Rib racks

My WSM is supposed to ship next week ( can't wait ). Do I need rib racks to do ribs or I've seen where some people pin them together and sit them on edge. Is one way better than the other and would just regular toothpicks work to pin them together. Any other things I need to know about when it gets here, I'm planning on doing chicken then working my way up to ribs. I think I've pretty well read everything on this page ( some of it a couple of times ) while waiting on my WSM. One other quick question will the BRITU recipe work on spare ribs instead of babyback ribs. Sorry for being so long winded. Thanks in advance for answering my questions and I'm sure there will be more to come.

Rib racks make it much easier to more than a couple of racks. BRITU works well with pork in general.
Go to Chris's getting started pages and they will make your first cook a good one.
Let us know how it goes.
Jim

Rodney, I use rib racks when I need to do more than 2 racks of ribs. The best advice I can give you is let them keep cooking the first time you think they are done. I think it is much easier to undercook spares than to overcook. I read somewhere once that spares are done when the meat is 205? between the bones. While I don't know if that is strictly true, the first couple of times you cook spares it would be worth while to take an instant read therm and put it between the bones in the middle of the rack. In my opinion it should go to at least 190? before I would consider pulling the ribs off.

I know most people don't believe in using a therm for determining if ribs are done. Some of the other tests are the "droop" test. If you pick up the ribs in the middle of the rack there should be a certain amount of sag. Another test is the "punch" test, where you should be able to push your finger through the meat with a certain amount of resitance. The problem with these tests are the first few times you cook ribs you don't know how much droop is good or how much resitance means the ribs are tender, which is why I reccomend the thermometer for the first few cooks.

Good Luck,
Doug W

Another way to test if ribs are done is to
use a toothpick and insert it in the meat
between bones, if it moves thru like it's in butter their done.
Use more than one test to check the progress
of ribs and you'll be fine.
Jim

Rib racks will work well. Both spare and baby back ribs can be rolled and pinned with a toothpick or bamboo/metal skewer, but it's a bit easier to do with baby backs because of their size.

For more details on rolling ribs, go to the Baby Back Rib page and click the graphic at the top of the page called "Rolling Ribs".

Regards,
Chris

How many rib racks will fit on the WSM and how many slabs of ribs will fit on a rack. Thanks for all the responses.

One rack per grate, the number of ribs per rack will depend on the rack you buy, but 5 to 6 as an average.

I have used the rolled racks and also have rib racks. A lot depends on what type of rib..spares or baby's. Baby's are much smaller and so you can fit more in. In competition, I can easily fit 4 racks of baby's on the top grate, by laying them flat....I sometimes have to trim a bone or 2 from the end of 2 racks to do this.

I used to do only spares and here is what I have done.....when rolling you can fit about 3 per grate level. When rolling, you must be sure none of the racks are touching each other. I have cooked 10 racks with my rib racks....the rib rack has only 4 slots, but you can use the front open space to lay another rack in. When I did 10 racks, it was very, very tight with a few of the racks crammed against the sides of the unit. They all came out OK, but I would not do that again.

If you are going to be doing a lot of racks get the rib rack. Also, when the WSM is full, you have a pretty big change in the dynamics as far as heat is concerned. I have always struggled to keep my heat up in these circumstances..I assume the air flow is greatly decreased and therefore the coals do not burn hotly.

Hope this helps!

Stogie

I just cooked a bunch of baby backs tonight--three in a rib rack and three rolled. The rack seemed to cook faster, but be sure to rotate the ribs in the rack, as the outer ribs cooked faster than the inner rib.
I used metal skewers for the rolled ribs and took them out about an hour before completion.

I agree with Jim, the toothpick test works well, and mine were like butter. What a yummy treat mid-week in January.

By the way, my experience with chicken has resulted in tough skins. The experts (including Mr. Minion) is to cook at a higher temperature--keep it at 300 degrees to crisp up the skin. Otherwise, it ends up like rubber, or worse.

Dale