Rainy ribs

[Firemunkee]

I made 3 racks of ribs this weekend. I used Meathead's Memphis Dust, the SnS for the second time, and an old never been used Weber roast rack flipped upside down as a rib rack to fit them all on the 22". No spritzing, no wrap, just low and slow with hickory and apple chunks for 6 hours. No saucing either since we like dry run and I didn't want to deal with saucing plus the rack.

I woke up at 5am to make sure the ribs were ready by lunch time. This was only my second time using the SnS. The first time the temperature was pretty steady. This time they wavered quite a bit for the first 2-3 hours. First it took a lot longer to get up to temp, then after putting the meat on the temps ranged from 225-280 before I was finally able to get it to stabilize around 240. The weather was warmer and not windy compared to the first cook with the SnS. I used water in the reservoir for both cooks. I did use Stubb's for the first cook and KBB for this one. Maybe the wood chunk sizes with this cook got hotter? It also started raining unexpected so I improvized a covering.

This was my first time using a rib rack and 1) the racks not in the center of the grate were nearly touching the lid and 2) the rack closest turned out very dry the other two turned out great and everyone loved it. Was also my first time getting such a prominent smoke ring

This is only my third time making ribs, and so far it's only been once a year so my experiences are few and far in between. When using rib racks are you supposed to rotate the ribs through so one rack  doesn't sound the entire time by the fire? Also since the ribs stood so high in the dome, and the lid thermometer was reading something like 300, wouldn't that mean the that part of the rack is cooking at a higher temp and would be done sooner/dryer? 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Fire Starter]

Mmm ribtastic


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club

[Fire Starter]

Mmm


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Larry The BBQ Guy]

Hi Firemunkee, Nice bark! In my experience, there is quite a bit of heat differential between top of dome and bottom but some of that is dependent on how you are burning your coals. If using the snake method sometimes it can be as much as 50 degrees. If yo but that only matters if you are going vertical like you did. If you put a piece of wood across your cooking grate and then the probe tip across the wood hanging in the air, you will get a more accurate temperature at the grill grate. That's important when doing poultry to make sure the bottom of the bird temp get's to 165. You can also flip the bird (not at someone but the bird itself) but that's allot of work. I know you are asking about ribs but ribs are pretty forgiving since they are thinner.