Logistics for Pork Butt & Baby Backs on a Single WSM

[MickGeo]

I am having a few people over to the lake tomorrow & am planning to serve some smoked pork for dinner. I was planning on a combo of baby backs & pork butt. I realize choosing one would be easier but, oh well, I enjoy a challenge & would like to give it a try for possible future endeavors. So I have a questions regarding the logistics for smoking 2-3 racks of baby backs & a small pork butt on a single 18.5" WSM.

What would be the best way to tackle this?

1. Put the butt & ribs on the smoker together, take this ribs off after 3-4 hours, wrap them in foil, place them in a cooler, & then sauce & warm them up on the smoker once the pork is ready to pull. This seems like the easiest option but my preference to serve ribs shortly after coming off the smoker instead of warming them up.

2. Let the butt sit on the smoker for 3, 4, 5 hours before putting the baby backs on. I'd obviously need to add more smoke wood once the ribs went on with this approach. Would I need to worry about over smoking the butt by adding more wood? Should I 'protect' the butt from the additional smoke in some foil?

3. Just separate the smokes. Do the pork early & let it sit in foil resting in a cooler while I smoke the ribs? This makes for a long day but may yield the best results.

Each seems to have its pros & cons, & wonder which others have tried with successful results.

Thanks.

 

[Bob Ivey]

Don't know how the timing would work, but I would do the but ahead of time and reheat with a little apple juice before serving. Then do the ribs so they are done when you want to serve them. Just seems like you life would be simpler that way.

 

[MickHLR]

Mick, I've done exactly what you are asking...and with the WSM, it's a breeze. I put my pork butt on the top rack and smoked it at 225* for about 8 hours. So, I'm thinking it will have another 4-5 hours left...and I know my spare ribs take about 6 hours. So, when I get ready to put the ribs on, I just moved the butt to the bottom rack, and did the two racks of spare ribs on the top rack. After about 3 hours, I took my ribs off to wrap them in foil with honey, squeeze butter, and brown sugar. The pork butt was still not ready. After a couple of hours with the ribs wrapped in foil, it was time to take them off and unwrap them...then glaze them in barbecue sauce. At this time the pork butt was ready. So, I took it off, wrapped it in foil and let it rest in an ice chest for about an hour and a half. Then, I put the ribs back on and spritzed and glazed for the next hour or so, until they were done. By then, the butt was ready to pull...and away we went. The WSM did all the work, and I just had to figure out how the logistics would work. Both turned out great! And, I think it is a great idea to do spare ribs and pork butt at the same time...well, more like finish about the same time. Just a note: I did not add more wood when I put the ribs on, as I always start any smoke with 7-8 good sized chunks...and it will last a good 12 hours or so. Just because you don't see smoke, doesn't mean you're not getting smoke.