Dave Russell
TVWBB Honor Circle
I smoked nine slabs of spares the other day, four trimmed St. Louis style, and the other five left whole. What I'm looking for is what is the best way to cook a bunch of untrimmed spares, let's say around four pounds each, in the little wsm. I will say that 4.5 whole slabs a rack is just too tight for decent circulation, going by my recent cook.
Let me mention a few caveats and concerns though, first: Regarding higher temps, I do think that a little hotter than 250, say 275-300, might help keep the ribs a little juicier. Going from my own experience though, I'd skip any sugar but turbinado for cooking closer to 300. I had a lot of brown sugar in the rub and they got pretty dark in places. (I'm not interested in having to foil a cooker full of spares.)
Next, my concern is regarding how we lay the ribs in the cooker. Kevin K. mentioned recently that he liked the wsm better than a kettle for high heat since it put the meat a distance away from the heat. I agree, except that I'm always concerned for whatever's down on the bottom grate past the outside of the pan. (THAT's not too far from the heat, and it's almost above it..and heat RISES.) However, the other day, I had whole slabs down there, and for the most part, they fared better than usual. I used the "coffee can" start instead of the usual MM. Subsequently, my outer coals never did light for the entire cook and there were no real hotspots on any sides to subject the affected ribs to higher temps. I wonder if that helped or was it just a fluke.
Anyway, bottom line is, three slabs come in a pack, so how would you cook three? Six? Can you do more without having to flip or rotate or have less than usual expectations for the evenness of cooking?
The other day, I used the rib racks for max capacity, but I've found that rolled and skewered ribs cook much more evenly since the ends aren't exposed to the higher heat of the cooker's outer edges. This was more than confirmed with the cook the other day. A couple of the ends were toast. Should I half whole slabs? Will there be enough space in my 6 slot rack to fit 6 halves? (I think it's a Charcoal companion, and has 1 7/8" space in each slot.)
It just doesn't seem to make sense for the ends of your slabs in any given cooker to be exposed to higher temps, does it? It seems to me that if I can get a clean enough fire in my offset, that it would be a better candidate to cook ribs as the brunt of the heat comes down the middle, not the outer edges.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Dave
Let me mention a few caveats and concerns though, first: Regarding higher temps, I do think that a little hotter than 250, say 275-300, might help keep the ribs a little juicier. Going from my own experience though, I'd skip any sugar but turbinado for cooking closer to 300. I had a lot of brown sugar in the rub and they got pretty dark in places. (I'm not interested in having to foil a cooker full of spares.)
Next, my concern is regarding how we lay the ribs in the cooker. Kevin K. mentioned recently that he liked the wsm better than a kettle for high heat since it put the meat a distance away from the heat. I agree, except that I'm always concerned for whatever's down on the bottom grate past the outside of the pan. (THAT's not too far from the heat, and it's almost above it..and heat RISES.) However, the other day, I had whole slabs down there, and for the most part, they fared better than usual. I used the "coffee can" start instead of the usual MM. Subsequently, my outer coals never did light for the entire cook and there were no real hotspots on any sides to subject the affected ribs to higher temps. I wonder if that helped or was it just a fluke.
Anyway, bottom line is, three slabs come in a pack, so how would you cook three? Six? Can you do more without having to flip or rotate or have less than usual expectations for the evenness of cooking?
The other day, I used the rib racks for max capacity, but I've found that rolled and skewered ribs cook much more evenly since the ends aren't exposed to the higher heat of the cooker's outer edges. This was more than confirmed with the cook the other day. A couple of the ends were toast. Should I half whole slabs? Will there be enough space in my 6 slot rack to fit 6 halves? (I think it's a Charcoal companion, and has 1 7/8" space in each slot.)
It just doesn't seem to make sense for the ends of your slabs in any given cooker to be exposed to higher temps, does it? It seems to me that if I can get a clean enough fire in my offset, that it would be a better candidate to cook ribs as the brunt of the heat comes down the middle, not the outer edges.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Dave
