Bruce Bissonnette
TVWBB Guru
Had 13 people coming for dinner. Besides the pork butts from the other night I was cooking 6 slabs of baby backs today, planning on a 5:00pm feed time.
Anticipated a 4 1/2 to 5 hour cook, started with 3/4 charcoal chamber of unlit Kingsford then lit about 20 briquettes in the chimney and added them to the chamber. Two big chunks of apple and a chunk of Hickory. Sand in the pan. That was 12:00 noon. I added the slabs; 3 slabs in rack on top gate three slabs in rack on bottom grate.
At 3:00pm I had only achieved a 182 degree top grate temp. I lit another 3/4 chimney of Kingsford and added it to the WSM. My temps elevated to 210. (Wow!!)
To make a long story somewhat shorter, I cooked them in the racks for 4 hours, foiled them at 4pm until 5pm, sauced them and returned to the racks until 6pm, when I finally took them off.
Of the 6 slabs, 2 were fall off the bone tender the others were pull clean from the bone when you bit them.
I have never had BB's take 6 hours to cook. I am at a loss on how to explain this. My only thought is this...bought the charcoal from WalMart (2-20lb'ers for $9), never have bought Kingsford from there before, have always used Kingsford from Sam's. Don't know if the problem was with charcoal or not, or if it was just one of those "it's done when it's done" things.
Maybe I'm way off base, but something seems wiered with BB's taking 6 hours. Any thoughts?? /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif
Anticipated a 4 1/2 to 5 hour cook, started with 3/4 charcoal chamber of unlit Kingsford then lit about 20 briquettes in the chimney and added them to the chamber. Two big chunks of apple and a chunk of Hickory. Sand in the pan. That was 12:00 noon. I added the slabs; 3 slabs in rack on top gate three slabs in rack on bottom grate.
At 3:00pm I had only achieved a 182 degree top grate temp. I lit another 3/4 chimney of Kingsford and added it to the WSM. My temps elevated to 210. (Wow!!)
To make a long story somewhat shorter, I cooked them in the racks for 4 hours, foiled them at 4pm until 5pm, sauced them and returned to the racks until 6pm, when I finally took them off.
Of the 6 slabs, 2 were fall off the bone tender the others were pull clean from the bone when you bit them.
I have never had BB's take 6 hours to cook. I am at a loss on how to explain this. My only thought is this...bought the charcoal from WalMart (2-20lb'ers for $9), never have bought Kingsford from there before, have always used Kingsford from Sam's. Don't know if the problem was with charcoal or not, or if it was just one of those "it's done when it's done" things.
Maybe I'm way off base, but something seems wiered with BB's taking 6 hours. Any thoughts?? /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif