Trying to rush the 3-2-1 ribs

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WildFireEric

Senior Cook
Joined
Jun 18, 2007
Messages
292
Location
Sterling, VA
Hey everyone, any comments are appreciated. I have a party i'm going to tonight and i'm doing 5 racks of spare ribs for them. I got a late start and would like to cut an hour off the cook time. I have two WSMs with sand. Each have three racks of ribs and brisket (brisket is cut off). Dome temps are 260 and 280 stabilized with all vents 100% open. They have a so-so wind break. about 40 degrees outside? and half-2/3rds full charcoal ring with Kingsford and a few apple chunks and a few pecan chunks each. Putting a 1/2 chimney of hot coals only temporarily raised the wsm temps. Before I swapped meat around, i noticed the less meat, the hotter the wsm (brisket only in the one wsm was 289-300) and the one will all rib meat was in low 200's. so balancing the meat weight balanced the temps. ok. that's the background. I'm going to Home depot to get some lump charcoal because that burns hotter than kingsford right? please no fighting. LOL.

How can I best modify the 3-2-1 into a 5 hour? I have cut the ribs half-ass St. Louis style and cut them in half (no more than 6 bones per rack) and they are all vertical.

Since they are wanting the 'fall off the bone', would 1-3-1 be ok? any ideas would be good. i'd like to pull of in 4 more hours (7:30pm), but i need to hit Home Depot for some lump charcoal. so, this is very last minute. thanks...
 
update:
3 hours to go. have them in foil. i used foil pans instead of wrapping individually like i nomally do. one WSM is at 317 (probe just below the top rack since my foil is too close to the dome vent for an accurate temp). The other wsm is a few degrees lower at the dome. I'm hoping to make up time by doing high heat for a bit with the foil in place. I've never had my WSM do so high on its own before (normally have to feed wood to get a flame to get into upper 300's). this was before i put the lump charcoal in. another comment, normally, my WSM's taper off their heat output and need more lit coals to bring them back alive. Not sure about this one today. perhaps, this will be a good day for me after all? I did add my usual JD and apple cider to the foil for steam material. I plan on steaming at high heat for an hour if that's good? and then do the last hour at lower temp with the usual bbq sauce and no foil. I'm assuming since I plan on transporting to the party 'hot' in foil and my ice cooler full of towels, that they'll continue to cook anyways. So hopefully this will work.
I'll take pics if I can find my camera of the finished product. sorry :(
 
Sounds like you have it under control now Eric. Two things though......I wouldn't leave the spares foiled longer than 2 hours and thats even too long in my opinion....but since the crowd you're feeding wants thenm falling off the bone, you'll be okay because they will break right apart when you go to take them out of the foil. Any longer than two hours you're taking a chance on the meat turning to mush.

Second, lump charcoal does not burn hotter than Kingsford, it actually doesn't burn as hot.

Good luck, hope everything turns out good for you!

BTW, good idea using the foil pans. I do the same thing when cooking a mess of ribs.
 
Thanks Larry. I haven't been keeping track of time very well. about to take these things out of foil. yes, mushy i believe, so need time to grill with sauce on. not sure how that will dry them out? all i know is that i took a peek (since my temps were up in the mid-upper 300's (and may have broken two of my Taylors...either don't like the rain or like saying 'HI' for very long???)
so, I'll take out of the foil and let it sit a bit before i sauce up for the final hour. so far, the meat has retracted and exposed about 1/2" to almost a full inch of bone. I tasted a bit of the juices and very spicy. hope the Sweet Baby Rays offers a contrast to the spicy rub.

Like I said, I have never used sand nor cooked rib this high before nor trying to cook this fast (but in a hurry) (and never broke two Taylors, but my Thermapin confirmed high dome temps :(

anyways, will let ya know how it turns out.
 
update: Took them outta the pans. lots of juice :) I let them 'air dry' for a few minutes. Should that be a bbq term? anyways, the WSMs are going steady at about 330 degrees (adding water to the hot coals brought them down from 400+). I dunked everything in sauce and they are back in the rib racks. will hit with some apple cider spray when they've been in there 20 minutes and will spray a few times.

Meat status: lost one bone. Just fell off when handling. Seen a few wobbly bones. I know this isn't championship stuff right now, but i'll say the few brisket pieces I ate have my mouth throbbing a bit (and I like stuff hot). I'm not going to finish the briskett pieces tonight. will let them sit in the fridge for me later. I'll at least get some of the remaining sauce on them.

So for me to do this for my friend's party, it took me 2/3rd case of ribs, 28 ounces of rub, 80 ounces of sauce, 16 ounces of apple cider and most of a bag of briquetts?

