St. Louis Ribs - Whats your favorite time/temp combination?

[Jim Lampe]

Do a search of Jim Lampe's high heat ribs cook, and you will never look back.

you're talking bout BABY BACK RIBS.... High Heat Baby Backs... ya, good.
Josh from Connecticut is inquiring bout ST LOUIE RIBS (spares)... I don't do high heat spares.

...and to answer Josh's inquiry, season the ribs, on as long as they take at 250ºF
apple and or hickory for smoke.

 

[M Andreyka]

275

 

[Harrison Patrick]

250-275 for 2 hours wrap for 30-45 minutes 15 minutes unwrapped but no sauce

 

[Richard Ef]

I think all of these methods work nicely - to me, the most important thing is the "wrap" stage. If you have them in the wrap too long, the ribs will get fall apart tender to the point were you can't hardly cut the ribs for serving without the meat shredding which in my book is kind of a fail.

Also, I achieved my best bark on a pork butt over the weekend without a water pan and without spritzing. Rub had only a little sugar in it but I definitely kept the smoke rolling and used lump only charcoal. I applied rub about 30 minutes in advance and put the meat back in the fridge. I don't know if these methods would result in awesome rib bark or not but I'm going to try it soon and find out. I'll post some picks of this cook a little later.

I’m seeing more and more mentions of lump charcoal. Doesn’t it burn hot and fast?

 

[John K BBQ]

Hi Richard, You could probably search the forum and find a whole string on the topic of lump vs briquettes; But here goes my take on it.

A good quality lump* charcoal will definitely burn hotter vs good quality* briquettes. When it comes to searing meat, I think lump does work a little better, although I also think the bigger factors in "searing" are the timing (getting the steaks on the grill when the charcoal is the hottest) and the distance between the cooking grate and the charcoal (closer is hotter of course). Good quality briquettes in my opinion will generally burn a little longer than good quality lump, but I really don't think the difference is all that significant based on my experience.

A lot of people choose lump over briquettes because lump is a more natural product. I sort of fall into this camp, but i also like lump because it doesn't produce as much ash when it burns vs.. briquettes. which means your really don't have to mess with stirring up the charcoal to knock the ash off/help the airflow as you might need to with briquettes, and you don't have to remove ashes from your pit nearly as often. If you want to use lump, I think it makes a lot of sense to break up the bigger pieces Pieces that are more than 4 to 5" long can cause a really uneven air flow/heat distribution and if you are trying to smoke, where you are counting on an even ignition/spreading of the fire from lit charcoal to unlit charcoal, these bigger pieces can spread the fire a lot faster than smaller pieces.

Due to their regular shape, the ignition rate from lit coals to unlit coals is more predictable, making temperature control a bit easier. I really like Weber Brand (but I think it's been discontinued) I also really like Kingsford's higher end briquettes which used to be competition, now labeled "professional". Some forum members also like Royal Oak Restaurant brand, but I can't find it where I live. KF and RO original are both always an option, and it would be my go to if none of the others are available. Recently the forum has identified Oklahoma Joe brand as something to stay away from. My first bag of Humphrey's charcoal was pretty good, but the 2nd seemed to be a lot more ashy....

For lump, I would put Big Green Egg, Royal Oak, and B&B in the "good" category of charcoal that is widely distributed. Here in the St. Louis MO area I really really like the Rockwood brand, but I'm not sure about availability in other parts of the USA. Based on my own experience and some reports here in the forum of hard wood flooring pieces found in the product, I would avoid Cowboy brand.

Probably the most important thing someone can do especially if they are new to smoking is to choose a type of charcoal, and then stick with it until they've mastered it. There are lots of other factors in "the art" of grilling and smoking and changing up fuels too often makes it hard to understand what went right vs what went wrong during a cook in terms of both flavor and temperature control.

 

[Jim C in Denver]

I’m seeing more and more mentions of lump charcoal. Doesn’t it burn hot and fast?

What John said above.

But to directly answer your question. Lump does burn hotter/faster in an open uncontrolled environment. If you want the max sear while cooking with the lid off, use lump.

But we only do short bursts of cooking at 700F+. For the other 95% of the time, you are controlling the temp by controlling the oxygen to some extent.

Folks almost always use lump in kamados (for reasons relating to ash production, not hot/fast burn). In the controlled environment of a kamado grill, a little bit of lump will burn low/slow for an extremely long time.

For long cooks in the WSM, many folks like to use briquets because the uniform shape helps you pack a lot of fuel into the chamber and that densely packed fuel will die out and light up in a very consistent pattern. So you get a long even burn without having to refuel mid-cook. But you can definitely use lump in the WSM -- many do. With all charcoal, you adjust the vents to get to your target temp.

If you are trying to do a 1 hour hot/fast chicken cook on the WSM, you might pick hotter burning lump to get to the higher cooking temp. But you could also use briquets. But you'd use more lit coals and more open vents to get it hotter.

 

[M Mason]

I use a modified 321. 3 smoking, 2 wrapped, and about 15 min to sauce.