How many racks of ribs in a WSM?


 
M

Mark Orlovsky

TVWBB Member
I have be "volunteered" by my wife to make ribs for a dinner later in June. I am looking for some input on what is the largest amount of ribs (racks) that anyone has done at one time in their WSM.

If you have modified the WSM by adding additional racks let me know what you did. I own 2 WSM's and I figure that if I smoke the racks in a pinwheel setup, I can smoke about 6 to 8 at one time depending on the size of the rack.

Thanks!

Mark
 
Roll and skewered loin backs or St.Louis spares, without an additional grate, would be 11-- 4 on the bottom, and 3 stacked on top of four on the top. Somewhere on here, someone once claimed 14, but, IIRC, it was using a rib rack, and cutting slabs in half, and leaning them against the rack in addition to laying some on top.
 
Doug, how do you stack the last 3 rib slabs? Rolled and in the same position as the layer below (rib bones vertical), or with the rib bones horizontal, like 3 pieces of pipe laying down? Or NOT rolled at all?

Also, do you move them around during the cook?

Rita
 
I think the following link to a page by Kevin Taylor provides some good visuals and perspective ... Rib Capacity

He was able to get up to 11 racks of BB ribs in a single WSM by cutting the racks in half and utilizing rib racks.
 
I did the same thing as Kevin except I did not stack on top. Kevin is a great resource to this forum. I'm sure that's the same picture I saw to get my understanding on how to do so many ribs.
 
Mark ... about how many racks are you anticipating having to smoke?

If you do a search of previous discussions you will find a number of discussion regarding "rib capacity". I know because I've done it!

If you load the WSM up with ribs, it seems like it will be necessary to rotate the ribs during the cook ... top to bottom and outside to inside.

I've only done relatively small smokes, but I'm going to try 4.5 racks on the top grate this Sunday.
 
By rolling and stacking both grill levels with loin back ribs I was able to get somewhere between 12 and 14 slabs. While it worked, it was a little difficult keeping everying in place while assembling. I also didn't get as good a mahogany color on the ribs as I get when I don't stack them that close. Cooking time on the lower rack took longer but that was OK since I didn't have to have all of them ready at once.

Now, I have a second WSM so I don't need to jam things in as tight.
 
Dennis, as of today the plan is 20 racks, but suspect I will be doing about 25 racks.

Also anywhere between 20 and 25 chickens, but those I will be doing my Weber grills.

Mark
 
Originally posted by Rita Y:
Doug, how do you stack the last 3 rib slabs? Rolled and in the same position as the layer below (rib bones vertical), or with the rib bones horizontal, like 3 pieces of pipe laying down? Or NOT rolled at all?

Also, do you move them around during the cook?

Rita
Click to expand...
All racks rolled and skewered. On the top grate, pyramid 3 on top of four. No meaningful surfaces are really obscured from smoke and heat, so moving is not really necessary, unless you feel the need to just to even out cooking.
 
Mark,

You may want to consider doing them in stages or in advance and finishing/reheating on a grill.

I've had decent luck cooking them the day before and wrapping in HD foil before refrigerating. I then add a little apple juice to the pouch before reheating on a grill. Once warm, I remove from the foil and add a little glaze sauce.

Depending on your schedule, you may not need to chill them but be mindful of holding things too long in the food "danger zone" (40-140F).
 
Doug.....pyramid is the word I couldn't call up. Great explanation! Thanks very much. It does look as if all of the ribs would get excellent access to the smoke. Very creative.
icon_smile.gif


I'd be expecting the topmost 3 to get done quite a bit ahead of the ones on the lower grate, no?

Rita
 
Yes, I would want to keep temps no higher than 250° at the dome, and shuffle things around appropriately whenever mopping.
 
Thanks, a bunch, Doug. Your system is just what I needed and it feels right to me.

Thanks, Mark, for starting this thread.
icon_smile.gif


Rita
 
Mark ...

For what it's worth, I smoked ribs this weekend and used both the top and lower grate.

The ribs ended up taking longer than I had anticipated ... I attribute that to the temperature differential between the grates.

Soooooooo, in cooking as much food as you're planning, I think logistics will be very important.

Best of luck!
 
Thanks again for the help. Two weekends ago I smoked 26 racks of St. Louis style ribs on 2 smokers. (About 40#'s).

After I loaded them up, I could I have done about 5 more racks.

Sorry that I don't have pictures (duh).

Mark
 
What I do is put 7 1/2 racks on the char broil rib racks. I add a 3rd grate by putting 4 beer cans on bottom rack to hold a middle grate. I then put 4 more empty cans on the middle rack to hold the top rack. It gets a bit tippy but works nice. You may want to have someone help you empty the cans because it bets a bit wobbly till it is all setup. Works really good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top