Ribs- Meat side up or down


 
I do mine on rib racks, too! I cut the racks of ribs in half, use a rib rack on each grate, and do six or eight halves at one time. That way, I get evenly cooked ribs with no over cooked ends.

FWIW
Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Meat side up, but I recently bought a couple rib racks for my mini, can't wait to use 'em tailgating!
Tim
 
Meat side up. If you put them meat side down, you may "bruise" the meat with the grate - meaning you will see the indentation of the grate on the meat side.

If you lay the bones on the grate, they are rigid enough to allow for the required structural integrity during the cook.

My opinion...
 
If not using a rib rack, and putting the ribs horizontal on a grate, I start with meat side up for the first 2.5 to 3 hours. Once I wrap them, I put them meat side down in the foil. When I unwrap them to add the sauce for the last 30 minutes, it is meat side up. I learned this in a rib class I took a few years ago.
 
I'm working my way through the low and slow book by. Gary Wiviott and he instructs to cook with the ribs meat side down for the first couple hours and then flip. The first few recipes came out good. Has anyone tried the recipes from this book or his technique?
 
When doing a number of racks of ribs on an 18.5, I coil them into an "apostrophe" shape and secure them with two bamboo skewers. I set them on the grate with the breastbone side down (for spares) and leave them that way. Three racks fit easily on one grate. I don't uncoil and foil until after the ribs are done and only then to let them rest and soften the bark a little. If they need finishing with sauce, I uncoil them and do them on a kettle or Q, one or two racks at a time.
 
I use a rack if cooking on the kettle. I turn them over and back to front mid cook. If I use my WSM I cook them meat side up. They don't seem to come out as good this way.
 
If you are using a rack and want to sauce and then heat on the smoker to "set" the sauce, just take them off the racks. Place on a tray, sauce, then (having removed the racks from the smoker) just put the ribs on the grates until the sauce is set, then remove the "set and sauced" ones, and replace with the freshly sauced ones. As a for instance, if you are doing six half racks of ribs, depending on the size of your smoker, you may only be able to get four half racks of ribs on the smoker at one time. So, you simply do it in two batches.

Note: If I am just smoking for my wife and myself, I only sauce the ribs I am going to immediately eat. I leave the others unsauced and vacuum pack them and freeze. Later, when I want to use the frozen ribs, I thaw, sauce, and heat in the oven for the table. It works beautifully. All without the mess of trying to vacuum pack sauced ribs, etc.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Jon in SF said:
For those who use racks, do you sauce them? I've tried it and made a complete mess.
Click to expand...

yes. I do this every time. I clean the racks after I take the ribs off and have had no problems. they are pretty well gunked over at this point though.
 
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