First WSM Ribs

[Bob McFadden]

Last time I did ribs was a few years ago on the kettle w/o much success. Today I did spareribs on the WSM, they were great! I was undecided between BRITU and Sugarless Texas Sprinkle, girlfriend said K/C & honey sounded good so went with BRITU. They were on 6.5hrs and were very tender and good taste. There will be ribs a lot more often around here now. Probably will try Sugarless Texas next. I didn't have any trouble controlling temps until I removed the lid the first time. I guess the rush of oxygen caused the temp to spike. If you were to close ALL the vents when the lid is replaced would that control that temp spike? I thought also if you were to add cold water and expend that heat energy by heating water. Does anyonelse experience this? How do you control the temp spike?

Bob

 

[Doug D]

Don't overthink it. Try to minimize the time you have the lid off to do whatever it is you need to do by planning in advance. The temp may spike, but consider that the spike is only maybe 20-30 minutes out of a 6 or 7 hour cook. Don't panic. The vents had the temp where you wanted it before you opened it up-- that setting is still correct after you close it back up.

 

[Guest]

Don't close top vent, bad stale smoke and combustion byproducts.

 

[Bob McFadden]

Thanks Doug, I'll do that.

 

[Geoff U.]

If I'm doing something that takes a bit of time, like flipping & basting a bunch of ribs, I'll take the whole top grate off the WSM and put the lid back on. Then I can take my time with whatever I'm doing and put it all back when done. Since it takes 2 hands, you need a place to briefly set the lid down and another work surface to set the grate down. Gloves, too.