Question on cooking a large number of ribs: can you use the lower grate?

[wilburpan]

We’re having a bunch of people over this weekend. I’ve been asked to make ribs. I’m anticipating that I’ll need eight racks altogether. 

 

I’ve piled six racks of ribs on the main and upper grate of Smaug, but there’s not enough room for an additional two racks. I won’t have time to go out to get a rib rack before this weekend.

 

Has anyone cooked ribs on the lower grate of a KK grill? I’ll be using the heat deflector, of course, and plan to set Smaug at around 225-250ºF.

[kjs]

Wilbur, I have cooked 15 slabs on the 32" using both racks. I found it helpful to rotate the ribs while cooking and had a successful outcome.

I had a helper and we wrapped the ribs with foil after an hour of being smoked, adding some apple juice to pack. Then continued the cook until it was time to remove the foil and finish them off. Hope this helps. I am sure your ribs will turn out great.

[5698k]

Have you seen the technique of rolling the racks, securing with a skewer, and standing them, bones vertical on the grate? It's very space economical.

Robert

[CeramicChef]

I don't see why your plan won't work, Wilbur. I'd think about rotating those ribs from bottom to top like kjs suggests as I think the temp gradient through the KK may affect how fast the ribs cook at a certain level.

As Robert also suggests, rolling the ribs and skewering works quite well. I did that on a cook this summer, and as long as you serve the ribs dry as I do,and let each guest sauce the ribs as they see fit, that works quite well. I used two skewers per rack; I found one skewer provided a pivot point about which some of the rolled racks just collapsed.

[ckreef]

At a BBQ Festival I went to last summer one of the cooks stood there racks up leaning two racks towards each other looking like a long tent. They were able to pack a bunch of ribs on the grate that way. Sort of like a rib rack without actually having a rib rack. With the direction of a KK grate that will hold the bottom edges in place. The main problem I see with using the lower grate is having to remove both upper grates to get to them. I believe you would want to rotate the racks off the lower grate so that's a lot of grate shuffling. Plus with that many racks I think I would want a drip pan down there. Charles - Prometheus 16.5", Cassiopeia 19" TT

[MacKenzie]

You can roll the ribs, fasten and stand them on end. They take up less space and will cook great that way.

[wilburpan]

Thanks for the input! We did another headcount of our guests, and I think I’ll try doing three on top, three on the main grate, and two on the bottom. If the two on the bottom don’t come out good, my family will eat them. The other six racks should be more than enough to serve our guests.

 

I am mainly doing this instead of the skewering thing because I am curious to see what is going to happen. I also am going to place a thermometer on the low rack to see how much difference there is between the low rack and the dome thermometer at 250ºF. 

[kjs]

Let us know how things turn out.

[tinyfish]

I agree with Charles. Lean two racks together like an "A" frame roof you can use skewers to peg them together if needed. You could easily get six racks of the main grill.

I will use this method if needed Sunday. I am cooking 7 racks of baby backs but they are small racks.

[LarryR]

I realize I'm a little late to the party but thought I'd throw out what I've done in the past. I put my six racks of ribs in the rib rack and then laid the final two racks on top of the ribs going the other direction (think tick tack toe) and this method has worked great.

 

Saw your other post and it looks like using all three grates worked well.

[otter]

Larry,

  I've done the same exact thing with good success as well