Snake Method Ribs


 
Gene Brownson

Gene Brownson

TVWBB All-Star
I thought I’d try the snake method for ribs in the 22’ kettle. I started on Saturday removing the membrane and trimming them up and then rubbing yellow mustard on them and covering with Simply Marvelous Sweet Seduction and let set in the fridge overnight.

Sunday morning I set up the kettle. I made a semi ring of charcoal around the kettle filling about ¾’s of the rim. I placed 3 chunks of apple wood and stacked the charcoal about 3 briquettes high and about 1 briquette wide.





I let the ribs set out around 12:00 to come up to room temp. At 1:00 I got 10 briquettes going in the chimney starter and placed a small drip pan underneath with about ¾’s of hot water. With the temps at around 125 I placed the ribs on with the both the top and bottom vents wide open. At 1:30 the temps were at 185.


After 2 hours the temps were going backwards, it dropped to 160. So I got the oven heated up to 250 and brought them in and placed them on a cookie sheet covered with foil. I made a 50/50 of crancherry juice and water to spritz and spritzed every 45 minutes.

Toni made up some of her awesome baked mac n chez! We love this stuff!




After 1 ½ hours in the oven I put some brown sugar, agave nectar and Jallelujah’s Bacon Jalapeño Rub and a small amount of the 50/50 concoction and made a boat of the foil and turned the temp up to 275 and placed them back in for another hour.
They turned out good and I found another brew by Sam that I enjoyed!! WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!


I managed to save these and will definitely not be defeated by the snake method. I will give this another go in the future. Thanks for looking and we hope you all have a great weekend!
 
The snake method in colder weather I wondered if that would work. Now after seeing your post Gene I know it won't. Thanks for posting. Maybe next time eliminate the water, might help.
 
Those are some killer lookin ribs! Maybe try a bigger snake 3 wide at the bottom, 2 wide on top with 15 or so lit coals. I've done ribs on the performer using one charcoal basket and about 12 lit coals and get up to temp in about 20-30min.
 
russ olin said:
The snake method in colder weather I wondered if that would work. Now after seeing your post Gene I know it won't. Thanks for posting. Maybe next time eliminate the water, might help.
Click to expand...
BS:)
I use the snake method nearly all the time when smoking without using the WSM. The cold does NOTHING to the temps.
Skip the water and use 3 bricqs wide, and two atop the three-base and top it with one.
I've done spares, baby backs, butts you wanna guess what I haven't cooked using the snake?
go for it.
just don't say it won't work.
AND if you don't believe me, c'mon over, i'll supply the finished results for your "efforts"

edit:
to further my opinion, I've employed the snake for 9hours in 20 degree temps of low-cold smokin' pork belly at a CONSISTANT 125ºF temp.
9 HOURS!
 
Last edited:
Jim, Does BS stand for Bull Snake? :)

Not having a lot of experience with the snake, but seeing improvement each time I use it; what I've learned is careful placement of the unlit briquettes at the beginning. Keep on trying, buddy, you'll get it. And great save with this cook!
 
i place my unlit briquettes like toppled dominos, each one touching each other with a leaning type effect...
it is possible IF the briquettes are NOT touching each other, the fire(HEAT) goes out or stalls OR DIES.

BS can stand for anything anyone wishes it to stand for. It means only one thing to me:p
 
BS to me means brillant stuff, Just get a real smoker and forget about it. Like a PBS. NO snake ,just great grilling....
 
sorry Russ, i HAVE a "real" smoker and it's initials are WSM ;)
and the snake method works FANTASTIC for those that do NOT have the BEST Smoker available World-wide :wsm:
 
Way to pull off the ribs...lookin tasty and that Mac and cheese looks superb as well!!

By the way...Jim is totally correct...the snake works great...use a wider track of coals, start with the vents wide open...if you get real desperate start coals on both ends...

I've used this method several times...works great...you want to get the heat up and adjust the vents to get the heat down..if you baby it and start cool you will have a heck of a time trying to get the heat up..

Gene...play around with something like brats...just gotta get a good starting spot!!

Don't give up on it ...
 
Good advise here Gene on the amount of briquettes to use and how to set them up. I know you have a WSM
and I applaud you for trying something different with the kettle. Ribs look awesome and Toni's mac n cheese
has a "moreish" taste, the more you eat, the more ya want! Well done brother!
 
Thanks everyone for some great advice and comments. I do have a WSM and love it! I just want to try and broaden my skills with "all things cooked outdoors", and be able to be versatile.

This was my second but surely not my last attempt, I will master the snake method. I do feel my biggest mistake was my set up. I should've placed my briquettes better and used more. (Toni gets on me about having 320#'s of KB and not using enough :) ). But, this is the fun part, for me at least. I love to be challenged and I love to learn, and,......I love to eat BBQ!

I want to learn how to be efficient with charcoal and use different methods to the best they can be used. I've just started keeping a log/recipe folder in a word document so I can reflect and tweek or adjust a recipe or technique.

A big big thanks to Mike Coffman for the Sweet Seduction and Bacon Jalepeno rubs! And for encouraging me to start a recipe document and to log my cooks in it, Thanks Mike! And a thanks goes out to Jim Lampe and Bob Correll and Morgan! You all are a big part of my success with all of your advice and putting up with my PM's on how to's and where to find gadgets, thanks! And if I've left anyone out, my apologies, I love this forum and wish I could cook more like some of you crazies, one day.. Thanks everyone!
 
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