Cured/seasoned it for 8 hours with 6 oz's (3 chunks) of hickory. I then placed my foil on the bottom, poked a hole for the grease, and closed it up for the night. I didn't put foil on the woodbox, 'cause I just forgot! (I was just too excited!) I will definitely put some foil on next time!
On Friday the 11th, I put in 2 whole chickens, and 2 slabs of pork spareribs.
For the chicken I mixed some of the Chicken Rub with yogurt, made a paste of it, and rubbed it both inside and outside of the chicken and let it sit overnight.
For the ribs, I cleaned them, slathered them lightly with mustard, rubbed them down with the Rib Rub and the Chicken Rub, and let them sit overnight.
At 11:30 AM on Friday the 11th I put in 1 chunk (2 oz) of hickory, put everything in cold, put my thermometer into the thigh of one of the chickens, cranked it up to 250, and stepped away. I loaded the two chickens on the top rack (breast side down), cut the slabs of pork in half and placed 2 halves on the middle rack and 2 halves on the bottom rack (bone side down.) It was a tight squeeze. The chickens fit ok, but the ribs slightly overlapped each other. Didn't really prove to cause any problems with the final product.
SIX hours later, the chicken thigh temp read 185. I opened the door, kinda wiggled the ribs to check for any "fall off the bone" evidence, and I pulled a bone right out! So I shut the smoker off, waited about 5 minutes, and pulled everything out onto a platter.
I had made a finishing glaze for the ribs of 3 parts BBQ sauce and 1 part honey. I fired up my gas grill, placed the ribs on there, and brushed them on both sides with the finishing glaze. About 10 minutes later, a very slightly hardened "coating" had formed, and they were nice and shiny.
I pulled them off the grill, let them sit on the platter for another 5 minutes, then my Dad, my brother, and myself tore into 'em.
They were awesome! The ribs were so tender, full of flavor, and the chicken was super juicy, fall off the bone tender, and had a wonderful flavor.
Here are some pics of the finished spare ribs. The chicken didn't look "too pretty", but that's 'cause I had them breast side down and I kinda tore up the skin as I was trying to get them out!
I'd been looking into buying a Cookshack smoker for about 3 years now, and finally took the plunge. I have a gas grill, and for smoking I had been using a Char-Broil Electric "bullet" smoker. Though the bullet produced some decent BBQ, it was a little more work, and sometimes the end result could be inconsistent.
However, with this inaugural Cookshack smoke, I may have just become a permanent convert. It was just SO easy! I've done the "poetic" BBQ and tended the fires for over 12 hours. Even though they were nice/fun experiences, I'm much more about the pragmatic bottom line results now. And the Cookshack certainly delivers!
Let me know what ya'll think!
Xavier
However, grilled some country-style ribs tonight and they were really good. Used my secret spray and rub and everybody loved em'. Here's to CS