Need some smoke advice on timing a Ribs and Butt smoke


 

Drew Baker

New member
I have a bunch of guys coming over Saturday night to watch some college football and play some cards.

I'm somewhat of a newbie, I've done pulled pork twice and ribs twice, never both. Here's what I have:

2 smallish butts (in the packaging, they are 7 pounds each, after trimming maybe 6?)
3 racks of baby back ribs.
18.5 WSM

Plan to eat around 8:00-8:30 pm.

Am I right in remembering that the general rule of thumb is that the butts need 1.5 hours per pound? I will be guaging temp to know the doneness, but as a guage, is that correct?

My basic question is - if those were your meats, how would you time your day?
Basic question number 2 - Do you guys do butts and ribs in the same smoke session, or am I biting off too much?


Here was my tentative plan:
Start WSM early, maybe 6:00. Have butts on by 7:00-7:30.
Based on size of Butts, they should be done sometime between 4-6. Take them off, wrap them, sit in the cooler.
Put Ribs on at 3:30 or 4:00. Take out around 8:00 or so to eat.

Thanks for your help!
 
For the butts, hi heat cooking is about 1 1/2 to 2 hr/lb. Use this guide for hi heat butts http://virtualweberbullet.com/pork3.html

Ribs will be about 4-5 hr. at 225-240. I wouldn't do the ribs at the higher temp though.

If either gets done too soon (and actually, an earlier finish time would be ideal) they can be put into foil (then a blanket as long as the foil is folded not to leak and for extra heat retention) then a cooler. They'll stay hot for hours set aside like that.

Personally, I would do the hi heat method, finishing the butts off (after smoking) in the household oven and then do the ribs at the lower temp (if you want, you can START the ribs at the higher temp in conjunction with the butts to save on time/fuel but it may not be needed by using house oven for finishing off the butts). Timing both cooks should be fairly easy: just work backwards from your expected eat time (add 1/2 hr to that for safety)--plating, pulling, indoor oven, WSM, rub, getting charcoal started, trimming the butt (some but not a lot is needed to be trimmed) and now that you have your schedule in reverse, you know when to start cooking.

Having said that, if you can start earlier than this calculated time, DO SO. All of it can stay hot (properly insulated in a cooler or a low-temp oven) for quite a few hours.

It's not a bad thing to use the house oven after the initial smoke. You only want heat after the first few hours anyways so this method works quite nicely. I did it once entirely in my oven (no smoke because this was pre-WSM for me) using a probe that comes with my brand of oven and cooked to appropriate internal temps. Worked just fine.

Obviously both at the same time will save some on fuel and time but it may be difficult juggling temps to accomodate the different methods.

As a specific suggestion, I would NOT put the ribs in at 3.30. They may take 5 hours to do and then where would you be? See the bolded underlined note above.
 
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I've never done the "high heat" method with foiling, so I'm a little nervous to try it out for the first time with company coming over. But, I like the shorter cook time.
 
For me, when I do cooks of this nature, I do an overnighter on the butts, and with the size of yours, you could start them around 10:00 or so the night before, let them cruise away all night, should be done after 12ish hours, wrap them up and cooler them. Then, your rib cook will be just ribs in the cooker, so no worries about shuffling meat and racks around. For me, I do baby backs around 300 degrees, so if you started those at 5:00 you'd be all set for your chow time at 8:00.

Purely how I would do it, but I love overnight butt cooks because they are super easy and the WSM will just cruise all night without need for much monitoring.
 
For me, when I do cooks of this nature, I do an overnighter on the butts, and with the size of yours, you could start them around 10:00 or so the night before, let them cruise away all night, should be done after 12ish hours, wrap them up and cooler them. Then, your rib cook will be just ribs in the cooker, so no worries about shuffling meat and racks around. For me, I do baby backs around 300 degrees, so if you started those at 5:00 you'd be all set for your chow time at 8:00.

Purely how I would do it, but I love overnight butt cooks because they are super easy and the WSM will just cruise all night without need for much monitoring.

Seems unacceptable to do an overnight smoke starting at 10:00 pm, meaning my butts would be done at 10:00 am (give or take), and not served until 8:00 pm. Overnight smoke is out, due to the timing of the party and fact that I bought smaller butts.
 
I've never done the "high heat" method with foiling, so I'm a little nervous to try it out for the first time with company coming over. But, I like the shorter cook time.

Foil is just another method of covering it to retain steam/heat to accelerate/retain moisture during the cook. You could put it into a covered roasting pan in the oven as well. It won't be as air tight (comparatively speaking) but it will do the same job.

The "bark" will be soft but as it's all getting mixed up when pulled anyways, it won't matter.

When foiling the ribs (to keep them warm), the bark will soften on those too. To fix that, after foiling/putting on hold, just pop the now-unfoiled ribs onto your (gasser or charcoal) grill and grill 'em for 5-6 minutes to "harden" the bark up again. Remember, they're already cooked so a short grill time is all that's needed.

edit--in a 'off topic' item, put your address (city-wise) in your profile so folks who might be near you could help--maybe even phone you ;) )
 
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Drew stick with what you know. I'm thinking your cooking in the 225-250 range. I always go with worst case scenario so count on 2hrs per pound for the pork. Cook the pork on the top rack to start and when you put the ribs on switch it to the middle rack. Put the ribs on 5-6 hours before you want them and hold everything warm in a cooler if necessary.
 
Drew stick with what you know. I'm thinking your cooking in the 225-250 range. I always go with worst case scenario so count on 2hrs per pound for the pork. Cook the pork on the top rack to start and when you put the ribs on switch it to the middle rack. Put the ribs on 5-6 hours before you want them and hold everything warm in a cooler if necessary.

Good one Bob. Sometimes simple is best.
 
I can't dispute any of the cooking advice above, but I have to ask the question: are you cooking for an army? 2 butts and 3 racks of ribs should feed like 25 hungry people.
 
I can't dispute any of the cooking advice above, but I have to ask the question: are you cooking for an army? 2 butts and 3 racks of ribs should feed like 25 hungry people.

Leftovers are always nice the next day. Can be packaged up for the freezer also.
 

 

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