First low & slow on the kettle: RIBS

[Mosca]

I've done a couple burgers and steaks on the kettle, but haven't had the time to do a real bbq until yesterday: nothing else to do, no crisises, no projects, no chores, no errands. So I finally took the time to learn some about this thing. And, my favorite starting point is RIBS.


Two slabs of baby backs. I love standard racks, but I REALLY love baby backs.




Coming to kettles by way of Amazing Ribs, I had already decided to get the Slow & Sear, and I used it for this cook. Lit the fire using the instructions. That's probably waaaaaaay too much apple wood, but to quote Fred Bernardo, The Smokin' Guitar Player from Fred's Music and BBQ Supply (aka Tasty Licks BBQ), "More is better and too much is just right."








And of course it is a beautiful day for cooking out.




About 6 hours later, I think I got this one handled. These ribs were just utterly awesome. That back rack is so fat, it is almost like a set of pork chops.






The BGE was put on chicken duty for the day. Folks get all up about using this or that special extra something-or-other for their BGE. Jeez. It's a grill, people. Toss the chicken on and cook it. Don't forget to turn frequently. this is what we call Dinosaur chicken: marinate with 1 part bottled Italian dressing to 2 parts Dinosaur BBQ sauce, and grill. Serve with any leftover sauce. It is really great. The iPad camera was playing havoc with the white balance in the second photo, it wasn't that strange looking.






Observations:

Holding temp is easier with the BGE, but it wasn't exactly hard with the kettle. Target temp was 250, it took me about 90 minutes to zero in on that, due to inexperience. Afterward, it varied from 225ish to 262, but for most of the cook it stayed in the 240-255 range. Yeah, I got up and nicked the vents by this little amount and that little amount all afternoon, it made me feel like I was doing something. Probably didn't have to do that, but, you know.

Total time over heat was about 5 hours. Ribs on at 12:30, off at 5:45. At that point, the fuel was pretty much spent and grate temp was down to 220. Weather was 72* with a strong wind, steady 20mph with gusts higher. The umbrellas stayed down and tied all day.

The texture on these ribs was perfect. I mean, utterly perfect. You have the tug crowd, and the fall-off-the-bone crowd; these were right in the middle. They tugged off the bone. The smoke was a little bit milder than I get off the BGE, and that is probably because the lump coal in the BGE has its own smokiness that KBB doesn't have.

I made a couple procedural errors. I guarantee this was the first and last time I forget to put drip pans under the cook; the bottom of the kettle is a mess. Either drip pans, or cover the charcoal grate with foil. Also, I should have oriented the cooking grate front-back rather than left-right; the probe from the 733 would have gone perpendicular to the racks, and would have fit nicely on the right side, and if I'd have had to add coals the flap would have been right in front of me.

All in all, Weber makes it really easy. the simpler, the better, I think. Do it right, and the answers become obvious.

[Davescprktl]

Nice cook!  I used to have a large BGE.  There is a learning curve to master temps on a kettle.  After a couple more cooks you will find it will be much easier to dial it in.  Like me you already have charcoal experience.  You will get it in no time.

[Travis]

Sounds like you had a fun time learning your grill. It's amazing when using the kettle for smoking how little adjustment it takes to gain or reduce heat by 20 degrees. I'm still learning that too, but i enjoy it. Nice lookin ribs man!

[JDann24]

Nice looking cook. In my opinion, there's no such thing as too much wood.

[wyd]

Looks like a great cook to me.  I'm going to do some ribs soon as its been awhile for me.  To me part of the fun is getting up and doing some adjustments on my kettle.  Yeah sometimes it would be nice to walk away for a few hours but part of smoking to me is sitting around with a beer or two and messing with my kettle.

[G19]

Nice looking cook. In my opinion, there's no such thing as too much wood.

I too agree but I loose that argument all the time with the wife. 

[Geezer]

Baby backs are my favorite, too, and those look delicious!

[G19]

@Mosca Did you foil the ribs at all during the cook?

[Mosca]

@Mosca Did you foil the ribs at all during the cook?

@G19, Nope. I stopped foiling ribs a couple years ago. For me, it's an extra level of complexity that doesn't add anything. Just keep that son of a gun between 225 and 260 or so, and trust nature. They'll get there. When you pick them up in the middle using tongs, and they are kind of shiny and the skin cracks and they bend, they're done, in between tug and fall; what I call "tug off the bone". You need your teeth, but the meat pulls clean, or close to it.

I don't think one way is better than the other. My experience is that you foil them if you want "fall of the bone" ribs. (Which are awesome; they're ribs, after all!) Some people foil them with honey and apple juice, or honey and beer; I haven't noticed that those flavored translate over, my rub has a lot of brown sugar in it.

Although I serve my ribs without sauce and let the guests decide how to eat them, I personally eat my ribs with sweet sauce. I grew up in the Monongahela Valley, where ribs meant you picked from hot, atomic, or Batman sauce! Batman was insane, nobody seemed to know the recipe but everyone knew someone who had the recipe. Supposedly Jerome lost it in a card game somewhere. Nothing wrong with hot sauce, but with ribs you get that stuff all over your face. I think it's a "I'm drunk" thing, at least it was when I was 20. (Shhh, don't tell.)

I'm new to the kettles, I'm working on ribs to learn the tool's characteristics because they are a low & slow that doesn't need to start at midnight. My other rig is a Big Green Egg, and although I'm sure that the Weber will do butts and briskets, the BGE with a DigiQ DX2 is pretty powerful, and I don't think I'll switch from that. But for my money, the ribs come out at least as good on the Weber, if not better. And I can get more racks on the Weber. And the Weber doesn't seem to have hot spots like the BGE does; the temp seems to be pretty even across the cooking grate.

But back to the original question, you don't have to foil your ribs. But you can, depending on your preferred texture.