need help maximizing BB rib space on my 18"


 
C

Chris Smith

TVWBB Fan
I may have been tasked with the impossible here and I'm hoping for some advice. I told my girlfriend the most I could fit in my 18" WSM was 6 racks and she decided to invite more people this weekend, requiring 9 racks. I have a rack holder that will allow me to get 3 full racks up top, flat, and I figured I could coil 3 more for the bottom grate without touching each other or the interior wall of the smoker. Where do I put THREE more?? She has a Masterbuilt electric smoker (it was a gift) but I'd rather not use it because frankly it's a POS and nearly impossible to get a reliable smoke from. I have precious little time to work with and not enough to fabricate anything like a 3rd grate somewhere.

HELP!!
 
I have never cooked 9 racks at once. And i have the 22" so its hard to get a picture in my head on how you should set up a cook like that.

But i guess you could put rib rack + two rolled ribs on the top grate?

But i have seen 3 ribs cooked on a kettle,stacked ontop of each other. And rotated every hour. Cant find the video now,But i think it was with Steve R.

Here is something simillar(skip the first 5 min)
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Dont know how this turns out on the wsm and it will add some extra work. But i think its doabble.

Best of luck...And Report back
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Thanks but unfortunately there isn't room to put the 4-slot rib rack holder and two coiled racks on the top grate. The rack holder pretty much maxes out the grate.

As much as I hate the thought, I may be required to cut some racks in half and lay them on top of the racks in the holder, but that still won't get me to nine racks.
 
Roll 3 on each grate and lay the other 3 on top of the rolled ones. You could cut the last 3 in half so the ends aren't near the edges.
 
We did 10 slabs of BB's on an 18" WSM last 4th of July. We coiled them - 4 to a rack, then cut a slab in half and put the two halves on top of the coiled slabs.

We cooked them a couple of hours, went to foil for about an hour (flat - stacked on top of each other), then unwrapped and tossed them on a Weber 22" kettle at about 350 for a few minutes to firm up the ribs and to sauce the slabs we sauced.

Good luck!

Pat
 
Chris make it an even 10 slabs, cook the ribs stacked, make 2 stacks of 5 slabs each, every 30 mins take the bottom rib and put on top, keep shuffling the ribs till done to your liking, have done it several times ribs come out great every time, what i like about cooking ribs this way is that the ribs baste themselves while cooking. Also i cook the ribs at 300-350 this way. Hope this helps!
 
Chris, somehow I got pretty good results smoking nine slabs of spares last summer in my 18.5" wsm...about half of them trimmed, but they were smallish slabs, probably 3.5-4lb before trimming. I used the cheap 3-slab rib racks that have two prongs on each side for potatoes, (available at Lowe's) and bent the prongs a bit to hold 4.5 slabs on each rack, with the half slab in the middle, and I used wood skewers to manage the ends as they curled around the edge of the grate outside of the rib rack. It worked pretty good, and should work fine with BB's, but I wouldn't go and buy the heaviest slabs you can find if you really need nine.

Rolling and stacking as others have suggested are certainly good suggestions as well. If not foiling and wanting to cook eight slabs, rolling and skewering is the best way, hands down since they cook more evenly, and you can cut the odd slab in half, and hold each half up vertically on the center of each grate by the ends of the skewers you use for the rolled racks... That's probably a better way than cramming all in racks, come to think about it, but by the way, Noe's suggestion of stacked ribs is detailed on pg. 125 of Weber's "Way to Grill" by Jamie Purvience, only on a kettle, not a wsm.

My method worked pretty good though since it required no rotating, but rolling won't require any either. Just put the heavier slabs on the bottom rack since they'll cook faster, especially faster if you don't use water in the pan, but I would to help keep the ends from getting too hard. I'd suggest starting early to give yourself plenty of time and keeping temps 225-250 since the cooker is so full.

If cooking hot and fast, the easiest thing to do would be to smoke 'em simiiar to how I suggested in racks or rolled, but at a higher temp with no water, and then foil individually and stack as needed in pans in the oven to finish. Just be especially careful not to overcook, especially those slabs on the bottom rack.

You could use Danny Gaulden's (sp?) rib glaze (mostly mustard/brown sugar if I recall) since it sets up so nice and doesn't need to be applied on a smoker or grill to set up.
 
Lots of good ideas here, others I'm scratching my head on a bit. I may leave out the racks and try coiling 4 per grate, however in the past I struggled a bit with coiling 3 on the top rack and keeping them from touching each other...you know how they want to wobble out of the coil when they're fresh and first go in the smoker. I'll definitely need to coil them tight and probably snip the skewer ends off. Previously I've used round wooden skewers but this time I'm going to use heavier flat bamboo skewers since the flat design holds food more securely. I will definitely be using water in the pan despite the difficulty I have in driving the smoker temp up towards the end of the smoke like the BRITU recipe calls for.