Briquett status if you care: Sams Club? Didn't see any. Costco same thing. Lowes: only had individual Kingsford 18lb bags and only Home Depot still has the two-bag 42 lb set, but mine is running low, so will grab some. They were almost out of lump charcoal. Too bad not many people bbq in the winter. Oh well. If you have any favorite winter supplies (other than bbq galore), then let me know ok? I'll probably learn next year to stock up on Memorial Day sale or whatever. Thanks...
 
Larry Wolfe said:
Sounds like you have it under control now Eric. Two things though......I wouldn't leave the spares foiled longer than 2 hours and thats even too long in my opinion....but since the crowd you're feeding wants thenm falling off the bone, you'll be okay because they will break right apart when you go to take them out of the foil. Any longer than two hours you're taking a chance on the meat turning to mush.

Second, lump charcoal does not burn hotter than Kingsford, it actually doesn't burn as hot.
Good luck, hope everything turns out good for you!

BTW, good idea using the foil pans. I do the same thing when cooking a mess of ribs.

How come in the chimney, when I'm lighting lump the metal glows red and I need gloves to dump the coals and when I'm using Kingsford it doesn't glow red and I can dump the coals with my bare hand?
 
I didn't mean to spark the 'which is hotter', but i did notice two things today and know that i have done a few cooks with an empty water pan, but this is the first with sand: even before putting lump charcoal in, my wsm maintained 289 for the longest time and then as i opened the body up, it got hotter and stayed like that well before the unlit lump had a chance to ignite. of course, once the stuff had a chance to ignite, i was up to about 400 degrees until i called truce and dumped water. it still maintained 330 degrees. both of them. i'm usually lucky to add some lit kingsford and get it temporarily up to 300 and then dies down again. other thing is, i used my spa was a windbreak, so that may have helped a bit to. well, gotta go. i figure i'll pull them off and foil each half rack individually and put in a cooler full of towels immediately when i'm ready to go. only a 20 minute drive, so should be fine. Amy has a small chaffing dish, but i think these baby's will go straight out of the ice chest :)
 
If I had advice for you it would be to be a better time manager, know how your cooker cooks, know how long whatever it is your cooking takes to cook, know when you have to be some where or when you want to eat, plan your cook accordingly, don't be distracted during your cook. You're cooking for other people or at least for you and your wife, you want it to be the best it can be. I personally don't rush anything, that's not what BBQ is about.

Don't mean to sound harsh but every time you post, you either lose track of time, your cooker didn't perform, you got distracted, or you had to rush something. Eric...learn how your WSM's cook, and then learn how to cook on them. BBQ is no fun when you are rushing or distracted.

FWIW, not yelling just trying to give you some advice from my perspective.
 
Nick Prochilo said:
[quote="Larry Wolfe":qbp8bjx3]Sounds like you have it under control now Eric. Two things though......I wouldn't leave the spares foiled longer than 2 hours and thats even too long in my opinion....but since the crowd you're feeding wants thenm falling off the bone, you'll be okay because they will break right apart when you go to take them out of the foil. Any longer than two hours you're taking a chance on the meat turning to mush.

Second, lump charcoal does not burn hotter than Kingsford, it actually doesn't burn as hot.
Good luck, hope everything turns out good for you!

BTW, good idea using the foil pans. I do the same thing when cooking a mess of ribs.

How come in the chimney, when I'm lighting lump the metal glows red and I need gloves to dump the coals and when I'm using Kingsford it doesn't glow red and I can dump the coals with my bare hand?[/quote:qbp8bjx3]

Nick I don't know the answer to your question. Read Cook's Illustrated Charcoal Review and it explains a little more in depth.
 
Nick Prochilo said:
[quote="Larry Wolfe":2feksd6f][quote="Nick Prochilo":2feksd6f][quote="Larry Wolfe":2feksd6f]Sounds like you have it under control now Eric. Two things though......I wouldn't leave the spares foiled longer than 2 hours and thats even too long in my opinion....but since the crowd you're feeding wants thenm falling off the bone, you'll be okay because they will break right apart when you go to take them out of the foil. Any longer than two hours you're taking a chance on the meat turning to mush.

Second, lump charcoal does not burn hotter than Kingsford, it actually doesn't burn as hot.
Good luck, hope everything turns out good for you!

BTW, good idea using the foil pans. I do the same thing when cooking a mess of ribs.

Thats an interesting article. I wonder if maybe it has something to do with the briquettes having more ash, which would act as an insulater, than the lump?

