• Enter the TVWB 27th Anniversary Prize Drawing for a chance to win a Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill! Click here to enter!

Basic Baby Back Ribs - How overkill?


 
A

Aaron Buys

TVWBB Member
I'm a new WSM owner and I'm working through the beginner recipes on this site. I'm up to the basic ribs and I noted in the description that it says to use 9 pounds of briquettes and that this is actually "overkill" for the recipe. I'll be cooking the ribs in an 18.5" model and I'm not real interested in wasting charcoal. Can somebody give me some advice on a more reasonable amount of fuel so I'm not being wasteful. Also, is there a general rule of thumb for how much fuel to use in relation to cooking time/food to be cooked?

Thanks!
 
Aaron,first of all,welcome to the forum! There is a ton of info and a lot of great people here.
As far as the WSM goes,it is better to use a full chamber of charcoal,than to use a less full one and risk running out of fuel. The WSM can be closed down after a cook and it will snuff out the charcoal. The leftover charcoal can be used for your next cook.
While charcoal can be expensive,it is nowhere near as expensive as ruined meat! I hope this helps,and let us know how your cook turns out.
 
Aaron, I can not agree more with Phil.
Word for Word.
If you want worry-free cooks while you're starting to know your WSM, over-kill is used in some vocabularies... Once you have an idea how long certain cooks last, pull up and "KNOW" what you'll need to complete your dish.
Aaron, Welcome to the FINEST web site you'll ever need to know about Weber smokers and grills.
Glad to have you with us!
Enjoy your stay
wsmsmile8gm.gif
 
Agree with Phil!

Worry about charcoal usage AFTER you've mastered the cooking processes.

Charcoal is only about $.30/lb. How much are those BB's?

There is no general rule-of-thumb for charcoal usage. Each smoker burns different and weather plays a factor as well as the meat itself. Not only do brands of charcoal burn different but you'll encounter differences between bags of the same brand.


Oh, and welcome!
icon_smile.gif
 
With my last batch of ribs I tried to go with a little less than a half ring, to try and save coals. That was the first and last time...lol. Wasn't worth the hassle. I had temps all over the place. I'm guessing more fuel = more stable.
 
My last cook was loin backs and I filled up the ring ! shut it down after aprox 5 hrs and had over half a ring left when I looked in the next day ! Next cook I will just fill it up again ontop of what was left and MM the K . Much easier to deal with to much K than trying to load more at the tail end or middle of a cook trying to save a couple bucks IMHO YMMV .
wsmsmile8gm.gif
 
Until you get the hang of it, I'm with the rest of the guys, no such thing as overkill. For the price of K, not even worth worrying about it, especially since if you do close down all your vents when done, it will snuff out pretty quickly and you can build right on top of it next time.
 
I find in Colorado I have to start my minion method with way more than 12 briquets to get the temps up. I top off the ring 3/4 way and dump 3/4 chimney of lit on top. That way the only variable in the cook is outside temp, wind and amount of meat. Ha only a few variables! Shut down vents and reuse coals next day. Same as topping of your gas tank. All the gas eventually gets used.

I've only cooked about 10 racks of ribs on the WSM and my family is going nuts for them. Slow and steady and don't open the cooker much the first half of the cook.
 
Reducing variables is a good reason to always start with a full ring, especially for a beginner. I have come to believe that air flow through the charcoal stack varies with how much charcoal you have and how tightly you have it packed. This seems to affect the vent settings needed to achieve a given temperature.

There is no waste when using a full ring for a short cook - just shut all vents at the end and use what's left next time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top