Pitboss Austin XL

[Texasbowhunter]

Well I had a chance to cook on this one at the daughters house a couple weekends back and would like to share my observations with you...
after I cleaned it by removing the grates and then the heat diffuser... I vacuumed out the ash from the area under the diffuser
The diffuser had foil paper on it and seemed to be good to go...Put back together then fired up...
Smoked considerably at this point but settled down shortly after that...
Placed 2 racks of spareribs on grate
1 rack was on left side of center
1 rack was right side of center
Used the 3-2-1 method
What we noticed was that the ribs on the left of center were drier then the right of center...both racks were purchased at same time from same store...
Did not understand why this came about...
Analyzing the best I could and not finding anything on the WWW addressing this concern I was curious perhaps it was because the heat is generated directly in the middle which was between the 2 racks...Then with the chimney on the right side drawing the heat across the left rack more so then the right rack caused the left side to have less moisture in the meat then the right side...
Thoughts and conversation welcomed
Paul

[Dirtytires]

Center feed and right side exhaust will always cause more airflow on the right side and much better circulation. Along that line, heat would be drawn to the right causing that side to maintain a warmer temp.

I'm wondering if your ribs on the left were just not as tender because they were not cooked as much due to the lower temp. Did both racks pass the "bend test" or how did you determine they were ready to come off the pit?

Also remember, the meat plays a big part in the outcome. I just did 3 full rack of ribs from a single cryovac package this weekend. They all fit side by side on my pit (so received the same heat) and the smallest rack (thickness wise) actually took 45 min longer to cook than the thickest rack as tested by bend-test. They were all delicious but expect different cooking time and listen to the meat to tell you when to remove it as opposed to a stopwatch.

[Texasbowhunter]

Center feed and right side exhaust will always cause more airflow on the right side and much better circulation. Along that line, heat would be drawn to the right causing that side to maintain a warmer temp.
Yes sir hence the concern

Concern here is the fact that the rack on the left was tender and moist while the rack on right was still for the most part tender in the meaty portion but was on the dry side...
Question is does others have this concern and if so how did they overcome this obstacle?
Mods?
I am also aware that this was my first time to smoke on this grill, but one would have figured per the advertisement that its ready to cook just rock and roll...
Paul

[Pete Mazz]

Makes no sense to me either. If you have a digital therm with at least 2 probes you could check temps or do the biscuit test. Spread a can of those biscuits around the grate and get an idea of left/right temps.

[Texasbowhunter]

Let's say for the sake of argument that I check the temps and the right side is considerably higher then the left side...
The pit boss isn't that big of a grate to place a brisket on one side to keep the mass amount of heat down
So is there a solution or MOD that has been created to help diffuse the heat from the center where the radiant heat is concentrated to the left side and then allowed to be drawn across the grate more evenly?
just thinking out loud...My nature has always been to rebuild the time and proven mouse trap...
Paul

[Dirtytires]

I appreciate the urge to jump in and modify things but you are probably rushing things a bit. It sounds like your results are based off of one cook of 2 racks of ribs. My advice is to fire it up and cook 10 more times before you change anything as this will help to filter out some of the other variables like wind, sun, meat quality and technique.

At the end of the day, it might be the pit but could be a simple as resisting the urge to open the door during a cook or rotating the pit out of the wind.

[Texasbowhunter]

I appreciate the urge to jump in and modify things but you are probably rushing things a bit. It sounds like your results are based off of one cook of 2 racks of ribs. My advice is to fire it up and cook 10 more times before you change anything as this will help to filter out some of the other variables like wind, sun, meat quality and technique.

At the end of the day, it might be the pit but could be a simple as resisting the urge to open the door during a cook or rotating the pit out of the wind.

Agreed