Big cooking day tomorrow

[Jeff C.]

Word has spread around work about how much I enjoy grilling/smoking (probably due in part to all the samples of ribs, pork butt, tenderloin, etc., I bring in), that a fellow WSM owner and I were "asked" by my boss to cook for our next team-lunch. Basically, he just wants a good excuse for me to make more BRITU.

He liked 'em enough day-old and cold, and now wants to try 'em right off the WSM. Funny part is that there are only about 20 people on the sales team with me, but we're cooking for 34+! No pressure on me, since the owner/CEO of the company, the VP of sales, VP of manufacturing, one other senior VP, my boss, and a few others who would be good to butt-kiss will be eating the ribs. Chicken will be the other choice on the menu, along with a special grilled potato dish and other sides. We'll be using one WSM for 8 full racks of baby back ribs (BRITU), two kettles for approx 30 pieces of chicken, and a Weber gas grill for the taters. The 120 people in the building who aren't part of this lunch are going to be driven crazy by the smell once we get all the grills rolling!

I'll have to post a guard near the smoker to keep people out!

 

[Vernon N]

Jeff -- Go for it; do not worry about the ribs. Just serve them up and keep your critical comments about your cooking to yourself.

My experience has been that ribs off of the WSM are way better than any of my previous grilling efforts (and I spent several years working on improving grilled ribs.)

 

[Jeff C.]

We just had a semi-local chain provide ribs & chicken a few weeks ago. They were good, but I know the WSM will do a much better job. After 6 hours of prep and cooking, I won't say a word - my mouth will be too full of ribs!

 

[Jeff C.]

6 hours of "work" later, and the ribs & chicken came out great. I was a bit worried early on in the rib process though. I went out to check on the temp, and saw it had dipped down below 200* half an hour into the cook. Evidently, somebody I work with couldn't read the sign I stuck to the handle of the WSM which said "Please keep out." Not only couldn't this person read, he also couldn't put the lid back on properly... At the 3-hour mark, I did have a struggle getting the temp up to the 275* from the recipe, but with 8 racks in there, I guess the thermal mass was working against me? We had a lot of people doing double-takes when they found we were running four grills, and that the work started before 6 this morning. I'm certainly glad this website is around, or I'd have never gotten a chance to make the BRITU!