First time indirect and ribs

[steph746]

Hi Everyone...

Tonight I'm going to try my first indirect cook. I'm going to start with just one rack of pork baby back. My main question is whether I should use one or two of the indirect containers that came with the Performer grill. I should set up one or two containers of charcoal on the side and put a tin pan underneath the other side with some water in I?

My other question is about cooking other foods while the ribs are cooking. Can I cook corn direct over the containers I'm using for indirect while cooking the ribs or would they get in the way?

I also want to cook some brats and maybe grill some other veggies. We can eat the ribs while other things are cooking, but would the coals have enough power after about two hours?

Thanks in advance.

[1buckie]

@steph746

There's a lot you can do with just timing & placement of items......

Here's various aspects of a cookup "sort of" like what you're talking about....

Charcoal banked, live coals ON TOP of fresh un-burned ones.....



You can use your baskets, but I've found them to be, at times, a little restrictive, esp. when loading more coals partway thru a cook, if that would possibly need to happen (just banking coals up allows you the range or choice to add a little more easily)

A water pan can help with stabilizing temps, but my own personal thinking goes toward not using it for a shorter cook like this (ribs, maybe a couple hours at most & higher heat grilling of vegs & sausage)
Again, a choice & you could try it out & see how it goes....

This was high heat backribs, Hatch chile roasting & seasoning a Dutch oven.....first.....






Then, a bacon-weave fattie, four beef flanken ribs & some corn...







You can see when the fattie went on, some wood was added, I believe some extra coals were also, just to keep the heat up to reasonable snuff....

There's a pan in there, just a drip pan for the bacon / sausage goo that's gonna drop.....no water involved.....



The "order of appearance" I would use for the items you have listed might could be:

1) Ribs, indirect for a couple hours @ about 275f  GRATE temp (right next to the food)
*or perhaps a little bit higher even, those ones in the pics were done @ more like 375f for about 1hr 20 min.
**or, at that medium temp, a little LONGER time to get them tender

2) As those are getting near, say 1 hr 45 min (or more, see just above) in, then grill the brats over or real near the fire & at that time, add the corn in the back to start it warming / cooking

3) As the brats are getting near, pull the ribs off, let them rest while then you have ALL that extra space....shuffle the corn over the fire  to maybe get a bit of char, pull it back & do up other vegs last of all.....perhaps keeping the brats all the way @ the back to finish whilst that final set of zucchini or whatever gets done.... 

[steph746]

Thank you very much for all the details. I'll let you know how it went.

[james1787]

Thanks @1buckie I was going to ask the same question about putting other stuff on alongside with ribs (we just have one baby back pack so I was going to toss on some chicken we didn't cook last night that has been marinading as well as some corn/veggies... maybe some skirt steak too... a mix and match). So it's all timing.. get the ribs going for a while and then start tossing some other stuff on as well as using the rest time when you pull the ribs off.. cool!

[mhiszem]

Mmmm all looks good!


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