BARDSLJR Posted July 4, 2020 Report Share Posted July 4, 2020 I finally found a purveyor who could supply beef plate ribs, so I thought we'd give them a shot. These are like what I remember from our last visits to Austin- the beef ribs in Lockhart and in Austin at LA Barbecue were GIGANTIC. Until now, I've only been able to procure beef chuck ribs, and they had excellent flavor and texture. So we'll see if these brontosaurus-sized beef plate ribs are as good. I will report after dinner, starting in the next hour or so. I put them on around 9 AM at 220F- as usual, the temperatures gradually crept up to 280-300 range (does anyone else have problems with temperature creep in their 32" KK's? If I have to cook something that really requires 225, I don't know what I'll do. It seems like it just wants to go to 300*, even when I have it almost entirely tamped down in terms of air flow.) Scott's "BBQ" sauce- really an Eastern Carolina vinegar/pepper sauce was used to mop the ribs about every 90 minutes from 1 to 4:30PM. Two photos of the final product- with and without Scott's basting sauce. I'll report on results, flavor-wise, later. -Jim in Denver 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJR Posted July 5, 2020 Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARDSLJR Posted July 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 The Morning After: Follow-up. Below is the snapshot of the largest of the racks as we separated the fatty portions (mostly) from the good beef and chopped it coarsely for serving. The consensus was that the plate rib meat was very similar to fatty point brisket- maybe even moister and fatter. I sent one of the other racks home with my daughter's family, and stripped the meat off the third one to package and refrigerate it for future use. There was not a lot of usable meat on the third rack. In comparing this plate rib to the beef chuck ribs we had been doing (recommended by my great local butchers at Oliver's as having "more meat and better flavor" than plate ribs, we reached another consensus: Jimmy and Richard at Oliver's were right, and the chuck ribs are our preferred beef rib for the future. (Photo included). The chuck ribs were almost all usable meat, and had a very similar super-beefy flavor, and a texture similar to brisket. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted July 5, 2020 Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 Nice. There's a simple solution to the creep - get a Guru. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve M Posted July 5, 2020 Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 Fantastic result on those ribs. For me to hold at 225, I have mine nearly shut down. A small sliver of opening at the bottom vent and just backed off from fully closed at the top. That assumes it is properly heat soaked. As Tony said, a guru will certainly take care of the issue. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcjudsten Posted July 5, 2020 Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 Looks good. One note: You may be getting some temp creep from opening to mop on a regular cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARDSLJR Posted July 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2020 Possibly, but it was already up there before I mopped for the first time. This has been happening to me consistently- I think I have it operating between 225-250 and I go away for 1.5-2 hours and it is up closer to 300, and then, as you know, because the KK is SO well insulated, very difficult to get it down. It is, I think, a technique issue that I need to solve. David had told me to just fire up a softball-sized portion of the charcoal to start with, and I have done that. I think I maybe I need to tamp down the air flow much earlier than I had previously thought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted July 6, 2020 Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 3 hours ago, BARDSLJR said: I think I have it operating between 225-250 and I go away for 1.5-2 hours and it is up closer to 300 I think you're on to something with tamping down the air earlier. Have you noticed if the wind picked up in that 1.5-2 hrs.? Increased air flow across the top can create a vacuum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARDSLJR Posted July 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 Hard to tell, because it is Denver, but I don't think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Ora Posted July 6, 2020 Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 Those ribs look terrific I'm don't mind the odd ribs every now and then my self. The beauty with a KK is it takes a while to heat soak so you can ark it up and dial it down real quick . I'm starting to realize my KK has learnt my settings it's like it knows what I want lol. My tried and tested method is I load my basket open both vents fully. and get it going with the lid up for a bit , throw in my grates .shut the lid tight and spin the wheel and wait till it gets to 400f .then I open it up take the grates out and add my smoking wood put the lower rack in then some alfoil then the top grate.and then my ribs.shut the lid dial it down to a qtr shut the right side bottom vent off and set the left half moon to a qtr lands on 250 everytime Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARDSLJR Posted July 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 Is this a 32" KK? I am interested that you say you can "dial it down real quick"....that is not my experience. My sense, at least so far, is that the KK is SO well constructed and insulated`that it is challenging to get it to drop temperature. However, I am doing a load of babyback ribs (9) today so I will pay attention to the method you've described. Babybacks take only 4 hours so with less fuel in the basket, maybe it will be a little easier to control. I am trying for as close to 225* (F) as I can get it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Pearson Posted July 6, 2020 Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 Hey Tony all the guru’s live in India! