• Enter the TVWB 27th Anniversary Prize Drawing for a chance to win a Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill! Click here to enter!

Question about combo butts/ribs cook


 
Steve McKibben

Steve McKibben

TVWBB Super Fan
I plan to cook a couple of butts over night, and add 3 racks of ribs in the morning. I plan to have the butts finish a good 2-3 hours before the ribs are done, so there will be some overlap time when both are on the WSM at the same time.

My question concerns the smoke wood. I will have some going at the beginning of the cook for the butts - some with the lit coals and some buried in the unlit.

If I want the ribs to be smoky, should I add more wood when I put them on? If I do, will that have any negative (too smoky?) effect on the nearly finished butts?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve McKibben:
I plan to cook a couple of butts over night, and add 3 racks of ribs in the morning. I plan to have the butts finish a good 2-3 hours before the ribs are done, so there will be some overlap time when both are on the WSM at the same time.

My question concerns the smoke wood. I will have some going at the beginning of the cook for the butts - some with the lit coals and some buried in the unlit.

If I want the ribs to be smoky, should I add more wood when I put them on? If I do, will that have any negative (too smoky?) effect on the nearly finished butts? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Meat will absorb however much smoke you give it. So to answer your question, when you add the ribs and more smoke wood, yes the butts will get smokier. Depending on how smokey you like your BBQ, it may or may not be too much.

What you can do to avoid over smoking is to finish the butts wrapped in foil.

Also since you will be adding raw meat to the cooker with meat that is almost fully cooked, you should put the raw meat on the bottom grate, to avoid cross contamination.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Larry Wolfe:
Meat will absorb however much smoke you give it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

OK - so if I'm worried about over smoking the pork, would adding smoke wood for the ribs when I take the butts off, a good 2 hours or so into the ribs' cook, be a viable option?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve McKibben:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Larry Wolfe:
Meat will absorb however much smoke you give it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

OK - so if I'm worried about over smoking the pork, would adding smoke wood for the ribs when I take the butts off, a good 2 hours or so into the ribs' cook, be a viable option? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

YES, that is certainly an option!
 
Steve. I am doing the exact same cook this weekend, and it is my 1st time doing both at the same time.
Would you mind sharing your timeline? What time are you putting the butts on, and what time the next day for ribs?
 
Michelle,

The butts have usually taken me about 14 hours or so. I plan to have all food off of the smoker by 11:00AM Saturday, so working back from there I plan to put the ribs on around 6:30AM and the butts , which I hope to be able to pull and cooler by 9:00AM, at 7:00PM on Friday. I might even put the butts on an hour or so earlier than that - if they finish early more time in the coller won't hurt, and I don't want to be rushed too much at the end.
 
Another thing to consider is the type of smoke wood you are using. If you are worried about oversmoking the butts you might consider using Apple or Cherry wood as these leave a milder smoke flavor than hickory or oak.

I myself like a lot of smoke
 
How did it work out for you Michelle?

My butts were done a little earlier than I expected, so by the time the ribs were ready to go on I was able move the butts from the WSM to the cooler and just cook the ribs on the top grate.

If you'd like to see some pictures of the cook, go to the "Just Conversation" board and look for the thread "What Do You want To Cook For Father's Day"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top