My first snake, baby back ribs

[addicted-to-smoke]

Welcome to another episode of the A-T-S' "How Am I Gonna Ever Learn?"

3 half racks, each rubbed with yellow mustard, 1 with a friend's "pork rub" another with his "cocoa rub" and the third (biggest) with a combination of the two. I slathered them all a bit more than I normally do. Somewhere under all that powder is meat.





I lit a small chimney with Kingsford Hickory, the bigger bags are on sale at Public as I type this. Couldn't quite remember but thought I'd read pork works best with a counter-clockwise snake so that's what I have, about halfway around. The rest of the snake is hardwood briquets, can't recall the name. It's a weird pile of roughly 3 high piled against the side, single layer. Mostly. But I think the photos reveal I've got more briquets setup? See also the 1Buckie "insurance" wood pieces arranged around, in case the heat needs a quick boost for the snake.



With a small drip pan and loose foil sheet. I don't need total coverage. The thing always needs cleaning anyway ...


So I started the biggest of the 3 racks close to the beginning heat pile. I'll eventually move the center rib rack closer to the middle, not sure what I was thinking there. I was tempted to use my Weber rib/roaster rack but wanted instead to see if I do without, even if it means more turning, more moving around. This shot taken right when placed in the grill.


The old lid thermo says 220 with all vents wide open. My guess is that another Weber lid thermo would read higher and so let's say the grate is 210. That's my wild guess, the Maverick arrives tomorrow. Too late to save my ass today! The grate doesn't seem crazy hot, so all is good. Meat's been on a little over an hour.

[1buckie]

"thought I'd read pork works best with a counter-clockwise snake so that's what I have"


Yep, you're golden !!!

Bump the heat up just a little or it'll take forever......

I like to put them on, thinking out the placement (like you HAVE DONE!!!!), then just rotate the rack a few times as it burns around.....leaving the meat to be still in it's juicy goodness......
Doesn't that look calm?



After aqwhile, the pig juice begins to take hold & the rub melts into the meat......if it's left undisturbed.....



Then they do what pigsicles do......

[addicted-to-smoke]

Buckie you know I fidget too much to leave it undisturbed. I'm 5-6 hrs away still from dinner. Afraid to run it much higher. This ain't a butt, it's ribs. But read:

Just after posting initially, the lid thermo said 250 and I could tell by the smoke it was nearly getting grilled and not smoked. Opened the lid and a 1/3 of the snake had started and the first piece of wood flared up. I'm well under 2 hrs into this. Oops.

So I shut down the intake nearly all the way and for now, half of the lid vent. I don't mind "so much" because from experience if I shut down a fire too much it can be a hassle to get going again.

I spun the big rib around and moved them all closer to the middle. I have a feeling I'll be moving them away at the next peek. Interestingly, the rib farthest from the heat source is getting its outside edge worked on despite what's gotta be the coldest part of the grate ... presumably the heat is rolling down from the lid's edge. I suppose an outer-to-inner meat swap should be done at some point.

Is there some reason why I DIDN'T use my WSM instead? Oh yeah, I need to know how to do this on the kettle, which is more talented than I am.



Yeah I should just rotate the grate instead of disturbing the meat. Otherwise, having 3 pieces of meat cook sequentially seems odd, and wrong.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Opened bottom intake again, essentially fully. Opened top vent fully. I must remember that the snake prevents heat from running amok since it's never a huge pile lit at the same time. Rotated grate some.

Swapped the little one on the end into the middle slot.


Same thing, just not in shade:


I walking away now for at least an hour before I fuck it up too much.

[1buckie]

"presumably the heat is rolling down from the lid's edge."

It's rolling UP.....from the bowl's edge......

[addicted-to-smoke]

Snake all started, 3.5 hrs into it. Rotated grate. Ribs feel light and dried out. Bottoms are black. Picked up, they are stiff as a board and don't look as good as the picture here.

I closed down the intake some, and can think of two easy things I could have easily done differently (firebrick barrier and further away from heat) but what's the point?

$15 worth of meat ruined.

[1buckie]

Not necessarily ruined....cut into them & see.......may have been a good situation to actually wrap in foil w/ butter & brown sugar type thing......that still may soften them up enough to be worthwhile.......

......or, just scrape the meat off & load into a pot of beans.......

......or, use the stripped off pieces as 'Turd additions.......there's always hope, my man....always hope......

[addicted-to-smoke]

Thanks. Perhaps I can make lemonade from the lemons.

Petrified wood might be softer.

Cooked on the last sell-by date (purchased a few days ago). Maybe that's a factor.

