Hi there im new here.

[matt s]

Good evening everyone, im Matt from Huddersfield, come here to ask the BBQ gurus for some help and guidance,

ive recently took advantage of the weber 57cm kettle offer from argos for half price so thought i would try my hand at indirect grilling, never done this type of cooking before so may need some questions answered if you would be so kind,

The kettle is ready to go, do i need to do a dry run on it before i try to cook anything?

Ive got some ribs from Costco and have got some Bad byrons butt rub and some killa bbq rub too, would these be a good choice to put on a rack of ribs? ive got 3 books by that steven Raichlen (sp) bloke and his rub recipes sound gorgeous but you need so many diff spices it would cost a fortune all in one go!

While the ribs are cooking indirect do i need to "mop" them or anything? and what do i use? ive seen people talk about apple juice but what does that do?

The kettle is just your basic bar b kettle model so comes with no temp gauge fitted, sounds a bit daft but can i just poke a temp gauge thru the top vent hole to give me a somewhere near there reading?

Sorry for all the questions but i need help lol and i totally blame all this on that man vs food program lol

Hope someone can shed some light

Matt

[Eddie]

Matt, welcome to the forum. I don't if you have seen it on utube, but the the (BBQ Pit Boys) have lots of recipes for your type of cooking. Beer can chicken is one of my favs.

Don't be shy with your post. Any probs, just ask.

Regards

Eddie

[oddsocks]

hey matt,
i would research the 3 2 1 method and use that if you like your ribs fall apart tender. aside from that, i have always found craig goldwyns 'amazingribs' site brilliant. mops and sauces are your choice, depends how you like your food. personally i just use a rub and finish off with a scant brush of sauce.

have fun, theres lots of people here who have forgotten more than i know about bbq and they will always help, and loads of useful info in the past posts, particularly in the new to bbq/help section.

[All Weather Griller]

Hi Matt,

Just be aware that many of the posts on here may relate to the slow smoked method of cooking ribs. With the kettle I have found that the ribs from Costco tend to cook a lot quicker. This is mainly because those baby backs are fairly small, often meaty but small. and the grill space on the kettle doesn't give you much room for cooking 3 racks of ribs indirect.

You may want to throttle the vents down a bit to keep the coals burning at lower temps but you ideally need good quality coals and smaller quantities for the cook you are about to try. The 3-2-1 method may be a tad too much in my opinion on a grill, but definately have a play.

Another point on the rub front, when you cook on a grill at higher temps, if you have a sugary rub it may caremalise much sooner and give you a darker appearance and even a slightly bitter tastes if it's over done.

I love my kettle and would like another, I'm in Huddersfield tomorrow so I might have to have mooch at the B&Q there.

Good look and let us know how you get on. Eddie's advice is good to see how the BBQweb.com guys play with ribs on the grill. I would pick up a few foil trays too so you can add a water bath to the charcoal grate, even if you don't use it for water it can help with the clean up.

Cheers

Adie

[keith157]

Hi matt s as you can see I'm new as well, however I have used Steven Raichlens indirect method on spare ribs, and it worked quiet well. Took a bit of fiddling, trial and some error to get the temperature right. I agree, having read his books, that you can end up with a substantial collection of herbs and spices. These do keep well in darkened cupboards or even in the fridge. Buy small quantities and get some good storage jars, buy store own brand refills and decant into your jars a much cheaper way. You may have noted that according to the supermarkets summer has ended (but not the BBQ season which, I'm told never ends) so some good bargains can be had in the way of rubs, marinades and sauces. As to the apple juice it does give a slight hint of sweetness rather than adding sugar into your rub.

[matt s]

Hi guys thanks for the replies, my first post was a bit rushed the other day as i was busy in work so ive got a bit more time now to put another post up, My missus bought me one of those bbqrs delight smoke pellet gift packs so ive got 20 single use bags of pellets to get thru, what are peoples opinions on this kind of pellets?

Regarding the temp inside my kettle has anyone ever stuck a temp gauge thru the top vent to get a rough reading? would this even work?

Ive actually got a brand new smoker aswell BUT its not a WSM or a Proq etc its a Coca cola branded one lol it only cost £45 so could never expect it to be anywhere near as good as the proper jobs, it has the charcoal bowl, water bowl and 2 grates to smoke food on, it has a door for filling up the charcoal while in use but hasnt got any vents on the top or bottom so dont know how i would go on controlling the temps inside, also the lid has a gap more or less all the way round of maybe 5mm so dont know wether all the heat would escape thru this gap while cooking, it kind of looks like one of those cheaper Brinkman ones, if anyone wants to see some pics of my £45 either wonder or lemon (you decide lol) i will be happy to put them up The reason i bought it was to test to see if i could do it etc before i bought a properly expensive one, plus the temp gauge on it is reading higher than it should as i tested it in some boiling water, ive seen a few 57mm gauges on the bay for not much money and the two nuts on the back make me think they are adjustable?

Had a look on the amazing ribs website and will deffo be trying his version of indirect cooking/smoking on my weber and will deffo be making some of his "memphis dust" as i have most of the spices already for that, just not sure where to get kosher salt from lol

Again, thank you for the replies and the warm welcome

Matt

[Eddie]

Kosher sat is hard to get hold of, as is a lot of other ingredients that they use on the other side of the pond. Thier is a section at the bottom of the borad index ( Hard to find ) that has help me a couple of times. Your cast iron pot with your wood pellets are very good to try different types of flovours. But I tend to find that the smoke last for about an hour from one sachet and trying to retrive it for a re-fill is quite a job not rying to burn yourself in the process, as the pot is red hot . So after the pot goes in I then tend to make a little foil enverlope, empty the sachet into the enverlope, seal it and the make a couple of holes so that the smoke can come out. Then just place in on the top of the charcoles.

Good luck with your next cook, looks like this weekend is going to be a BBQ one.

Eddie.

[Impeed]

Welcome Matt,

Only been a member a few weeks myself and already feel at home here. Good bunch.

Eddie, good tip, just been juggling a proq metal smoker box out of the BBQ and then refilling and putting back in ..only one small burn >.<. Foil is the way forewards.

:0)

[Swindon_Ed]

Regarding the temp inside my kettle has anyone ever stuck a temp gauge thru the top vent to get a rough reading? would this even work?

I used to use this exact setup with my kettle when doing some indirect cooking when I was starting out and I never had any major issues with it.

[matt s]

Thanks for the replies,

Quick question, those bbqrs delight smoke pellets give off an hours worth of smoke, would that be enough to put a nice smoke flavour into some ribs if i am only indirect cooking them and not a full blown smoke?

Also, i have 4 racks of ribs to cook so will be using a rib rack, how much extra time do i need to add on roughly?

Thanks as ever..........Matt