ribs!!! not good

If there was a way to do a smoke test we may find out that with the placement of the ribs and the path the air took from the bottom drip hole to the top exhaust, they traveled by those placed ribs.

The humidity is very very low. I would love to hear from anyone in the low humidy areas on this.

With the others turning out fine, I would thing that the air circulation and humidity played a factor here.

You mentioned the balmy -2* temperature. Was there possibly a high wind to make it even more pleasant out? If so, it might be possible for the wind coming from the right angle to set up a cool draft through the smoker. I don't know if that could really happen, but its an idea.
Richard

well it was pretty windy with a wind chill of -29 degrees so i guess that could have been the issue. Also i did stagger the ribs so the air would circulate evenly.

Any possibility that the drip-hole was stopped up? I did some here at about 10 degrees outside. The drippings darn near plugged up the drip hole. Just a thought, really no clue.

Better luck next time!

Well, we're all trying to guess. Without seeing them loaded, I don't know if it was a heat issue or an airflow problem or just bad ribs.

About the only other thing is something like a hot spot was created based on the airflow. You said "3 chunks" were these whole slabs, or did you cut them? Did you somehow block the airflow throughout the smoker by putting to many on one level?

I don't think it's the humidity, as some of them came out okay, and others didn't. And with the insulation the CS does a pretty decent job of the humidity level being the same through -- so I don't figure one part of the CS drier than the others.

Maybe Stuart or someone might have some thoughts.

Another one is the ribs themselves. I've had different ribs in the same case come out really, really different.

It would have been interesting, if you had moved the ribs around inside the CS about 1/2 through your cook.

Smokin'

Mystery solved. Check his address. GF7PE is from Cape Cod. Here's the weather report:
Friday:Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. Very cold.Wind chills may approach -20F

No wonder that rib didn't cook. Dang.

Send it on down to me. I'll finish it off.

ok let me see if I can describe it for ya. I buy them pre packed 2 slabs per pack. when I cut them into "chunks" I would guess that there is about 6 ribs in each "chunk". I usually only put 2 chucks on each rack but this time I added 1 on the top and middle rack. The top rack had a large piece on the left side going front to back about an inch from the left side. the other 2 pieces were smaller and went left to right on the right side of the rack. the middle shelf was the same but reverse and the bottom rack had 2 larger pieces front to back. the center was open and there was an inch of space around the edge on each rack. I was also thinking that the fat might have clogged up the hole in the bottom of the CS due to the cold temps and the drip pan getting full fast. What happens when the drip hole gets blocked?

also I must add that I do use the CS about every other day and do ribs atleast 3 times a week (gotta love the atkins) and this is the first time I have ever had a less than favorable experience using my CS.

p.s. an ice cold CS and wet hands dont mix

Like Russ said, may have been the ribs, looks like you may have had some freezer burnt ones yo me. How long were they frozen and were any of the cryovaced packages compromized? That's the only thing I can think of is that they look freezer burnt, which obviously will make them jerky like when cooked. Would also explain why some were good and not the others if they came out of different packs with one being open to air...just a thought
Jon

they were cryovaced but they were never frozen from the time the butcher got them to the time they were cooked. I guess I dont know what happend before the butcher got them. As far as I could tell the packaging was fine

I got news GF, the butcher probably received them frozen, as most cryovacs are frozen before you get them. Actually pretty hard, unless you leave near a butcher and a hog farm, to get fresh ones.

I'm gonna guess bad ribs.

Yep

I know our meat managers at the chains never know if they are coming in frozen or not for ads.

I know for summer holidays they,buy up every deal in site and carry them over Memorial Day,the 4th, and Labor Day.

acutally a friend of mine owns the shop and I used to cut meat there in the summers and all of the meat that comes in isnt frozen. BUT....I dont know what happens before they got to the shop

Those ribs look nasty..........

Well, if they weren't frozen, then I don't have a suggestion. About all I can think is they were bad ribs. No reason for some to cook up good and others not too.

As this was the only time, I'd chalk it up to that. If you get ribs from this guy again, and it happens again, I'd get ribs from somewhere else.

I have to agree....you just got some bad ribs. It almost looks like a bad case of freezer burn to me.

Years ago preparing for a camping trip I made hamburger patties and froze them. Will never do it again. When I grilled them they were the driest burgers I had ever eaten. I've seen it happen with steak too.

I've done 3 racks of ribs at once in the Smokette and have never seen anything like that. And I live a little north of you on the NH border, so I'm smoking in the same weather you are, or worse.

SmoKen

The cold temperature could be significant. I know up here in Fairbanks we often are below 0 and it make a big difference in cooking times vs summer temps. I have beaten this problem by mounting my CS Smokette on wheels. I start the smoke outside (at all temps down to -40F) for about an hour or so at which time the wood has mostly burned away. I use welding gloves to pull the woodbox and dump the ashes, replace the empty woodbox and then roll my smokette into the garage (55F). I do get a little smoke smell in the house but it's the good kind (no real smoke). This way I get consistent results no matter what temp it is outside. I'm doing ribs for the big game and it is -37F right now. No problem! Good luck next time.

It probably was the ribs. Last week I cooked three slabs of spares. They were the same weight. One slab was falling apart at four hours. The other two were not done for two more hours. I cook a lot of ribs also. Happens every once in a while. Atkins! Love It!

I am with everyone else.....LOOKS like bad ribs. I get the ones that are cryo'd with juices in.....turn out perfect everytime. Temps outside shouldnt make a diff as long as internal temp is right.