Stacking is less desirable for a couple of reasons, mostly because (correct me if I'm wrong here) it seems like I'd be opening the cooker and losing heat and smoke because I feel like they'd need to be rotated fairly often. I also think even smoke penetration would be difficult, but I may be wrong.

Dave...I have the exact cheap rack you're talking about with the potato prongs but it doesn't see use anymore. I have Raichlen's rack (pic below) that I use now and it does an excellent job of holding full racks without touching. The trick with it though is you have to cut two of three racks about 1/3 of the way down, and arrange the sections alternately in three of the four rack slots so that the smoker lid doesn't touch them. Then one full length rack can go in one of the middle slots and you situate the rib rack so that that one is dead center at the widest diameter of the WSM. With most BB racks between 16"-19" you've got to be creative with an 18" round smoker.

Man I'd love to just be able to throw in full racks of ribs flat as a board without touching each other and be done with it.

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Chris another option is to buy an extra top grate and flip it over the original top grate for extra space. 3 slabs on lower grate, 3 slabs on original top grate and 3 slabs on flipped over extra grate for a total of 9 slabs all laying flat.
Chris stacking the ribs works very well, 30mins is just a guide line. You can also make 3 stacks of 3 ribs each. That is my preferred method when needing the extra room. You will have your doubts until you try it at least once.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Noe:
Chris another option is to buy an extra top grate and flip it over the original top grate for extra space. 3 slabs on lower grate, 3 slabs on original top grate and 3 slabs on flipped over extra grate for a total of 9 slabs all laying flat.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

How do you lay three racks of BBs flat in an 18" WSM to accommodate an upside down top grate over them? At best you can lay one rack flat across the middle but on either side of that the available length you have on the grate is drastically reduced.
 
Chris just work with the ribs nothing wrong with the ribs touching each other, make them fit, the ribs will shrink over the cook a little, we are not frying where steam is your enemy. Me personally would stack the ribs and have no problems at all with the cook or space.
Once you stack you won't go back!

What ever you decide good luck and Happy Easter.
 
Chris, I hear ya. Ribs nowadays run kind of big and heavy....and I've learned to avoid the little slabs that were once recommended ("three and unders") since they would supposedly be more tender. They might end up a little more tender, but they're so dang lean, they dry out QUICK.

As to a solution to your problem, I wouldn't worry too much if you don't have space between all the surface area on the ribs. It'll be alright, and regarding the water pan, don't start with a completely full one, but do start with HOT water, and it wouldn't hurt to let all that meat sit out a bit to lose some of it's chill. That's how I roll because my little wsm is tight as a drum and stubborn to come up to temp if packed full with meat.

You know, if the cook is starting to sound too much like a chore though, just do pulled pork. That's always the safest route for parties, and my bunch prefers that anyway.

...but heck, if you GOTTA cook nine slabs of ribs, just get a big 22.5" wsm and be done with it. Talk my wife into it and I'll follow suit.
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I feel your pain, brothuh..
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Noe:
Chris just work with the ribs nothing wrong with the ribs touching each other, make them fit, the ribs will shrink over the cook a little, we are not frying where steam is your enemy. Me personally would stack the ribs and have no problems at all with the cook or space.
Once you stack you won't go back!

What ever you decide good luck and Happy Easter. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Noe, I'm gonna have to try this method one of these days. If anything, I'd think it would make for a juicier rib. I'll probably wait for the hot calm dog days of summer when my cooker's in the sun, but I'm gonna give it a try.
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The party has come and gone and we had fantastic weather. I cut the 9 racks in half and stacked them in a square on each grate and did my best to rotate them for exposure as good as I could possibly hope when dealing with so much meat in a small space. They came out pretty well and everyone was happy, but they were definitely not my best batch. I budgeted for extra time but they still could have gone another 45-60 min. With so much meat it was a real challenge getting the temps above 230F; add in a few lid removals for meat rotation and it only added to the challenge. I don't feel like I'll be attempting 9 racks of ribs in an 18" WSM again anytime soon. That was a PITA!
 
Glad you got through it okay. In my opinion, you really needed another rib rack. I do 9 racks any time the family gets together at my house and it's actually pretty easy. Each rack holds 7 halves and then you lean two halves against the racks on the end. Use two racks and both grates and you're good to go. You can even add two more racks by leaning two halves up against the sides but I've never done that because I only need 9 racks and I buy the three packs (3 of them). I only rotate once during the cook by moving the ribs on the top grate to the bottom and vis versa. In my opinion, the work is the extra prep time of 9 racks and just the work of having that many people over the house. Cooking the ribs wasn't much different than cooking my typical amount of three racks.

It would look something like the first pick in this thread.
 
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