Need Advice on Ribs


 
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Scotty W.

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If you all read my intro I just bought a 22.5 WSM. Have smoked two slabs of loin ribs. They turned out great but have to break old habits of "trying" to smoke on a Brinkmann PitnSmoke.

Anyhow, I have a question. Smoking 6 slabs of loin ribs for a 4th outing. I have one older rib rack. How should I place the ribs on the top and bottom grates and how much charcoal? I do have a Weber chimney. Plan on using Kingsford with wild plumb wood with store bought rub and brown sugar. Appreciate any advice or thoughts.

Thanks, Scotty W.
 
I would say just split them up - half on upper and half on lower and go for broke. Not too sure about the plum wood. I assume you've used it before in your Brinkmann but I've never heard of plum wood as good smoke wood for BBQ. Something different though - could be interesting. But I would just go with your gut. Thats the cool thing about doing this whole smoke and BBq thing - the experimentation. I've had my WSM over a year and I've just recently got my ribs the way I want them. Not that my previous ones were bad - just not quite what I was looking for. Now I have it right. Again, trial and error. Good luck.
 
Or you could roll em up and skewer them. In This post i did just that. Grilled 5 full slabs of spares. I could fit 3 of them flat on one grate. After rolled i could fit 6 on a single grate. They did fall over so i flipped them around (after 2hours) But they turned out great and cooked even.
 
How many slots in your rack? Mine has six and I just put six whole racks (spares or babies) in the rack on top grate. Lay down a piece of foil under the ends of the ribs near the edges, bone side out and I'd rotate the outside rack with the two inner racks 1/2 way through.

Let me know if you want me to post a picture of how I foil the ends.
 
Russ,

Yes, I've used wild plumb wood several times in the Brinkmann. It grows wild and is quite common in South Central Missouri. To me it's a bit milder than apple. It helps to have a bunch of it on my land.
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Larry,

My rib rack has 4 slots but they're not quite as tall as what I've seen in pics on this site. I was thinking I could lay two slabs flat on the bottom grate and four in the rack on the top grate.

I'm a little confused on why you rotate your ribs in the racks and foil the ends?

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. Supposed to be 100 degrees here this weekend. That might make temperature control interesting
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Scotty W.
 
Originally posted by LarryR:
How many slots in your rack? Mine has six and I just put six whole racks (spares or babies) in the rack on top grate. Lay down a piece of foil under the ends of the ribs near the edges, bone side out and I'd rotate the outside rack with the two inner racks 1/2 way through.
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Larry, you talking about in an 18.5" wsm?

I'm surprised that more folks don't mention the rack ends getting overcooked in the 18.5" wsm, but the foil sounds like a great idea if you want to cook a lot and leave the racks whole.

Ever tried fitting a dozen on at a time by using two racks?
 
Scotty, When cooking that many racks in a rack I rotate middle out and out to the middle to promote even cooking. Hotter on the outside of your grate than the two ribs stuck in the center of six. Regarding laying down foil under the ribs, to prevent burning of the ends near the edge of the grate.

Dave, OP mentioned he had a 22.5 so I was referring to his 22.5.
 
Originally posted by LarryR:
Dave, OP mentioned he had a 22.5 so I was referring to his 22.5.
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Yeah, I noticed what size cooker the OP had. I just didn't know what size cooker your "stoked" wsm was. Thanks.
 
Dave, got it. In terms of my personal experience of using this method I was referring to my 23" Komodo Kamado. Close enough to the OP's 22.5 that the experience should be similar.

Here's a picture of how I set them up:
Juanita80179.jpg
 
Originally posted by LarryR:
Dave, got it. In terms of my personal experience of using this method I was referring to my 23" Komodo Kamado. Close enough to the OP's 22.5 that the experience should be similar.

Here's a picture of how I set them up:
Juanita80179.jpg
Click to expand...

OH....ok. I gotcha, Larry. Thanks.

Man, those are some FINE looking ribs. Maybe they look better since it's only an hour til supper...
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Yeah, the foil is a really smart way to help get more evenly cooked ribs, I'm sure. I've used foil under the end of brisket flats, but that reminds me....Burnt ends are supposed to come off of BRISKETS, right?

....Did I mention those ribs look good? MMMMMMM-MMMMMMM GOOD!!! You got me re-thinking my yardbird for the 4th!

God bless America. He already did...with BBQ!!!
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Russ,

Yes, I've used wild plumb wood several times in the Brinkmann. It grows wild and is quite common in South Central Missouri. To me it's a bit milder than apple. It helps to have a bunch of it on my land.
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Click to expand...

Well plum wood smoke away my brother.
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As far as a rib rack, I recently purchased a Brinkmann rib rack that works really well. It has 6 slots and is designed to handle your spares untrimmed or St. Louis style. And because u have a 22 inch WSM you could easily fit all 6 in the rack without the ones in the front and rear rubbing up against the inside of the dome. I have an 18.5 so I usually cut mine in half.
 
Thanks to all who replied. Supposed to be over 100 degrees here this weekend. Maybe I won't need charcoal! Will let you all know how the ribs turned out.

Scotty W.
 
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I had to split them up later. was just taking too long, though nice not to pull out the top grate. 3 per grate is optimum
 
What's up with your ribs all like that on the top grate? As to checking and removing slabs, even my small wsm's door is wide enough for accessing ribs on the bottom grate. (It's another reason to cook St. louis spares over full spares.)
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The ribs turned out great. Have before and after photos taken by a buddy's wife. She e-mailed them to me but they were over 3 Meg in size each. The only picture resizing software I have on my pc allows me to crop but still over 1 meg each. Never used any online photo storage sites but maybe I need to? Any suggestions.

Scotty W.
 
Scotty - Daniel Wolgast was spot on about rolling up your ribs and putting a skewer through them to hold them apart from one another. That will provide for even heat to all parts of the rack and is very simple to do. Rolled up they are also easy to handle. Welcome aboard my friend and good cooking to you.
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Bob
 
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