Tom's BBQ Log
		August 12, 2001 A rack of beef back ribs (chopped into 3-4 rib bits by the store, unfortunately) and two picnic shoulders. Also, a two pound package mild italian sausages, which I hung up and we ate as a snack while waiting for finish. Rubbed and kept overnight. Pork skin was scored to allow fat to more easily drain. There was still plenty of it left basting at the end of cooking. Cooked with lump charcoal and pecan wood. Went for a low temperature at first, and then allowed it to drift up a bit later in the cooking. Time Outside Temp Door Temp Beef Rack Pork Rack 0:00 60 125 123 110 0:30 62 245 225 210 1:00 64 255 224 222 beef in at 1:15 1:30 65 390 223 257 2:00 66 355 227 260 2:30 74 330 229 254 3:00 NA NA NA NA 3:30 82 290 222 226 4:00 84 325 247 276 beef into foil at 4:10 and held 4:30 82 350 248 256 5:00 76 325 250 261 5:30 74 300 265 251 sausages at 5:13 6:00 NA NA NA NA 6:30 70 300 244 250 7:00 70 300 244 250 Overall, was quite good. Didn't use a mop or sauce. I think the beef could have been more smokey, but was very tender. One of the shoulders was smaller than the other and didn't come out as tender. But they both pulled well. August 4, 2001 Today's BBQ was two rack of pork spareribs and two racks of beef back ribs. The night before, the ribs were prepped. Beef ribs had the tough membrane peeled. Spareribs were trimmed to "Saint Louis" style (removing the extra flap of meat, the ridge of chine bone, squaring the tip, and peeling the membrane). Both were rubbed mildly with my standard BBQ rub (salt, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, ground oragano, chili powder) and held overnight in the fridge. Fired up the Bandara around 9 AM, anticipating about 5 to 6 hours of cooking time with a targeted temperature range between 220 and 250. Used a combination of hickory wood and pecan wood. Started coals via Kingsford briquets which were allowed to burn to entire ash, then logs added. While the fire was getting started, I let the meat come up to room temperature. Installed a double-probe remote read thermometer (Polder style), with one of the probes on the lower rack and one on the upper. Beef ribs went on the lower rack and pork on the upper. The pork ribs were expected to take less heat, plus I figure that the fat from them would drip down on the beef ribs. I cooked the ribs with the meat side down for the duration of the smoking, and flipped them up only for the finish sauce at the end. About two hours through the cooking, it became clear that the lower rack was too low and was getting too much heat, so I moved that rack up two notches and the pork rack up one. You'll see that the temperatures evened out a bit as a result. Here's the time and temperatures I recorded for the run. The last two hours were fairly even, and I was having an easy time keeping the temperature within range. Time Outside Temp Door Temp Beef Rack Pork Rack 0:00 64 0 69 69 0:30 65 175 153 98 1:00 66 300 270 200 1:30 68 275 299 231 2:00 68 250 221 199 2:30 72 250 221 215 3:00 74 330 261 230 3:30 86 310 255 238 4:00 82 310 237 237 4:30 76 325 243 244 finishing sauce went on at 4:40, mop every 5-10 minutes 5:00 76 210 210 205 pulled meat at 5:13 During the part of the cooking where I felt the heat was a bit too high, I misted the interior of the smoke chamber with water about every 20 minutes or so. Other than that, I tried to leave the door shut and go based upon interior thermometers only. For the finishing sauce, I made a brown stock from the pork trim. I added to this some vinegar, a bit of the rub, some Tapatio hot sauce, about 1/4 of a cup commercial BBQ sauce, and about a cup of honey. Sauce was watery, and repeatedly mopped onto the side of the ribs that was down for the first part of the cooking. Used about 5 logs of wood for this run. Pre-heated them on top of the firebox, which seems to allow them to catch quicker and produce less initial smoke. Pecan wood had bark, which I peeled as best I could. I couldn't get it all so I started the logs with the bark side down and cooked off as much as I could with the firebox lid open before closing for continued smoking. Meat was tender even prior to finishing sauce or resting. Both beef and pork had a nice chew but pulled away from bones easily with no knife. Sauce had a good sweet/hot balance but did not overpower the meat. Overall, I'll consider this one a sucess.
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