. I couldn't tell you if it made a difference, but I will probably try to run it empty next time.

 

[Ray43050]

Great thanks. Have you used that rolled method with the skewer before? How hard was it to cut as they might not lay back flat without tearing?

 

[tenpenny_05]

I like it better than using a rib rack, and for whatever reason I don't like laying them down flat. This way I can fit 3 or four on each rack without cutting them.

They do tear a little when you try to flatten them, but doesn't really bother me. I typically cut them into two bone sections anyway.

 

[tenpenny_05]

This was the first recipe I used and I was really happy with it!

I didn't use his recipe, just his method of operating the smoker. Although, maybe his recipe would be worth a shot!

 

[Nuco59]

Idle curiosity- nothing more: Could you fill me in on how this is so much better than the minion method that you will never go back? It's different but how it better or preferable? Is it easier? Does it give you more consistent, repeatable results? He was lighting his coals that way in the mid 90's - but that coal lighting method doesn't seem to have caught hold like the minion method seems to have.

Thanks!

 

[tenpenny_05]

Ok, I might have been a little excited when I said that I would never go back to the minion method. However, this "new" method took A LOT of guesswork out of setting the smoker.

For me there is always a bit of a battle getting the WSM to settle in exactly where I want with the minion method. With this method, I trusted the process and it immediately settled right in at 225 and stuck there for 3 hours until I opened it up to flip the ribs and upped the temp to 275.

After pulling the ribs off at 4.25 hours, I left the smoker alone just to see how long it would hold 275. It went over 8 hours (from when it was lit) before it finally dipped below 275.

Now I know holding a temp for a long time on the WSM isn't rocket science, but I believe if I left it alone at 225, I would be CONFIDENT that it would be where I left it without worrying about it. Making me a little more excited to do bigger, longer cooks.

 

[BRBBQ]

Thanks for info and nice ribs

 

[creekwalker]

Tenpenny, to get it to go up to 275 after 3 hours, you opened the whole thing and raked the coals--did you also open all the bottom vents all the way and leave them open?

 

[tenpenny_05]

Tenpenny, to get it to go up to 275 after 3 hours, you opened the whole thing and raked the coals--did you also open all the bottom vents all the way and leave them open?

Yes, First I tried just opening the bottom vents, but it wasn't rising very fast. So I stirred the coals and left the vents open and it got right up there and stayed.

 

[Nuco59]

Glad that worked for you but sounds like considerably more trouble than I go to with the good old minion method.

Plus- running a UDS- it's not very feasible for me to 'assemble my cooker" after the basket is fully engulfed and ashed over. I guess I could leave my basket out burning madly for the hour.... noooooo- I think I will just stick to what works for me.

But I'm interested in other ways of "getting there" even if I can't make good use of them.

 

[landarc]

That is good to hear, thanks for trying it out and reporting back.