[Bob in St. Louis]

Thanks Bob,
Ill post a pic later.
1.  That is exactly what I did 
2.  That is exactly what I did not.  How do you smoke for 6-10 hours without adding wood?
3.  I'm good there.
4.  I used Hickory.  I was probably running at 180 most of the time.  My temp gauge on the smoker says cold, ideal, hot 
How does it taste smokey without smoke 

This maybe where our smokers are different. Other than the basic description you gave, I'm not sure "exactly" what you're using.

With my smoker, I can put a full bag of Kingsford (17#) with a few pounds of "flavor" wood chunks and run it at 225 to 240 for 12 hours. Time and temp also depends on how you light your fire (do a Google search for "minion method"....I'll see if I can find something). If I run it at 275, I lose 3 to 4 hours off that. Of course time and temp depends greatly on outside temperature, and winds. Higher winds and lower ambient temps will cut your times greatly.

"How does it taste smokey without smoke"......... ahhh...the magical question.....
That's a very hard one to answer unless you've experienced it. I could lecture you for days and your eyes would glaze over, and you still wouldn't understand. It's like describing high quality audio to somebody that's used to mp3. You just can't get it unless you've had it. Like low frequency bass, sometimes less is more.
Do a Google search for "TBS"....."Thin Blue Smoke".

I'll see if I can find some examples what why you do NOT want to see much smoke from your chimney, and you certainly don't want to see thick white smoke.

Give me a minute.....I'll try to find something......

[Bob in St. Louis]

By the way, if your temp gauge says, "cold-ideal-hot", then throw it away, spend $20 on a new one and replace it.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ok...this is pretty informative....(turn the audio off, it's just music playing).
Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu34R8zuCkA

[Bob in St. Louis]

Last one about "TBS":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pUnCf404IM

[Bob in St. Louis]

OK, here's how to light the fire so it'll last a long time.

Now....this is one of the most painful videos I've ever watched. It's almost 7 minutes long but should have/could have been done in less than two minutes.
It is very helpful...assuming you can tolerate sitting through it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwoYW9IWSEU

Sorry, it's the best one I could find.

[MaxCast]

My smoker is one of the early char-broil ones.  Looks like an R2 unit.  Temp gauge built into the lid.  Given to me 15 years ago.
I had to use two meat thermometers to find my range but they were 30 degrees apart.  Finally found a third to figure out which one was lying.

I get it about TBS and now understand.  Why do I send my kids to school with this youtube.  Seems like a money saver to me. 
Maybe I'm supposed to put a lot more coal in the pan to start.  By-golly I still have the owners manual.  Says 8-10# of coal for just about everything they list to smoke.  They suggest wrapping the wet wood in foil.  I'm sure a lot has changes in 15 years...just like digital 

Anyway, thank you so much for you help and time to find the links.  I'm sure others are learning as well.  I now have enough correct info to see if I am going to keep doing this regularly.  If I do I will be getting a better/easier to use smoker for Fathers day.

Oh,  CJ and I think the ribs turned out great.  These were babybacks.  They were closer to falling-off-the-bone than not, which I see is a no-no.  The right is the wet rub, top left sweetbabyrays-cola, bottom left just dry rub.  First time with the cola flavored SBR.  Not too bad if even a bit sweeter than SBR original which is what I use 90% of the time.  I ended up with the 2.5-2.5-.75 method.

[Bob in St. Louis]

I've seen some of the chef/cooks on TV wrap water soaked wood chips ('chips", not chunks) in aluminum foil, poke some holes on top, and throw them on the fire. But they're generally using that on gas cookers anyway. I can't see a handful of chips having much effect when they're competing with ten or twenty pound of charcoal.

Sounds like you're "on your way", as they say. Good to another Brother In Smoke. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Here's a different version of ribs....It's called "The Hollywood Cut".
It's where you eliminate every other bone, and cut them up before you cook them. What it does, is give you twice the meat per bone than you previously had.
For extra points, you roll those ribs in bacon.

Here's my first attempt at turning a slab of Spare Ribs into "Hollywood cut, bacon wrapped" ribs.
Of course, since the smoker is going, there are other tasty morsels on there. 

The uncut rack of ribs is rubbed with herbed butter, smoker for an hour, then given a decent dose of "Slap yo' Daddy" rub mixture.

[TrungT]

 
WOW, Yummmmmmmy.   

[nature boy]

Nice Bob.

NB

[martinr]

Marinated a rack of pork ribs in Coke last night with a rub...now putting them on my smoker with Pecan chips - 4 hours at 225, then two hours wrapped in foil...mmmmmm, hoping the coke marinade tastes good 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Sounds like a good plan. I've never done soda, but I've heard of a lot of guys using Dr. Pepper or Coke and love it.

[martinr]

My favorite marinade uses lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and other spices, out of the Steven Raichlen BBQ Bible..a little time consuming to make  so I'm always looking for a simpler marinade....if this works I'll let you know

[bladesmith]

After looking at this thread, I had to start the cooker and get some meat cooking...  (immediately.....!)


Keep the pics coming....!

[dflee]

Went to a restaurant this weekend and they had smoked prime rib. All they had left was medium well to well left but the owner had a medium rare kept out for himself and he did give me a sliver. It was delicious and will have to try and get there earlier.  Any of you try smoking prime rib?

[Bob in St. Louis]

It's been a while since I checked, but it was above my pay grade at the time. I'll have to check it out next time I'm at the store.

By the way, here's neat site with some fantastic ideas:
http://grillinfools.com/ 

[Bob2]

Went to a restaurant this weekend and they had smoked prime rib

Did smoked Prime rib for a contest last year. Took first place...Easy recipe..salt and pepper, stick in the smoker @225 till it was 135 degrees inside. Used some hickory chips. People were fighting over it! Says alot about that particular cut of meat. When you pay $13.99 a pound it should be good.

Bob those ribs look awesome!

[JoshK]

We use coke a lot on poultry and some pork.  Its more of a brine IMO then a marinade.  The sugar and sodium act as a brine and it breaks down the sinew quite a lot making it very tender. 

I just got a BGE a couple months ago and have been going crazy smoking things.   So far my take is, pork and chicken are awesome smoked, along with briskets of beef and duck works very well as well.  Rabbit and Lamb I preferred grilled.  Turkey was better grilled direct and most good cuts of beef I will grill sans smoke. 

We have done some amazing ribs smoking slowly, but I actually preferred pork shoulder the times we did it.  Easier as in less prep time and it makes a lot of pulled pork. 

[loving_it]

I bought a Bradley Digital 4-Rack Smoker last year and was going to give this hobby a try sometime this week , does anyone use one of these smokers ? This is all new to me

[Bob in St. Louis]

No, but do a Google search for the "3-2-1 method".