Help with Pork Shoulder and Back Ribs Together


 
D

Darryl.O

TVWBB Member
Hey guys,

I'll be firing up my WSM for the first time tonight. I've done some briskets on my OTG a couple times (using the firebrick method) and have good results. This is my first time using the WSM.

I have two 6.5 lbs pork shoulders, and about 4 racks of back ribs weighing about 1.5 lbs each. Originally, I was planning to start the shoulders around 2-3AM tonight (hopefully have them ready for the ice chest at about 2-3PM Sunday afternoon. I was planning to add the ribs to the smoker sometime around 1PM Sunday afternoon but was wondering if anyone suggested against that. I was reading the BRITU recipe and it has some pretty specific start up procedures.

I'm trying to have dinner ready for about 6-7PM. Can anyone help me out with timing on this?

Thanks!
 
I think that your timing sounds pretty good, Just wondering why you want to start between 2 and 3 a.m when starting at 5 should have you ready to eat for 6-7 p.m.

If you are running a dome temp of 250* you should be O.K. at the 2 hrs /lb, and then be able to allow 4-5 hrs for the ribs, while the butt is finishing up.

With the weather forecast for tommorrow, should be a great day to smoke. I am planning on a butt for lunch myself.

Hope this helps.

Dave
 
Hey thanks for responding. I wanted to let the shoulders sit in the ice chest for a good 3-4 hours. Plus I wanted to ensure that the food was all ready for dinner time. The first time I did a brisket it took much longer than anticipated and everyone was hungry and I ended up taking it off prematurely.

Do you think I will have enough fuel for the ribs too? Or will I have to feed it when the ribs hit the grate?

Thanks!
 
Darryl:

Assuming you are using Kingsford or a quality lump, with a full charcoal ring you should not have to refuel for the cooks.

Remember, it's always easier to hold food longer till it's time to eat than to hurry up and not get it ready in time.
 
It's now 20 after 5 am, I'm assuming that you have your butts on, looks like a great day,let us know how it goes for you Darryl. (with ribs and butt, chances are it will be great)
 
Darryl I think it's smart on your part to give yourself a little extra time for all the food to be done at the same time. Your times seem right in line for your dinner time. Post a few pics if you can.
 
Hey guys. It's almost 9am here and the butts have been on since about 3:30am. I've been struggling a bit with temperature readings. I've got 2 polder remotes. One inside a butt, and the other taking the grate temp. I also have a new 09 model WSM so I've got the built in lid temp. I have a really bad feeling that the temps I was seeing at the grate were off...much higher than my readings. I've got things under control now but I'm worried that the butts cooked too hot for the last couple of hours. Internally they are reading about 160F now.
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Do you think they will still be tender at the end?
 
Darryl,

They should be fine. I have had spikes well over 300 in the middle of the night and not had a problem with them being tender. It really takes a lot to screw up a pork butt and I think you should not have any issues.

Good luck and it sounds like a great cook.

Bob
 
Hey guys,

Everything went well. The porks took a couple hours longer than expected. Probably from problems at the beginning, and from the grate position swap when it came time to add the ribs. Took a good amount of time to get the temps back up.

I do have pictures, but most of them were of prep. I stayed up the majority of the night and was a walking zombie come dinner time haha.
 
You definately had a great day for it.

After a few cooks you get more comfortable walking away (sometimes too much so... like me sleeping in till 9:30am and finding I was about 150 lid!! haha).

With butts you really have a lot of play on temps. I have spiked to 325-350 before and the end product was fine.
 
Butts are very easy to do. No matter what you do, it's pretty hard to screw them up. Sometimes I've had the temps spike and the internal temp would creep up faster than I expected. But, every time it slowed down near the end and still took a while. I haven't had one yet that tasted bad or was really dry.
 
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