Having put it together on Saturday I fired her up yesterday morning for a 3 hour seasoning (with peanut oil rubbed all over the inside). All seemed to go quite well with a nice stable temp of around 250F being reasonably easy to maintain.
I wanted to start out with some ribs so I got 4 racks of baby backs from a local butcher. I intended to cook these for around 4 hours overall (although in the end it was closer to 5!). First I made up a rub, having looked around the web at a few recipes and used a bit of intuition I decided to have a go at making my own with Paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, soft brown sugar, salt and various spices.
The ribs went in at around 2pm with a fresh load of charcoal, a lump of cherry wood and a couple of handfuls of hickory chips. The smoke for the first 15-20 mins was quite intense and hard to control (I suspect the cherry was a bit damp) but it settled down nicely, with the pit running around 225F. I left it alone for 2 hours while I made up a sauce to baste them with (using the handy little hot plate on the side of the BBQ to simmer it...
After 2 hours I opened it up to check the ribs, baste them and wrap them in foil... they were looking pretty good, but still no where near cooked at this stage:
They went back in for another 2 hours, and I tried to get the temperature back up to around 250/260F but it struggled a bit (with hindsight I should probably have added some more wood/coal). After 4 hours in total the ribs looked and smelled great but the internal temp was still around 140F and I was aiming for around 165, so I unwrapped them and put them all at the fire box end for another 30 mins... then another 15... in the end they got there!
The finished article... (with a bit of home made 'slaw on the side)
I'd intended to take a few pics of the "smoke ring" but we were so hungry we just dived in and ate the lot!
Good news was that there was plenty of rub & sauce left over so I bottled them up for next weekend.
So I've definitely learned a few things... especially around the heat gradient of this BBQ and not to underestimate the quantity of fuel & time! ... but I enjoyed the experience and definitely looking forward to next time!
