How would you handle a ham and spareribs on WSM?


 
L

Larry M

TVWBB Member
My wife has asked me to smoke a ham and 3 racks of spareribs for a party this weekend. She wants to serve about 4 pm on Saturday. I have the 18 inch WSM. My question is how to cook both since they cook at different temperatures. I usually smoke my ribs at 250-275. I have never done a ham, but see recipes for ready to cook hams that call for a temp of 325 or ready to eat and a temp of 225. So would you cook them at different times to accommodate the different temperatures, if so, which would you cook first? On ribs I usually use the 3-2-1 method. I have never done a ham, but from what I have read it will also need between 5 and 6 hours. If I do them separately I will need to get one of them started by 3 am :( to have both ready by 4 pm. Or would you cook them at the same time and compromise on the temp and cook both of them at 300? What would you suggest?

Thanks, Larry
 
Robert T just express my thought exactly. But if you don't have a kettle, smoke the ham in your WSM Thursday or
Friday night. Since it is now smoked you can just reheat it in your regular oven while you do your ribs on Saturday.
I hope they are delicious!
 
I do my ribs at 275 degrees. I would take advantage of the somewhat higher temperature on the lower rack and put the ham there. I have a Maverick 732, so would put the meat thermometer in the ham. The ribs will finish sooner. Cook the ribs like you normally do and pull them when finished. Then, finish the ham (glazing it at the end, if desired). I believe that will be a compatible cook. After the ribs are pulled you could open the vents and raise the temperature of the smoker to speed up the ham towards finish.

That should be one of the easier double cooks to do, I would think...

FWIW
Dale53:wsm:
 
These are all good answers (and all by guys named robert) but my vote goes with robert McGee ....so I guess I'm sayin me and bobby McGee....agree.
 
Thanks Frank and the three Roberts for the suggestions, they are very helpful. I tend to smoke everything at 225-250, so I was not sure what to do about the different temperature requirements. I have successfully smoked ribs at 275 before, so I think I will follow MR. McGee's suggestion. Now Frank has the song running through my head. I guess I will have to play it during the cook.

Larry
 
Hams are pre-cooked, the ham will hit the 160 internal temp before the spares are done. I would not go above the 160 internal temp. All that is required is getting ham to eating temp.
 
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The cook was very successful. I put the ham on the bottom grate and the ribs on the top grate of the WSM. I had wanted to cook a "ready to cook" ham, but could only find a "ready to eat" ham which is cooked at 325 until it reaches an internal temp of 140. So what I did was cook everything at 250. The 10 lb ham took a little over 3 hours and the 3 racks of spare ribs took a little over 5 hours. As an aside this was the first time I had used the Pitmaster I-120 and it worked perfectly. I set the pit temp to 250 and it brought the pit temp up to and stopped right at 250 It held 250 the entire cook with one small spike to 267 before it came back to 250. I am looking forward to doing a brisket overnight and getting some sleep. Thanks again for the advice on how to cook these two foods at the same time.
 
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