A few questions


 
M

Morris B.

New member
Hi folks!

I'm putting my new 22.5" together tonight and smoking for the first time on it tomorrow. I've previously smoked on my regular Weber grill, but finally took the plunge and got a WSM.

I'm cooking baby back ribs. I have 2 rib racks that will hold 8 racks together, and will have a few additional racks straight on the grill.

Will there be a difference in cooking times between the racks in the rib rack and the racks straight on the grill?

Also, when I have smoked ribs in a rib rack on my regular Weber grill, I usually rotated the ribs in the rack (moving the ones on the inside to the outside of the rub rack, and rotating the rack 180 degrees) to help ensure an even smoke and to help ensure a more even cooking time for all the racks. Is this necessary on the WSM? On my regular Weber grill, the coals were on one side (instead of on the bottom like the WSM) and I think rotating made sense to even things out, but I didn't know if that was necessary on the WSM.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm cooking for a bunch of friends tomorrow and don't want to disappoint.
 
You shouldn't need to rotate the ribs on the WSM, as you say you are not cooking them on a grill indirect. I found it was a case of finding what is right for you as everybody cooks differently.
 
I'm with Darren. I never move ribs racks around much on the wsm, but it would make sense to simply rotate the two four slot racks 180* halfway through the cook.

I'd keep in mind that there's a couple of issues when it comes to ribs on the wsm. For one, the outer perimeter of the grate tends to overcook the ends of the racks before the middle is tender. Just try to keep them away from the edge of the grate as much as you can, and by the way, last week a member recently posted how he used skewers to help space half a dozen ribs in a rack.

The other isn't posted about much since most folks only use the top grate most of the time. Anyhow, I've found that when putting lots of ribs in the wsm, a vertical smoker, for best heat and smoke circulation, it's best if they're vertical as well, as in rib racks or rolled and skewered. Now I've had lots of great ribs come flat off the grate, but they just seem to cook more evenly, more consistently, if I roll'em and skewer. So if it was me I'd roll and skewer for the bottom grate, any that didn't fit in the rib racks on the top. A 22.5" wsm grate will hold six slabs rolled and skewered. Good luck with it. Eight plus racks of ribs is quite ambitious for a first cook on your new wsm.
 
Last edited:
For the racks that extend to the far edges, just put about a 4" piece of foil under the rib edges to protect from that hot spot. When cooking ribs in a rib rack, I like to flip them in the rack for even cooking. If you see a color difference they are not cooking evenly.
 
Thanks for all the replies. The good news is that I'm cooking for people who probably have a lower standards than I do when it comes to ribs, so as long as I don't completely blow it, I'm sure people will be happy with the end result.

It is ambitious to cook this many racks on the maiden voyage and hopefully I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. But the event I am smoking for got large enough to need that many ribs.

I'll report back how it goes. Thanks again for the tips. They've helped me feel a bit more at ease for tomorrow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top