First time making ribs, wood and charoal?

I would not worry so much about the charcoal. All the ones you have listed will work. What kind of cooker? What kind of ribs? Baby backs, spares, st louis? For ribs I would go with a fruit wood like apple or cherry or maybe pecan. 3-2-1 was originally for spares at a low temp. If you do BB's 3-2-1 they will be over-cooked. I would recommend you go without foil or sauce on your first ones. You can sauce them at the table unless you just really like sauced sticky ribs.

Yeah what type of cooker..

As for the foil question.. Foil can complicate things, depending on cooker, rack of ribs, temp, how you like your ribs its not always as easy 3-2-1 or 2-2-1.. Other things play into when you foil, how long in foil, how long out of foil etc..

Make it simple on yourself if you have never done low and slow on this cooker get it settled in somewhere between 225-275, remove membrane, rub the ribs, throw the ribs on, when they pass the bend test (someone will post a pic) they are done.. Sauce if you wish pull after 20 minutes.

Learn your cooker and the meat first than start adding different processes and flavors to see if you like it better.

ICDEDTURKES said:

Yeah what type of cooker..

As for the foil question.. Foil can complicate things, depending on cooker, rack of ribs, temp, how you like your ribs its not always as easy 3-2-1 or 2-2-1.. Other things play into when you foil, how long in foil, how long out of foil etc..

Make it simple on yourself if you have never done low and slow on this cooker get it settled in somewhere between 225-275, remove membrane, rub the ribs, throw the ribs on, when they pass the bend test (someone will post a pic) they are done.. Sauce if you wish pull after 20 minutes.

Learn your cooker and the meat first than start adding different processes and flavors to see if you like it better.

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I was typing nearly the same thing except make sure you bank your coals to 1 side and have the ribs on the other. Keep it simple, don't over-think it:thumb:

Takes me 4 hours to cook St. Louis style ribs at around 280*. First two hours nekkid, third hour foiled, fourth hour nekkid again. That third and fourth hour are partial hours cooking due to the time it takes me to pull the ribs, wrap or unwrap them, and get them back on the grill. And they may get done sooner so cook until they do this:

I know you're worried about and focusing on the cooking of those ribs. To be a contrary, I think you'll find that this first smoke (and the next few smokes) will be more about learning fire and smoke control than anything about the ribs. First off, if you smother or choke the fire, you'll have white (or worse; black) smoke. This is not desirable at all. You want a clean burning fire that produces what we call "thin blue", which is many time nearly invisible. If you can do that, find what temperature is on your cook surface. 3-2-1 isn't a magic approach. For many it sucks! My smoker likes to cook (sweet blue with a nice clean burning fire) around 270. For me, I smoke for 1.5 hours nekid (using hickory splits), 2.5 foiled. But, that's me on my smoker with my wood. Your results are definitely going to vary.

Note: billowy white smoke will produce creosote, black meat, HEAVY over-smoked bitter flavor.

I suggest foiling at some time. If nothing else, it helps protect the meat from burning. (remember, fire and smoke control)

The earlier the foil, the less smoke. You may want to foil after that first hour.

I dont apply sauce and then back on the smoker for a few reasons. First, sauce absorbs smoke flavors like a sponge. If you like them only lightly smoked, right off this is a bad idea. Also, I let people apply sauce themselves as we have multiple sauces, plus some prefer the ribs without sauce.

Oh, and I agree about not saucing the ribs. Serve sauce on the side and let those that like it put it on. Let the ribs and the rub speak for themselves. A buddy of mine says "Using sauce means you are trying to hide something". I don't agree all the time and sometimes use some, but I get where he is coming from.

The Weber dealer here locally told me that you cannot use Big green egg charcoal in a Weber. It burns too hot and will warp the bowl.

I would use the Weber 26 and the 2.5/1/1 method if you foil(or no foil is fine) with a few wood chunks cut in half for a cleaner burn. Sauce(thinned out with apple juice) in the last 30 minutes. Use a toothpick for a probe to check for tenderness. Should feel like its going into butter. Good luck.

