First time on WSM, Basic Ribs, with question


 
T

T Bounds

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Well, I broke in my 2 week old WSM today with a selection of the Basic Baby Back Ribs. They were the best ribs I've ever cooked, and I've cooked a lot of ribs on my kettle. They were a little spicy for my children, so I'll likely cut back on the cayenne and pepper in the next round, but my wife and I, along with our guest, found them excellent. Sorry I don't have pictures this time, only sticky keys.

Question: I followed the directions faithfully, and had every heat advantage (hot sunny day, brand new WSM) but I barely got the temp to 250 using Kingsford and all vents wide open. What gives? Not that I wanted higher temps, but I did expect to have to fiddle with vents to maintain a slow, low temp. And no, my water pan was on correctly and filled with a gallon. Any suggestions on the heat problems?
 
Howdy, T Bounds-

Glad to have you here and glad to hear the cook turned out well!

The Basic Babyback Ribs cook is a pretty new recipe here so I don't know much about it, but it looks like it calls for a half-chimney of lit coals on top of a full chimney of unlit coals.

If you did this and still had trouble getting to 250 with open vents, I'd have to thing about that and/or defer to one of the more experienced folk.

Is that how you started off the cook?
 
Thank you for your response, Benny.

Yes, I did exactly start with a chimney full of unlit coals beneath a half-chimney of effectively lit coals, along with a hand full of hickory chunks. I'm baffled because I've spent years controlling temp on my kettle, yet today I have no clue as to the struggling temp.

Any help is appreciated.
 
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I'm not really seeing a 'problem', T. I have only just now read the recipe and cooking approach but having done that I do see both where Chris's target cooktemp would be achieved by this approach and where 'fiddling' would not be necessary. Though higher temps would be a bit more work to achieve (if you had wanted them), it would be possible (though you'd have to alter your method). Moreover, higher temps (or lower) are quite easy to achieve--it only takes a different approach from the get-go.

Chris's intention with this recipe and method was to give a new WSM user an way to good results without having to think about it too much, without having to fiddle to the point of frustration (not something one needs to worry about with the WSM but new users often expect to fiddle--and often fiddle when fiddling isn't at all indicated, thus ending up with results that aren't as good as they could be). Chris's recipe/method achieves this successfully. For higher temps--only a couple minor changes (really) and you would have been either able to easily reach higher temps, or fiddling in order to keep temps down.
 
You know, K, I hadn't thought of that! Apparently Chris has prepared such ribs enough times to have the number of coals pretty much down pat.

I suppose I've read too many threads and seen too many charts where vents went from 100, to 50, to 33, to 50, etc. and the temps bobbled right along. I guess I was mentally prepared to wrestle a bear and showed up with a gun, when in reality I encountered a mouse and looked foolish. At least the ribs were excellent!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">At least the ribs were excellent! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Your ribs were excellent. Good job.

Wrestling, as it were, will likely occur soon enough. (Though it is pretty much never required. It is--as you suggest--more of a mental expectation that manifests as 'reality'; many expect to wrestle so so they do wrestle--even though it is not at all necessary.
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