4 Racks of Spares in a 22.5" Kettle?

[Joe Ray]

Hey everyone! I have successfully smoked/cooked 2 racks of St. Louis spares in my 22" Bar-B-Q-Kettle (3 daisy wheel intake vents instead of one touch system) but I had the 2 racks laying flat on the rack with the meat side up. I know that the fat bastes the meat during the cook so I'm a little nervous that by using this rib/roast rack, that the ribs will come out dry.

My plan is to have 4 racks on their sides standing horizontal with the racks running in a parallel direction to the offset charcoal/wood that will be on one side of the kettle. I know the rack closest the fire will get done soonest so I am planning on doing a turn every hour during the first of the 3-2-1 cooking process. (so they'll rotate about 5-6 times depending on the actual time they are in there)

Do you think they will turn out OK? Has anyone stuffed ribs in such a limited area with good results? Please let me know thank you!

 

[Brett G]

I have done it many times on a kettle. The only issue to me is the ribs overhanging the drip pan. You can foil the edge of your coal grate or just make a commitment to clean up the mess sooner rather than later. I am a firm believer in cleaning up by the morning after a greasy cook.

 

[Joe Ray]

OK Brett, that's no problem to foil the bottom grate, that's a great idea thank you.

How do you rotate the ribs? On a schedule or just by look? I know not to lift the lift unless needed so I want to minimize that of losing heat and then having to get it to come back up again.

 

[Brett G]

Joe,

As far as the rotation I think it depends on your method. If all your coals are one one side then you may want to rotate a few times. If you use coal holders/baskets on both sides you may not have to rotate at all.

 

[Joe Ray]

Actually I was planning on using 2 bricks to hold the fire up on side of the kettle. (how I did it before with great success) but now you have me thinking that setting up 2 fire zones, one on each side and using the largest part of the rack (the middle instead of one side) might be better. I would just need to go buy another couple of clay bricks which is no big deal.

The lid vent I think would just need to be rotated 180 degrees every hour or so because I know that the heat/smoke will go to the vent.

Is there any issues with getting too hot with two fires going as opposed to one? Maybe just have 2 vents underneath opened only half way and keep the third totally closed? When I did the 2 racks with the fire on just one side I had the vent directly under the fire open all the way, a second vent about 1/3 open and the 3rd vent closed and I had a nice stable 275 at the grate for the duration of the cook.

 

[Joe Ray]

I just picked up an extra clay brick at Lowes so I'm going to experiment with a fire on each side and cook in the middle.

Experiments while cooking for a crowd is always a little hairy!!

 

[Tim D]

I have cooked ribs in the middle and had very good results. I probably didn't need to, but I rotated the 2 outside ones to the middle after about an hour or hour and a half. Also, it didn't take much charcoal to have a 250-300 degree fire. Good luck!