BDF One thing I don't see being mentioned is the probe test. When my probe goes in like it would in soft butter I know its done. I also will use the bend test along with this. I also spritz to keep it from drying out as well as smoke at 225f-240f and I dont cover my ribs. I have also over cooked them from time to time so you never know lol. Smokinpiney Ive been itching to do a chili and have seen it done the way you did it but haven't tried it. Ill have to give it a go. Looks amazing!
Sean it's awesome. The meat takes on a ton of smoke. When you break it up to add to the chili you get alot if great smokey chunks that add alot of flavor to the chili.
I always use temp. probes on the smoker. For ribs, I wait until the fattest part is over 205F. But just like cooking by time, I think that is really a poor indicator because it is temp. over time that breaks down connective tissue. Ribs come up to temp. pretty fast which means when reaching 200F + they have not actually spent very much time over, say, 160F where the connective tissue breaks down. Going forward, I think I will kick the smoker temp. up to say 275 or so and perhaps set a second timer when the meat hits 160 to 170F and hold it there for at least one hour, maybe more. Another think I can do is when the rack hits 205F or so I can turn the smoker down and let the ribs continue to break down without drying them out too much or making the bark too hard or dark. My moment of blinding comprehension smoking a brisket was that it really was time spent over a certain temp. that made it tender. For a year I never left much time after pulling a brisket off the smoker before eating it. Then I started letting it sit in either a cooler with a couple of bath towels wrapped around it (all while the brisket was wrapped in aluminum foil) or more often, just throwing the wrapped brisket into the kitchen oven at around 200F. for a couple of hours. Bingo- fantastic, tender brisket! The key is time at or over a specific temperature, not what the internal temp. (Easy Boys!) is at the end of the cook. My covered ribs are great but I often like a drier rack of ribs, maybe with a harder and better developed bark.