[MrHoss]

Interestingly, the rib farthest from the heat source is getting its outside edge worked on despite what's gotta be the coldest part of the grate

I load my coals behind firebricks for rib cooks.  And have the lid vent directly opposite to the coals.  I find I get 2 hot spots - 1 closest to the coals and firebricks and the other farthest away from the coals.  If I am standing with the lid vent closest to me, the portion of the cooking grate between me and the lid vent is the are I am referring to.  I think the hot air that goes from the coals to the lid vent and does not  go out the vent hits the edge of the lid and goes down creating this second hot spot.  When I cook chicken wings (usually about 375f grate temp) I notice the wings closest to my firebricks and along the circular back edge furthest from the coals, finish FASTER that the wings in between these areas.

In my opinion a firebrick barrier helps to even out the heat and send the heat upwards in the Kettle faster.  You might also think about putting a water pan over the coals after your bark has formed on the ribs.  Either that or lay a water pan in with your firebricks so that part of the edge of the water pan comes into direct contact with part of your coal pile.  When your bark forms carefully pour water through the cooking grate into this pan.  Use a steel not aluminum foil pan here I would think best.

You could also foil your ribs at some point to keep them from drying out but you'd loose much of your hard bark.

I find the lid them on my kettles runs about 40-60f higher than grate temps...this also depends on how much meat you have on the grill, the temp of that meat when it goes on and at what stage in the cook you are.

Okay - I'll stop there.

[dengland]

My dad usually uses the crutch method on his ribs but he uses apple juice. They usually turn out pretty good.

[Chuck]

I might be looking at your picture wrong, but it looks like your snake is a little fatter than it needs to be which may be the reason for the excess heat and burning. In the first set of pics your snake looks to be 4-5 briquettes high and 2-3 deep in the pile. That's a lot of fuel to burn and heat up. If its an illusion, please correct me.

When I do a snake its fairly thin, about three high and then another one running down the middle. With a water pan in the center of the snake, I rarely spike over 300 unless I'm just way too far open on my vent.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Don't *think* my temps got out of hand but without good thermo for this cook that's speculation. At any rate I won't be lazy next time about making the snake. I'll also find something to use for a water pan, maybe go with the firebricks and OH YEAH JUST USE MY WSM INSTEAD.

Sorry, still a bit miffed at not "fully" groking what I did wrong. Placing meat in the middle was probably part of it, as was over-rubbing the meat.

[1buckie]

Backribs have a little less fat.....usually take less overall time to cook.....that's one aspect......

Chuck's got a good representation of a snake there, maybe even a little thick still, but not too bad......
The  basic concept for cooking like that i think is that you're relying much more on the amount of fuel present.....rather than the amount of air like you would for most other types of cooker & even a kettle in a different coal setup......

Look back at this setup......I set up pretty careful & it still started off a bit slow, so I bumped the lit coals up a bit to get going.....it's also a good thread for the leftover cook of burnt ends a day or two later, which was in the middle, coals on either side, up around 300~325......

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/bbq-food-pics/bob's-beef-o-rama/msg20382/#msg20382

A lot of times I'll throw coals in there so fast it'll make yer head swim......slap in, push to edge & go......just a real quick check to make sure it looks like there's going to be contact.........

I've setup two kettles w/ snakes to go all nite in, I think, six minutes a few times......not rocket surgery, BBQ...............   

Thing is, set up, lite, stand away......if you really want to test it out put one together with no food.......just set a pan of cold water on the cook grate to simulate a pork butt or whatever...

After it's running, it should barely boil........maybe 250 is just going to get it above the boiling point..........charcoal's cheap when it comes to getting an understanding for how it will run......then you can have some basis to go by.......

When I look at the last pic, it seems like there may be a lot of charcoal burning there.....hard to tell & correct me if wrong.....looks like 10~12 coals, maybe......backribs could be done in 3 hours at a little higher heat......and like you have with the shorter slabs there (not too much of a factor, but a bit) those appear finished.....Having them in the middle is not the problem.....that's where the lowest heat is most likely.......neither is a goodly coating of rub, unless it's full of sugar and run at higher heat where it burns......

This is just a really wordy way of saying I think you may have just cooked them a smidge too long......probably not even too far beyond......1/2 hour?


Like this.....thick ass coat of rub & they come out fine:





Beef & pork both......the porks were huge....covered the whole kettle across 6~3/4# slab, but they didn't burn......



Two short snakes on either side, burning opposite directions so when the grate rotation happens, the meat ends up over a cooler spot......



You'll get this.....I'm sure of it.......but being one of the WSM people.....you don't have to, really.....

[addicted-to-smoke]

I'll check out that thread, thanks again.

I love both the art and the science of the quest. But right now I need one of the two of them to assert themselves. I'll get there.

[einrej]

Wow, Thanks for the grate information.