BBQ Short Ribs February 12-13 2011 - Part 2

I've got the ribs on the smoker and I'm using a user program for the first time. If I set it up right I'll get

• 250 degrees for 2 1/2 hours
• Down to "Smoke"for an hour
• Back up to 250 until the meat probe in one of the ribs reaches 180 degrees

After 2 hours at 250 degrees

The rib with the probe was up to 154 degrees when the temp was at 250. Once the smoker went down to "smoke" (about 170 - 180) the probe dipped to 149, then 141. 

After 2 1/2 hours at 250 and 1 hour on "smoke"

I imagine the probe temp will start to rise again.
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I checked again at 3:20; the biggest rib with the probe was at 167 but the others were at 180 or above so I took the finished ones off:

Wrapped in foil; they got done sooner than I expected. They'll have to wait 'til Jeff gets here for dinner.

That bit on the lower left was actually a piece of meat that came off the biggest rib, which was a dinner in itself. It didn't have any fat in it and ended up way too tough; kind of like I expect my first brisket will taste like :(

The last big rib wasn't finished until 4:45.

Dinner is served

One of the better ribs; nice smoke ring.

The smaller pieces were good; the very lean pieces were too tough. I liked the rub. I think a do-over but I'll need to make sure that the ribs are similar in size. The Pellet Boss did not turn off automatically which is something I'll have to figure out.