How come in the chimney, when I'm lighting lump the metal glows red and I need gloves to dump the coals and when I'm using Kingsford it doesn't glow red and I can dump the coals with my bare hand?[/quote:2feksd6f]

Nick I don't know the answer to your question. Read Cook's Illustrated Charcoal Review and it explains a little more in depth.[/quote:2feksd6f]

Thats an interesting article. I wonder if maybe it has something to do with the briquettes having more ash, which would act as an insulater, than the lump? [/quote:2feksd6f]


Dunno, I think it has more to do with the "Mass" of the briquettes. More briquettes fit into the chimney than lump does by volume due to the differnce in shapes. That's all I can figure.
 
Bruce B said:
If I had advice for you it would be to be a better time manager, know how your cooker cooks, know how long whatever it is your cooking takes to cook, know when you have to be some where or when you want to eat, plan your cook accordingly, don't be distracted during your cook. You're cooking for other people or at least for you and your wife, you want it to be the best it can be. I personally don't rush anything, that's not what BBQ is about.

Don't mean to sound harsh but every time you post, you either lose track of time, your cooker didn't perform, you got distracted, or you had to rush something. Eric...learn how your WSM's cook, and then learn how to cook on them. BBQ is no fun when you are rushing or distracted.

FWIW, not yelling just trying to give you some advice from my perspective.


Thanks Bruce, and you are correct that I do need to learn how these things work. Perhaps something as simple as moving them to block the wind and monitoring how much charcoal I put in according to the weather conditions matters a lot more than what I've done in the past. Yesterday's was a rush because I didn't initially allocate enought time and wanted to know how I could 'cheat' a bit. Some people like to cook at high temps. I didn't know if 30 more degrees over 5 hours would help or if it would take 100 degrees or foiling more or less. Luckily, the WSMs performed well and I ended up giving them enough time. It wasn't totally critical that I be there when I wanted to, but that was a time management issue. Gotta take Xmas traffic and stuff into consideration. I guess its hard to make some assumptions other than assume the worst because you can't shorten the cook time and that was the priority yesterday.

Luckily, the WSMs maintained their temps nicely through our little "winter storm warning" and the food came out quite tasty. I made 6 racks of ribs and 3 would have been sufficient, so I donated the leftovers to the hosts. The wife took them to her family today for dinner. I'll get the feedback tomorrow. From the few people that commented, they turned out really well. Of course, they weren't what would be considered worthy of a competition, but a few stayed on the bones.

I'll take a picture of the brisket meat since I found my camera after I came home. I know....no pictures no cook. Yesterday's posting was more of a 'help' then a general posting.

As for the pans, they were great...Besides for the foiling part, I ended up transporting in them instead of using foil by itself. It was easier to hack them up and toss in pans and keep the pans warm for a few minutes while I was getting ready than to take off and wrap everything. The host didn't have room for me to cut them up there, so thinking ahead was good. I was concerned that if i cut them up at my house, they would cool off a bit. Using the WSMs to keep them warm until I was really ready to leave was good.
 
a few pictures at last





Breakfast this morning. Shared with a few co-workers (even the party host that ate the ribs watching the 'skins, rather than take to his in-laws for dinner). Still good tasting. Seems a little tough. Just remembered...the brisketts only got 5 hours and the ribs got 6 hours. I guess I shoulda remembered that when reheating these this morning. I pulled them out of the toaster oven when the aroma filled the whole office. Figured better to be safe than sorry (no popcorn skills either). Anyways, they went fast enough.

I guess that party (and three trips eating the ribs) officially kicked off the holiday binging season for one attendee.

All n all, you can't rush ribs and expect them to turn out. Thanks to my time mismanagement and Amy catching a few winks (while letting the iron warm up), the ribs eventually got their 6+ hours and we weren't that late and everything got eaten.

No more posts from me asking about how to rush bbq. Promise :)
 
Nick Prochilo said:
The only way to rush it is to start earlier! :?

Then that is time management and not rushing the bbq, but rushing whatever else that threatens to get into the way of the bbq. Nice thought :)

I think next time instead of hitting BBQ Galore before i cook, I'll hit Best Buy. Then I can get a camcorder or something and really show how good or bad I am. I'm jealous of wittdog's video (and cooking) skills. Think I can train Amy to shoot a good cooking video and actually cook desert or something? I got her some new knives <shhhh> for Xmas. Maybe they'll turn up on the video. Now to learn how to cook and then to use the video.

I'm also jealous about the weather. Been nice up north. We just get fog and highs in the 30's and 40's.
 
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