Hey all. New Master Touch owner here. Had her since my birthday in February. I've cooked a LOT of food on it this summer. But this weekend I set out to do my first "low and slow" on a rack of ribs. I got some good advice from this forum. I was going to use my charcoal baskets for a low and slow on my first set of ribs. EVERYONE advised me to do the snake so that's what I did. I kept track of my progress and here's how it went:
Setup: 15 minutes to set up and get the starter coals going. I did a 2x1 snake and lit 8 coals to start with. Sprinkled a few hickory/apple chips on top of the first few inches of snake since that's all I had. Drip pan half filled with boiling water under the meat. Bottom vent about a 1/4 open, top vent slightly cracked (see pictures). Cleaned out all the ash from the bottom before hand so I knew the "old ash" wouldn't choke my vents closed. Outside temp about 70 degrees, grill sitting in the sun. Wireless temp probe at grate level, next to the meat, away from the coals.
Hour 0-2: Temp came right up to 225 and literally sat right at 225-228 for the entire 2 hours. I didn't go out and look at it, touch it, nothing! It was unbelievable. I was ecstatic! Could not believe how regulated the temp was. Took the ribs off and wrapped them (forgot to take a picture at this point. Remembered when i had the foil all closed up and it wasn't worth undoing all that work). In the wrap was some pats of butter, some brown sugar, and a splash of Dr. Pepper because that's what i had laying around. Wrapped them up tight, put them back out for another 2 hours, meat side down.
Hours 2-4: Now at this point is where the trouble began. I had left the grill open when i wrapped and could tell the coals had stoked themselves a little with the increased airflow. I put the lid back on and over the course of the next hour the temp climbed to about 275. I went out a couple of times and just barely bumped the top vent open slightly to let some heat out. No dice. I tapped the bottom vent slightly more closed but could see it was still open about 1/8. Tapped the top vent open slightly more (maybe to 1/4). Went back inside and decided to wait it out. At about the 3 hour mark I lost 40 degrees in a matter of 10 minutes. 270 down to 230. Back outside, tap the top vent more closed to try to keep the heat in, tap the bottom open. Between hour 3 and 4 i slowly lost temp down to 215. By this time it was down to 60 degrees outside, and the sun had gone behind the house so was no longer on the grill. At this point i was wondering if my snake had stopped working or something. I was ready to pull them and unwrap anyway so I did that.
Last hour: I left the grill open when i unwrapped, lit 4 more coals and added them, rearranged the rest of the snake a little bit, blew on the coals to make sure they were still nice and red at the start of the snake. Sweet Baby Rays on the ribs, and closed everything back up. Temp did not want to get above 220. I even resorted to opening the bottom up about 1/2-3/4 thinking maybe more air in the bottom will feed the coals and heat this thing up! It never really happened though. I didn't get the bark i was hoping for because there wasn't enough head to caramelize the sauce, but they still tasted good. A little...and I mean a little...tougher than I had hoped. But I'm attributing that to the lower heat throughout than i hoped.
So...a couple of questions:
1. From your experience, how much does ambient air temp and sunlight affect the internal temp of the kettle?
2. Does the "density" or arrangement of the snake make a big impact on the "travel" of the heat? I tried to arrange them nice and neatly for even and consistent travel.
3. Would a 2x2 snake tend to hold a higher temp (250ish) than a 2x1?
4. Any tips for lowering/raising temps on the fly without causing such wild swings in short time?
5. Should have been so nervous about being at 275-280? Whats the "max temp" where i should start getting worried?
Pics:
1. Precook with some mustard and rib rub
2. My 2x1 snake setup
3. After adding chips and lit coals
4&5. Initial vent settings
6. Post-wrap
7. Finished product
Thanks in advance everyone. You can buy a "precooked" set of ribs from the store and throw them in the oven and they're done in 30 minutes. Even with the struggles I must say this is a lot more fun and rewarding!
Topic: First Ribs using snake method in my Master Touch. What did I do wrong? (Read 1972 times)