Spareribs on the 14.5

[Sam B]

I decided to cook some spares since it's been a while since I've had ribs. A couple of friends are coming over later, so I went with two racks. Usually I use the 22.5 when I do more than one rack, but I didn't feel like firing up the beast today, so I'm giving it a try with the 14.5. It was a bit of a struggle getting everything in there. We'll see how it goes.

Cooking with Stubbs Briquettes with apple and pecan wood. Target temp is 275 to start.

Here's the prep:

Brushed with a little yellow mustard:

Rubbed. Top rack with Dizzy Pig's Dizzy Dust and bottom rack with my custom rub:

Bottom Rack loaded:

Top Rack loaded:

 

[Bill Elwell]

Kind of tight in there. Ever thought about using a rib rack? You could always lay them down (as pictured) after they shrink a bit.

 

[Sam B]

A rib rack was my original plan. I usually don't have to use one b/c I do most of my ribs on the 22.5 WSM. The problem was when the ribs were in the rack on the top shelf the lid hit the ribs when I put in on the smoker. I guess I could have put the rack on the bottom rack of the WSM but that would have been a tight fit too.

I think a rack would work great for baby backs, since they aren't as tall as spares when they sit in the rack. I just didn't like how the spares wanted to flop over in the rack and touch each other.

The ribs have already started to shrink a bit and aren't pressing up against the smoker or each other as bad. It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

 

[Sam B]

Bottom rack ribs ready after about 4 hours

Top rack ribs ready at about 6 hours:

Top rack ribs:

Didn't get any picks of the finished bottom rack ribs. They were from the "skinny" end of the ribs, which why I think they finished so much earlier.

All in all, no my best but still pretty good. Maybe a little darker that usual, but meat pulled away from the bone without falling apart and the flavor was good.

 

[Michael C.]

Ribs looks awesome! I did spares on my 14.5 last year, they turned our great. Yours looks very tasty!

 

[Bill Elwell]

I agree, the ribs look great. Making me hungry.

 

[ChuckO]

Nice crust on those ribs! Two shelf rib cook is not easy, nicely done

 

[Rich Dahl]

Great looking ribs.

 

[Cliff Bartlett]

Way to load it up. Looks delicious. Great bark on those ribs.

 

[Robert T]

Sam you made some great looking ribs there. The color is perfect. I can only imagine how good they were to eat.