Cooking on both grates in a WSM...


 
Slap Yo Daddy BBQ Classes

Peter Graves

New member
Is it necessary to worry about the drippings from the food on the top grate when cooking items on both grates? If so, how can this be mitigated?
 
You never want raw chicken dripping on meat below.
For KCBS, start ribs on top grate 6:30 am and start chicken on bottom at 9:30 am.
For butts and briskets, I prefer brisket on top but it doesn't really matter
 
I ran into a problem when cooking ribs flat on top and bottom grills where the drippings from the top would puddle up on the ribs below, fouling up the bark formation. Would a rib rack solve this? Also, is there a chance flavor profiles would be messed up when one type of meat drips onto another?
 
If you're doing comps, I wouldn't let the top ribs drip on the bottom ribs as that will mar the perfect bark finish you're striving for your bottom racks. Instead I would only load the bottom rack with meat (any kind) once bark forms on my top grate ribs (usually about 3 hours @ 275 degrees).

That's the rational why I put ribs at 6:30 am on the top rack and chicken on the bottom at 9:30 am. By 9:30, the bark for ribs have already set and will not drip on my chicken.
 
Harry,

Are you using rib racks or not? We use the 18 1/2 inch WSM for ribs at a comp. We start with 4 slabs which I trim to St. Louis cut. From there I take the ends off leaving the mid 8 or 9 bones per rack. These then get rubbed and placed on a rib rack - all 4 on the top grate.

If you are not using a rack I assume you either have the 22 inch model or only cooking 2 racks. Which is it?

thanks,

RobM
 

 

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