Ribs - burn the wood or not?

I have had a 18" WSM for many years and tried the standard and Minion methods. I typically use the Minion method for buts and ribs - puting the meat on right after the puting the wood on the fire. After reading many people are using the standard method for ribs and buring the wood for an hour before puting on the meat, I gave it a try last time. It took forever to cool down the WSM on the standard lighting method and the meat just didn't have the flavor with the pre-burned wood.

With that said, here's the question(s) - How many are using the standard method and burning the wood versus the MM and not burning the wood? Should I have used more wood (used 4 baseball size chunks) or should I just go back to the Minion method and put the meat on immediately after the wood?
BTW - I use loin back ribs, not full spares.

Thanks.

I put the chunks on or partially buried in the coals, pour on the lit coals, put on meats and close it up.
Sounds like your wood is used up before you get the meats on. I get plenty of smoke flavor and typically use 5-6 chunks about fist size.
No off flavors from the new igniting charcoal.

I use the "Tin Can Minion" method and put the wood on top around the tin can. I put the meat on as soon as the smoker hits 200 degrees. I smoke at 275 degrees target temp.

keep on smokin',
Dalr53

I too use the "tin can" Minion Method. I place my wood chunks in roughly the 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 o'clock positions around the can as I'm packing the ring. I place the wood chunks closer the can so that I'll get "smoke" during the first hours as the coals burn outward.
Meat goes on when I get to 200 degrees start closing up and maintain 225 - 250.

I use the "tin can minion" and the "snake method" especially if I want to run at the 200-225 range. I put the bulk of my wood chunks near the start of the TC minion and also on the snake. Works well for me.

Geo S said:

I put the chunks on or partially buried in the coals, pour on the lit coals, put on meats and close it up. I get plenty of smoke flavor and typically use 5-6 chunks about fist size. No off flavors from the new igniting charcoal.

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That's what I do too, I put my chunks in first, then pour charcoal in, level any high spots, and then I toss on maybe a dozen lit coals. I have all my bottom vents closed to a sliver because the dozen or so lit charcoal is plenty of heat to start cooking from and I almost never have to adjust the vents

Chunks partially buried, slight indention in middle of unlit pile, about 10 lit coals on top in the middle. I wait about 5 minutes, put the WSM together, and put on the meat. Most of us do basically the same thing with variations when using the MM in the WSM.

I've tried them all too. I light up my coals and don't put the wood on until the WSM nears 200. The meat goes on at just about 225.

Minion method here as well..4 or 5 chunks buried in the charcoal circle, and one nice sized chunk in the hallowed out area in the middle. dump the 1/3 chimney of lit coals in the center. Assemble the smoker, let the temp level out at ~250 and the meat goes on. Id guess 30 or so mins after the fire is started.

rb

i agree with all the above. 3 pieces at the start

Cooked one St. Louis rack on Sunday and just cleaned up the WSM 18 today. After the cook I closed all vents to kill the fire. There was very little unused charcoal left when I cleaned up today and there were remnants of the wood chunks -- they were thoroughly blackened, about 25% of their original size and looked like lump charcoal. I started with a bit more than a half-chamber with about 6 medium chunks of apple. I put a chunk of apple in the chimney when I started, along with about 12 briquettes. I spread the coals on top of the unlit, with at least one lit touching each wood chunk. I got delayed with some other chores and didn't get the rack on for about an hour after closing up the cooker. Five-hour cook unwrapped with a couple of spritzes of diluted apple cider vinegar over the last two hours. Mopped with Salt Lick sauce about 40 minutes before pulling the rack. Temp was 235-250 for the duration.

As far as the smoke was concerned, I'd call the taste "lightly-smoked" since I waited quite a while before putting the ribs on. It's typical for me to see smoke wood remnants after a cook. I'm taking that as a sign that the chunks smoldered for the entire cook.

Since I just laid the rack flat on the grate, the end ribs were a bit overdone, but the middle 10 were pretty right on. We ate them brushed with Salt Lick Whiskey Barrel Aged sauce. Addictive stuff.

Jeff

guess i pushed the go button for some crazy reason. as i said, i agree with the others.

i settle 3 pieces of cherry that are a bit smaller than a softball in the coal basket half way between center and the basket in a triangle pattern. next, dump briq's in until the basket is close to full (rib cook) leaving an indent in the center for the can lit coals. warm day or summer cooks, fill the can about 1/2 way, cold or winter cooks, just over 2/3 can. water pan gets a drink of about 1 1/3 gal., equal parts of ACV, apple juice and water. build the smoker temp to 200° and on go the ribs. next, ice cold beer, the neighbor stops over and the day is off and running. my WSM is tucked in next to a screen porch, the house and my other grills, and living in the woods, air flow is next to nothing, meaning, all 3 bottom and 1 top vents are fully open. *i plan to add 1 lid vent to help this issue. there you have it! go easy and remember, when smoking a large piece, you can't say you drank all day if you don't start first thing in the morning