THoey1963 said:

Oh, and I agree about not saucing the ribs. Serve sauce on the side and let those that like it put it on. Let the ribs and the rub speak for themselves. A buddy of mine says "Using sauce means you are trying to hide something". I don't agree all the time and sometimes use some, but I get where he is coming from.

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Terry I kinda agree with your buddy on that one..lol

I will say that some sauces will accentuate the natural flavors of the meat but those tend to be the thinner glazes (homemade) vs the heavy paste crap they sell in the grocery masquerading as BBQ sauce. A buddy of mine cooked two butts on the UDS and then poured SBR's all through the pull.... I cringed! He completely ruined it and had no clue.

Ron_L said:

I've burned lump in my kettles many times and no warped bowls :thumb:

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Ron i'll add i got my mini well over a thousand degrees with lump ...so hot it turned the grate white and melted the aluminum steamer completely. The bowl wasn't affected at all.... a'int no way those kettle bottoms are warping.

Ron_L said:

I'd find a new dealer :-D Big Green Egg brand charcoal is just Royal Oak lump that is sorted using a different size screen to get only the bigger pieces. I've burned lump in my kettles many times and no warped bowls :thumb:

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I'm glad to know this. I'm going to try it sometime. Thanks.

Yes, what Ron & LakeDogs & FWI & everyone is saying is good stuff.......try easy 1st, then add in the bells & whistles.........

Either banked or a ring / chain will work fine......banked might be the simplest, with this below being kind of a combination.......

Here's one way I've gone about ribs that works OK, without a lot of fiddlin' around ~~>

Set some lit coals down, with a row of unlit ( I added just a bit more unlit later) & a small gap....



Warm some wood chunks.......



Let the temp come up & the wood warm ( i wait abt 15 minutes, might be different where it snows )

Set on meat, wood, half on coals, half on unlit & fill in the coal gap with a few pieces of lit....



Cap the bugger & cook....

If you want more smoke, pre-heat some pieces on top.......



Temps on this were: 310 ~ 290, 1st 45 min.
dropped to approx. 275, next hour
then 235 ~ 250 for the rest, 2 hours + a bit

.............as the 1st lit coals burn down the unlit take over
& keep the temp even & then dropping in a smooth, even progression



Got a good bite thru on the rib tips....



Good bend....




Resist the urge to lift the lid & peek.....the meat ain't goin' anywhere.............


Oh, and you're welcome to show your Egg guy this:










The kettle, grate & therm all are still in use & doing just fine......it's only heat & fire, not armageddon................

.

I have a question about the unlit coals. How do they ignite? I have never seen this method before.

I have both a Weber smoker and a Weber charcoal grill. I prefer using the grill for ribs (St. Louis). Here's what I do and I get great ribs every time.
1. Put a rub on the ribs
2. Use charcoal but push to one side of the grill. You're going to want to cook the ribs indirectly.
3. Put some apple wood chips in heavy duty aluminum foil and wrap them up with a small opening to allow the wood to smoke without igniting. Place this right on the grill in semi hot spot.
4. Put the ribs on (I use a rib rack) and let them cook/smoke indirectly around 3-4 hours.
5. Remove them and wrap in aluminum foil and let rest for 30 min.
6. Take out ribs, cut into 1 or 2 piece chunks, then sauce if you desire.
7. Enjoy!

Toni1948 said:

I have a question about the unlit coals. How do they ignite? I have never seen this method before.

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3rd pic down....."Set on meat, wood, half on coals, half on unlit & fill in the coal gap with a few pieces of lit....'

all it's really doing is starting a little hot & running a short chain of coals.....just another morph of an original idea by somebody.............

Another name for the snake method is the fuse. Think of it that way. You build your fuse and then put a small amount of lit coals at the beginning. As these few lit coals are burning, they heat and eventually lite the coals next to them. This is a slow, constant burn that runs around the length of the fuse. While the two or three pieces are burning, you have the rest of the grate to work with. Just rotate your grate so the meat is not directly above the currently lit coals.