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve M Posted July 6, 2020 Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 38 minutes ago, BARDSLJR said: Is this a 32" KK? I am interested that you say you can "dial it down real quick"....that is not my experience. My sense, at least so far, is that the KK is SO well constructed and insulated`that it is challenging to get it to drop temperature. However, I am doing a load of babyback ribs (9) today so I will pay attention to the method you've described. Babybacks take only 4 hours so with less fuel in the basket, maybe it will be a little easier to control. I am trying for as close to 225* (F) as I can get it. I think the secret is not allowing it to heat soak at a higher temp than you will cook. In that case, it is difficult to dial it back. I've used methods similar to Aussie's. I get the temperature up to the level I am looking for (or a little higher) and then start to dial it back to where I know my settings are for the desired temperature. I may make several adjustments over a short period of time so it doesn't drop too much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Ora Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 No I have a 23 .if you have all your vents open with your grates in it will get to 400f real quick .so your KK will not be heat soaked. I move quickly at this stage take out the grates add wood put lower grate in then heat deflector (alfoil) then top grate then ribs shut the lid tight .you will notice it dropping in temp after you let the initial heat out leave it till it gets to 300 f then close down your vents Is this a 32" KK? I am interested that you say you can "dial it down real quick"....that is not my experience. My sense, at least so far, is that the KK is SO well constructed and insulated`that it is challenging to get it to drop temperature. However, I am doing a load of babyback ribs (9) today so I will pay attention to the method you've described. Babybacks take only 4 hours so with less fuel in the basket, maybe it will be a little easier to control. I am trying for as close to 225* (F) as I can get it. Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARDSLJR Posted July 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 I kept it really low heat today, somehow. I think the trick is to start really low and keep it tamped down so it never gets over 250. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 Another odd ball thing to check. Is your KK on a solid surface (patio) or one with a bit of flex (deck)? Mine is on a deck and I discovered that when walking around the grill the flex/bounce will cause the top vent to move enough to mess with the temperature. Others have seen this, too. Fit is simple. Get a spring and put it on the shaft of the top vent between the spider and the top vent to apply slight pressure/resistance to help stabilize the top vent. It doesn't take a stiff spring for this. Something akin to the spring in the toilet paper holder. They last a couple of seasons and then just replace them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antonio Colmenares Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 On 7/4/2020 at 6:29 PM, BARDSLJR said: I finally found a purveyor who could supply beef plate ribs, so I thought we'd give them a shot. These are like what I remember from our last visits to Austin- the beef ribs in Lockhart and in Austin at LA Barbecue were GIGANTIC. Until now, I've only been able to procure beef chuck ribs, and they had excellent flavor and texture. So we'll see if these brontosaurus-sized beef plate ribs are as good. I will report after dinner, starting in the next hour or so. I put them on around 9 AM at 220F- as usual, the temperatures gradually crept up to 280-300 range (does anyone else have problems with temperature creep in their 32" KK's? If I have to cook something that really requires 225, I don't know what I'll do. It seems like it just wants to go to 300*, even when I have it almost entirely tamped down in terms of air flow.) Scott's "BBQ" sauce- really an Eastern Carolina vinegar/pepper sauce was used to mop the ribs about every 90 minutes from 1 to 4:30PM. Two photos of the final product- with and without Scott's basting sauce. I'll report on results, flavor-wise, later. -Jim in Denver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antonio Colmenares Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 Hello, I have cooked those same ribs for 8 hours at 250 F, the trick is to open only the part of the circles below the second smallest, once the coals are lit, above it opens to 1/2 for fluidity on the smoke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARDSLJR Posted July 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 Tony B, no problem with the hard, level surface. I did a big batch of babyback ribs yesterday, specifically to pay attention to the ramping up of the heat and keeping the heat low, around 225*. The ramping up went quite slow as I did not want to, again, overshoot the goal and then be unable to effectively bring the KK down to the desired temperature. So if anything, the ribs were relatively under-cooked for the first hour. I also decided to experiment with just straightforward cooking for four hours, instead of using the 2/1/1 method. So while the ribs finished around 225-240*, they were cooking at a lower heat initially. In the first photo, the ribs are covered with the rub and ready to go in the smoker. I forgot to take "after" pictures until they were already plated, but you can see the two angles that the ribs were nicely cooked. I do think that the 2/1/1 method produces slightly more moist and tender than a straight four-hour cook as you see on the plate. However, they were not dry and not tough- good "tooth" feel. One thing I did nearly by accident was a VERY good rub application: I was using my favorite Dizzy Pig rubs and I had about 1/4 of a bottle of of Jamaican Firewalk that needed to be used up- I mixed that 50/50 some Dizzy Dust. AS you can well imagine, the Firewalk has a significant presence of scotch bonnet (habanero) pepper. It really popped up the flavor of the ribs and married beautifully with the smoke and sweet pork. HIGHLY recommended. (We had some potato salad and coleslaw left over from the weekend...it was an easy and delicious meal.) 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 Sounds yummy. Big Dizzy Pig fan here. Have to admit that the Firewalk isn't my favorite jerk seasoning though. Glad you solved the creep problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
