Using all three grates for a rib cook

[wilburpan]

A little while ago I asked about whether cooking ribs on the lowest grate position was feasible or not. Yesterday was my younger boys birthday, and we did a big rib cook. Here’s what happened. 
 
Mission: cook eight racks of baby back ribs without a rib rack. This was the biggest rib cook I’ve done so far. When I got back from the store, I realized how much area eight racks of baby backs covers. Luckily, it was a nice day out. Here’s my prep station.
 

 
The recipe was pretty much what I’ve done before. Aaron Franklin-style DIY rib rub, rub some olive oil on the ribs, and then put rub all over.
 
Now it was time to load up Smaug. I lit the charcoal, put the diffuser plate on the charcoal basket, and let Smaug settle out. He wanted to be at 210ºF yesterday. I put two racks on the searing grate. I should note that there’s enough room under the searing grate for the diffuser plate, but putting a drip pan under the searing grate would have been pretty tight. I didn’t use a drip pan for this cook.


 
Then three racks on the main grate.


 
And the last three racks on the upper grate.


 
I let the ribs go for about 6 hours, turning up the heat for the last hour to 250ºF. It was suggested before that I rotate the racks between the grates, but I didn’t do that. I used the bend test to check for doneness.
 
Dennis keeps complaining that I stopped posting money shots. That’s only  because sunset comes quickly at this time of the year. So here’s a money shot with the flash on my phone. Now you know why I don’t like posting money shots taken after the sun goes down.


 
And here are the ribs. These are the ribs from the main grate and the searing grate. The kids ate the ribs from the upper grate before I could get a picture under better light.





The ribs were great, as always. You could tell that the ribs on the searing grate were cooked a bit more than the ribs on the main and upper grates, which is what you might expect since they were closer to the fire, but they really weren’t cooked more by much. Basically, the ribs from the top two grates were just about perfect, and the ribs from the searing grate were at the fall-off-the-bone state. In the picture above, you can see that the rack on top of the platter broke in half as I tried to get it off the grate. That rack came from the searing grate.

 

One thing I considered doing is placing the heavier racks on the searing grate to account for the searing grate being closer to the fire, but I forgot to do that when loading up Smaug. Based on this cook, I would think about doing that in the future, but that’s getting towards BBQ OCD territory.

 

In any case, I would consider this a success. Doing low and slow cooks on the searing grate still would be my last choice for a low and slow, but it’s good to know that it’s doable.

 

[ckreef]

Great rib cook. They all look delicious. Glad to know that Low-n-slow on the lower grate is possible.

Charles - Prometheus 16.5", Cassiopeia 19" TT

[MacKenzie]

Wilbur, I'm glad your big rib cook turned so well.  Things look very tasty indeed.    I know what you mean about the lighting this time of year. It's starting to get dark before 5 PM these days very soon we will be on the turn around.

[tinyfish]

Those look delicious Wilbur. I have seven racks cooking as we speak.

[DennisLinkletter]

Thanks for the Money shot!  

Small LED light in the mail.. lol

 

Love the close up shot of the ribs.. gotta say those are beautiful and THICK ribs.. dream of that much meat on ribs here.. they just slaughter them much smaller here.. I believe for tenderness because most pork here is not cooked low and slow.

You could also toss the lower ribs into the freezer an hour before your cook.. this would stall their cook and maybe make it an even race..

[GoFrogs91]

Great looking cook Wilbur. Thanks for the detail.

Benton

[bosco]

Looks killer. Going to put this on Instagram around dinner

[bryan]

That's a 10%er cook if I ever saw one!  (10% = OVER THE TOP)

[Hogsfan]

Looks awesome, Wilbur!

[kjs]

Wilbur, so glad this worked out for you. The finished ribs look,wonderful.