British BBQ Society Forums

hi guys, looking for some advice.


I might have to do a rather large cook of ribs near xmas - And can't figure out the best way to do it.

1 : Small batches as usual, then freeze - thaw overnight day before then half hour on the bbq indirect ?
2 : all at once - Fill my 57cm weber to the brim, then a 1 hr very cool smoke - and transfer to an oven to cook for a few hours ? temp - 120C ?

rub will be a simple brown sugar/garlic/salt/cayenne - BBQ sauce will be newmans own hickory.


prob end up doing 10ish racks,

Exactly how many are you talking about (Spares or baby backs) and are you using rack or just on the grate?

I have the smaller WSM and have managed to cook 12 full racks of spare ribs and prob could have got more in if I really got creative using racks.

Prob about 10-12 actually, and i usually buy louisiana cut.

I don't have a rack, because i normally only do 1 or 2.

I guess i could do a ring of fire, and stand em up in the middle ?

Risky though, i've never tried to control the temp with a ring burn.

The folk these will feed will likely not be rib experts - so i could easily get away with an oven cook, but would really rather have some good ol' smoke on em.

Its a 57cm weber Kettle i have.....

I can't say I'm the biggest expert at cooking ribs, but here's my two pence:

I use a toast rack to hold my ribs up. It cost 35p from the charity shop. Does just fine for smaller racks, like baby backs or trimmed racks.

I use a primitive minion method for my burn and usually do 3-2-1 ribs.

Alright matey, my tuppence for you:

I have a UDS the same size as your Webber but I have two shelves on it.

Using a rib rack like this:

http://www.gardenxl.com/proq-smoker-rib ... tAodiTEAtQ

I can cook 7 racks per shelf, it holds five racks of ribs, then I lean one extra rack on the end and one extra down one side, that all fits nicely on our size food grill.

I'll often do 30-40 full racks of Bookers ribs in a sitting, I normally cook them for 2 hours on the smoker at 120c, then remove, wrap in foil and bang them in the oven for another 2 hours at 120c. After that I remove, unfoil, lightly coat the top of the racks in BBQ, sprinkle rub over the top and bang them back on the smoker for 15 - 30 mins to firm up if they are to be eaten then and there.

When I do them for consumption at a later date, for people at work or where people have ordered food for parties, I will cook them the same, 2 hours on the smoker, 2 hours in the oven wrapped in foil I will pull them from the oven at the end of the cook, bang them in the freezer for 30 - 60 mins to bring the temp down before putting in the fridge then when they have chilled I'll vacuum pack them (or if I'm not selling them as I'm just taking them down the road to my mates to be cooked the next day I just re-wrap in fresh foil) and I pass them on with a sachet of BBQ sauce and a sachet of rub.

Then I give the following instructions on reheating:

For the ribs (if you have frozen them let them defrost in the fridge overnight first):

Preheat oven to 120c
Remove the ribs from the vacuum packaging, wrap them in foil and place in the oven, bone side down.
Cook for 45 mins in the oven
Leaving the oven on, take the ribs from the oven and take them out of the foil (CAUTION, they will be hot and steam will escape)
Cut the edge off the sauce sachet and squeeze a little sauce over the top of the ribs and spread it around, you just want to cover the top of the ribs in a thin film of the sauce (don’t drown them in the sauce – YET  )
Sprinkle about half of the powder in the other sachet over the top of the ribs where you have just spread the BBQ sauce
Put back in the oven, bone side down, unwrapped for 10-15 mins
Remove ribs, try one without any extra sauce, try one with extra sauce, make a decision on which you prefer, get tucked in and get sauce all over your chops and the shirt your wearing


Hope this helps

wozzad wrote:Prob about 10-12 actually, and i usually buy louisiana cut.

I don't have a rack, because i normally only do 1 or 2.

I guess i could do a ring of fire, and stand em up in the middle ?

Risky though, i've never tried to control the temp with a ring burn.

The folk these will feed will likely not be rib experts - so i could easily get away with an oven cook, but would really rather have some good ol' smoke on em.

Its a 57cm weber Kettle i have.....

Sorry I missed that it was a kettle.

What you could do is get the rack (anything from the 35p toast rack up) and cook 6/7 on the kettle for the 3 ours, then put them in the oven for the foil section and put the remaining number on the kettle for their 3hrs. You can keep the first lot warm quite easily while the second lot finish or just reheat them when everything is done if necessary.

I could be totally wrong on this, so please correct me if you can, but I have been led to believe if you start the cooking in the oven you will reduce the amount of smoke penetration due to the muscle fibres tightening up in the early stages of cooking, which would be a bad thing for the ribs were started in the oven. Is this true?

robgunby wrote:I could be totally wrong on this, so please correct me if you can, but I have been led to believe if you start the cooking in the oven you will reduce the amount of smoke penetration due to the muscle fibres tightening up in the early stages of cooking, which would be a bad thing for the ribs were started in the oven. Is this true?

I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes sense. I only finish in the oven after smoking.

Ive had them done both ways before, for various reasons. Once my bbq went runaway and i couldnt keep it cool enough, and was running out of time. Did them in the bbq, then after an hour on the bbq with smoke.

Nowhere near as much retained flavor as the other way round. And although the very outer crust DID have come colour from the smoke, there was no smoke ring.....


Anyhow - Back to my wee cook.

If i go for 6 at a time for 3 hours on the bbq - What temp should i be aiming for ? still 120C at the cooking level ?

wozzad wrote:Ive had them done both ways before, for various reasons. Once my bbq went runaway and i couldnt keep it cool enough, and was running out of time. Did them in the bbq, then after an hour on the bbq with smoke.

Nowhere near as much retained flavor as the other way round. And although the very outer crust DID have come colour from the smoke, there was no smoke ring.....


Anyhow - Back to my wee cook.

If i go for 6 at a time for 3 hours on the bbq - What temp should i be aiming for ? still 120C at the cooking level ?

Interesting to hear some truth to it.

Anyhow, indeed back to your cook - 6 at a time sounds reasonable in the space you have. I would stick to 225 F (about 108 C) and do 3-2-1 (the 2 and the 1 could be done inside in the oven, freeing up your grill for the next batch to receive smoke before finishing in the oven).

One question - what date and what address?