Nailed Some Ribs this Weekend on my kettle with Stubbs Charcoal

[tenpenny_05]

Just wanted to share my weekend BBQ story:

With a cross country move, I had to let go of my WSM. Even though I didn't use it regularly, tears were shed when I saw her get loaded up and taken away. Since moving to Kansas City I have picked up a Weber Kettle off of craigslist, knowing I could set it up to smoke in a pinch.

Now that I live in KC, there are constant reminders of how much I miss smoking meat on a lazy Sunday. So with a free weekend and two full racks of St Louis style ribs from costco. I set off to turn some pork into candy.

My first struggle was finding that my bag of kingsford blue somehow got wet and was all crumbly, I didn't want to risk ruining my ribs so I trotted down to walmart and picked up a 15# bag of Stubbs Charcoal for less than 8 bucks and decided to give it a whirl.

Holy cow was I impressed! With one chimney full of Stubbs, I was able to hold 275 degrees on my kettle for over 6 hours with very little intervention. I had the ribs on for 3 hours, then had the lid open for another 10-15 minutes to baste some sauce on before serving, then had the lid back on for another three hours before the temperature started creeping down again.

These were some of the best ribs I have ever pulled off, even better than my WSM. 275 seemed to be the sweet spot, almost all the fat was rendered off, had a ncie bark, still had a little pull, and the ends were sweet chewy BBQ pork candy.

I was curious how this forum feels about stubbs charcoal. It seemed to be the golden ticket for me.

Cheers,
Coby

 

[Big M1ke]

I like Stubbs. I used to use it all the time til I stocked up on kingsford.

 

[lwdbo1]

I love Stubbs.... I bought about 80 bags for $2.25 each a few months back...

 

[Lighter-Fluid]

Me like Stubb's! Seriously it's all I use anymore

 

[Decoy205]

For smoking it blows kbb away. Awesome bones!

 

[Enrico Brandizzi]

Those bones look great.
275F is your new sweet spot, but earlier ? At which temp did you smoke ribs in the past ?
2-3 earlier cooks at the "never ending story" 225F, then I moved to 250F which was for great number of cooks my sweet spot. ribs had a great bite and bark but not juicy.
so I tried again 225F and my bones were full of juices.
Some is unmelted fat, some not.
But I like better.

 

[Randy S]

I'm a fan. My experience has been that Stubb's burns cleaner, longer, and hotter than Kingsford.

 

[tenpenny_05]

Before I always tried to keep my temp between 225 and 250. But they always seemed to take waaay longer than I expected. So I either had to pull them off early (always when company was waiting) or eat super late. Even then it seemed like there was still a bunch of non-rendered fat.
A few weekends ago, I was at a friends house who put me on the spott cook ribs on his absolutely awful gas grill. So I seared them and wrapped them in foil and tried to keep the temp as low as I could, which ended up being around 300. To my surprise they actually came out cooked fairly well (all things considered). So I told myself next time I do ribs I did ribs I would up the ante on the temp and see what happens, and I am definitely thrilled.
Maybe at the end of summer I can stop by walmart and pick up a few bags and get the same deal LWDB01 got.
Thanks for the compliments on the bones fellas.

 

[cheez59]

Dang good looking ribs man. I have been cooking ribs between 275-300 for about a year and a half now. Better product and considerably less time than 225 to me and mine.

I bought a bunch of bags of Stubbs when Lowe's closed it out for half price last winter. I like it really well and wish I had bought more.

 

[Harbormaster]

Your ribs looks really good. Nice job!
Stubbs is good charcoal and works really well in a kettle or WSM. I will either use it or Royal Oak Chefs Select depending on which I can get. Usually it's ROCS because it's a little less spendy and comes in 40 lb bags.
When I do ribs (wife doesn't care for them) it's in a WSM at 250 - 275 depending on where it wants to run. I cook them in a rack, no wrapping, and they always turn out fantastic.

 

[jeffturnerjr]

Ribs look great!