How much Kingsford Charcoal for 1 slab of Pork Spare Ribs?


 
A

Andrew S. B.

TVWBB Member
Hi everyone,

i'm going to do my first smoke today. How much Kingsford Charcoal do i need for 1 slab of Pork Spare Ribs? How long is it going to take to cook? Thanks!

Andrew
 
If you use MM, fill the ring with unlit and add 12 to 15 lit. Read up on the Minion Method from the tabs at top of page.

If you use the standard Method, one Weber chimney of lit covered with 3/4 of unlit. Allow all to ash over. Read up on this method, also.

Cook time should be around 6 1/2 to 7 hrs unless you use foil after 3.5 hrs for an hour and then you'll finish around 5 hrs.

Paul
 
I think filling the ring with charcoal is way more charcoal than you need (Sorry, Paul.) I would fill it about half way, and add some lit charcoal on top. That should last you long enough to do some ribs.

You can shut down all your vents when done and it will put out the fire, and any unused charcoal can be left for the next cook.
 
I would like to add that i slab is either saint-louis or Kansas style. Would 1 chimeny of kingsford be enough? i have the 1 chimeny lighting up right now
 
whether you are doing 1 slab or 6, the amount of charcoal is about the same.

how are you lighting it up? Are you doing the minion method like Paul and Tom suggested? If so, a full chimney is actually too much. You can do it, but you are going to have a tough time keeping the WSM to a 225-240 temp range. You have two options. try lighting the standard method, or go ahead and try the MM method with the full lit chimney. As Paul mentioned, do a quick read here on the best ways to light it up.

If you go ahead and do the MM with the full lit chimney, I'd close 2 of the three vents all the way at the beginning, with the 3rd only open 50%. Then, when the temp gets to about 200, close the 3rd all the way too. Then see if the temp continues to rise. The thought is to try and slow the spread of the burning fuel, so it doesn't consume too much too quickly and cause a serious temp spike.

Also, use cold water in the water pan - that will help alot. Since you don't have a lot of meat on there, you won't have a lot of cold mass going into the smoker either.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
I'm acutally doing the Standard method. I didn't think the MM was warrented for a 5-6hr burn. My 1st full chimeny is almost done, should i pour that and add an unlit half a chimeny on top, then wait till its all ready to go?
 
Tom

You're probably correct on the unlit. I had a bad experience using only a partially full ring of unlit with MM and just never could get my heat up, so I go all the way or another method. On the other hand I guess I've never done only one rack of ribs. I thought that perhaps if I used more lit I could solve the problem but I never tried that method again.

Andrew

Yes, pour in the chimney of lit, add the unlit on top and then let it ash over. Close all vents, assemble the cooker, fill the waterpan, carefully. When the temp get down to about 300, add your slab of ribs. With only one slab, maybe wait till 280. As the temp drops, gruadually open the vents to stabilize the lid temp around 250.

Best of luck to you.

Paul
 
Paul, Everyone has slightly different results. I have always used a full chimney of lit charcoal on top of the unlit, and my temps usually go right to about 200-220 right off the bat. This weekend, I used less, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 chimney, and the tempt went shooting right past 250 and I had to shut all my vents to bring the temp down.

This is exactly the opposite of what I would have expected. Go figure.
icon_smile.gif


I usually use about half a load of charcoal for a medium cook like ribs, and it's enough. For some reason, this time I did a brisket, split into two pieces, and I used about half a ring, and I was right at the point where the coals were dying out and the brisket was about 178º. I added half a chimney, but I'm not sure I needed it to finish the brisket.

Anyway, my usual pratice is for something around 1 or two hours, just dump in a chimney of lit charcoal. For 4 - 7 hours, about half a load of unloit with the minion method. For a long cook, like a brisket or pork butt, load it up all the way.

I am perplexed that my temp went so much higher with less lit charcoal.
icon_confused.gif
 
Andrew, one of my few gripes about the WSM is the access door is so small, it's hard to add charcoal to the unit, especially if it's already lit. It's not easy to dump a chimney of hot charcoal through that little access door. You kind of need a chute (and some heavy mitts).

I added handles to my WSM before I discovered the Minion method. The handles allow me to lift the cooking section up off of the carcoal section so I can add more charcoal easily.

But the Minion method makes that unnecessary. As you get a little experience, you'll learn to judge how much charcoal is needed. Personally, I think charcoal is cheap enough that I would rather use too much than have to deal with adding more later. Plus you can close down the smoker and save some of the extra for next time.
 
Thanks everyone for the help and advice! I'll try the MM next time for sure.

The ribs are on the WSM right now with a little bit of hicory chips in an aluminum foil poutch. To be honest, i don't feel like i'm in control of the temperature at all. Well.. *cough* I don't have a thermometer that goes above 220F, so i think that would be the main reason why. I added a full lit and half unlit chimeny to the charcoal grate in the WSM, added water and closed all the bottom vents and left the top one open, waited till i saw the temp go down a little (the thermometer went past zero to 140F and droped down to 120F) and the water was not really boiling, just slowly simmering when i opened it so i added the ribs and now i'm here writing you. This is just a test run for myself before i invite people over. We'll see how this turns out! I will know when th spare ribs are done by the tear test, correct? Thanks!


Andrew
 
I went right now an got a smoker thermometer and stuck it through one of the top vents. My temperature is exactly 250F after 1:45 cooking with the bottom vents all closed. Wow, this smoker picked a perfect temperature without me even knowing what i'm doing! Sweet!!! at this rate the ribs are going to be ready at 9pm PST.

Andrew
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top