Purchased an Amerique last summer and have used it often with great results. However, yesterday I was smoking 6 racks of ribs. The recipe call for 4.5 hrs at 250 degrees. I loaded the bottom 3 shelves each with 2 racks of ribs. The spareribs were wide and covered the entire shelf.
I failed to observe the temp after 2 hours, but opened the smoker to rotate the ribs as I had previously found that the bottom ribs were more tender if you didn't rotate. Ok, heres my question...after 4 hours I noticed that the temp. was only 197 degrees. I opened the smokers and the grease on the bottom immediately
ignited in flame. My thoughts, did the large ribs hold the heat to the bottom of the smoker? The ribs had shrunk by then so the heat could rise to the top. Never had this happen before. I'm thinking I might have over loaded the smoker. Any thoughts out there?
Thanks, Mark Clay...new to smoking
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