Babyback help


 
R

Rob Waxman

New member
Hey guys, I need some advice. Ive relatively new to smoking, Ive done ribs and brisket maybe a total of 4 or 5 times...

This weekend I bought a 3 pack of baby back ribs from Costco, and they didnt turn out so well. The racks were pretty thick (i thought maybe this had something to do with it)

Im smoking on a 18.5 WSM, I had 2 racks on top, and 1 on the bottom. The two on top were pretty thick and were basically touching each other.

Im using the minion method, and I filled the coal chamber all the way and started with about half a chimney of hot coals. I filled a water pan with cool water also.

I used the 2-2-1 method and had an absolute TERRIBLE time getting the temp above 200. Time was runing low, so I threw them on anyway. I thought even though the temp was low, it would still be ok to start. Low and slow right?

By the end, the rack on the bottom was perfect, but the two on top were just terrible. The meat didnt pull off the bone at all and they werent tender in the least.

Can someone give me some pointers on maybe what I was doing wrong? I really appreciate it.
 
Rob -
Can you tell us what your vent setting were? Bottom and top? Also, anything restricting airflow inside the unit - ie. foiled grates or similar?

Jim
 
Sure, i had all vents open at 100% (top and bottom). I had the ribs in foiled pans. Ive done this before and they have turned out ok. Nothing else was foiled at all.
 
Debatable if your question should go in this section.

"By the end," bbq doesn't have fixed cook times. It's done when it's done.

"The meat didnt pull off the bone at all and they werent tender in the" - a sign of not being cooked long enough.

"2 racks on top, and 1 on the bottom" Top and bottom racks run at different temperature.
 
When I have this problem (getting my fire going), I just keep adding lit briquettes about 10 at a time until my temperature moves to my cooking range. I can always close down a vent or two. I am a little mystified why your fire never got rolling with your vents open completely. Did your temperatures ever come up at all?
 
Yep - I agree with Russell on "doneness". But am more concerned with the cooker not coming up to temp. With vents open, most have the opposite problem - even with a water pan.

Maybe a bad batch of coal, or the coal was wet?

Jim
 
had to be something going on with your charcoal (got wet, storage in a moist environment?).........full ring and a half a chimney of lit coals should be fine with all of your vents open.......mine comes to temp using a similar procedure in a half hour or less

adding cold meat will sometimes delay the temps a bit, but three racks of BB ribs shouldn't have much effect imho.
 
"I had the ribs in foiled pans"
Have you cooked in foiled pans before? This will increase your cook time as foil will deflect heat. If you have been successful with this method before, the temperature was probably too low.
"TERRIBLE time getting the temp above 200."
Opening the door slightly will help add oxygen to stoke the fire to get the WSM hotter.
 
Yeah, Ive cooked in the pans before (mixed success). I read Mixon's book and he said to use them....so I always have.

Its definately worth a shot to ditch them though.
 
Was your top vent 100% open. It does sound like an air flow problem. Also start with hot water in the pan so your not wasting fuel to warm up your water.

You can roll the ribs to fit them all on the same rack so they cook evenly. As you probably know already you pulled the top ones to soon, they weren't done yet.

I would lose the foil pans and cook direct on the grate.
 
Quote "Hi Gary,

I just did a batch of dry ribs two weeks ago and they turned out great. After prepping, (make sure to remove the membrane from the bone side), I gave them a light dusting of the rub from this recipe:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pork4.html

This, by the way, has become my go-to rub for any and all pork products.

I put a full pan of hot water in as soon as I added the meat, which created enough steam that I didn't need to mop at all during the cook.

That being said, I smoked them for about 4.5 hours at 225 - 235 and they came out perfect. No foiling, mopping or glazing needed. I hope this helps!"

Here is a quote from a post I started last Friday for smoked dry ribs. I followed this plus some of the other advice and my ribs were excellent, best I ever made. My first ribs in the WSM. I used a 1/2 full Brinkman pan of hot water (1 gal)and had no problem with Temps, dialed it in at 230 and that's where it stayed. They were done in four hours. No foil, no sauce. Perfectly cooked and moist. I coiled four racks of side ribs on the top grill. After that hit, the same day I did exactly the same with baby backs only they were cut into pieces and put on both grills. This time 4 1/2 hours. Just as good but I wanted to compare.

If you are using a water pan would it not be better to light more briquettes or charcoal in order to get the temps up more quickly to where they need to be and then damper down?
 
I just did ribs yesterday first time on 18.5 Please use Harry Soo instructions on here.Words cant explain how well they came out
 
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