How to cook ribs and burnt ends at the same time .....


 

DavidBondy

New member
I have a couple of questions for you folks. I am going to need both grills on my 18.5" WSM tomorrow.

I am smoking four racks of pork ribs (I have one of those upright rack thingies which they will stand in) and I am also making Pork Belly Burnt Ends.

My first question is: should I put the ribs on the top rack and the burnt ends on the lower one or the other way around?

My second question is: I only have one pit probe for my CyberQ so should I clip that to the top or bottom rack to set the temperature for the smoke?

Have a great BBQ weekend everyone!
 
David, it's probably a bit late now.......so, tell us how you did it, and how it worked out! :)

If I were going to do this cook, I would put whatever had the shortest cook time on the top (I haven't don't PB burnt ends, so I don't know how long those go.....) Since they are both pork, having one drip on the other is no big deal, so I would just opt for whatever would make the grill logistics the easiest.

On the probe, I'd probably clip it to the bottom grill if I have a lid therm I trust. If you have a WSM with no lid therm, then you can just clip the probe to the bottom of the top grate and you'll be in the ballpark.

Oh, and, you could always just use a food probe as a second pit therm. Just run it through a potato or wine cork, and make sure you set your food target temps appropriately so that you don't get odd effects from the CyberQ (I'd probably just set my target temp at 450, and know that it's going to drive the fan based on what the actual pit probe is reading.

Sorry you didn't get an answer for your cook, hope it worked out well!

Rich
 
This is how I approached it (and with advice from some guys over at amazingribs.com):

I started with the burnt ends on the top and the ribs on the bottom. They were both going to be three hour smokes. The ribs were in one of those racks where they stand upright (if my Weber Hanging Rack had arrived from Spain it would have been a different story). The burnt ends in one of those "holey" stainless steel dishes.

After the three hour smoke, the burnt ends were put into a conventional stainless steel oven dish, covered with sugar and honey and covered with foil. That went onto the lower grill. I put the four racks of ribs into a larger stainless steel oven dish, added apple juice and foiled that. It went on the top grill. The main reason for these choices was the size of the dishes and the ease of getting them out again.

For the final hour, the uncovered oven dish with the burnt ends remained on the bottom with the ends nicely glazed and the ribs were placed on the top grill, uncovered for glazing.

It all worked out very well and as it was pork and pork I wasn't too concerned about drippings.

The hungry African hordes I was feeding voted them all a great success and the burnt ends went completely and first. I have to recommend the Malcolm Reed recipe although I used Angus and Oink "Porky White Chick" as the rub!

As for the probe, I have a "probe tree" from BBQ Guru. I put it on the underside of the top grill and clipped my probe there so it as about three inches below the top grill. I set the CyberQ to 250F.

David
 
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Sounds great, David, thanks for the recap! I'll have to try out these pork belly burnt ends......they sound ridiculously tasty!

Rich
 

 

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