Order of cook... help for a newbie

Maynard

I am doing my first large cook on the egg for a friend's birthday party on Sunday. I have 3 10# shoulders, and 2 slabs of ribs. Need the ribs to be ready, and the shoulders ready to pull by 5pm or so as the party is at 6pm. I don't have a 2 level grid. Any help with setup/timeline would be appreciated.

Thanks!

OttawaEgg

Quite the connundrum...

I do the shoulders overnight - pulling them off around noonish. Wrap them in foil, and a blanket and stick in a cooler - they should be fine. Back up - 10 pounds @ 2 hours per = 20 hours! - so you're starting them at 4PM the day before! (make sure the butts aren't touching when you're cooking them!) Trust the egg..

After that, you'll have plenty of time to do the ribs - you will likely have to add more lump, but this way you should have everything ready for your party.

Hope this helps!

Hoss

If it were me.I would allow 18-20 hrs for the butts.You can pull the butts when they reach 195-200 internal temp and wrap in foil and place in a cooler for several hrs. or hold them in a 170 degree oven until ready to serve.I would allow 5 hours for the ribs if they are babybacks ,6hrs if they are st louis or spares.I would fill the egg up to the top of the firering to make sure you have enough lump.Good Luck.

OttawaEgg

Of course, the other option is to get a second egg!

:woohoo: :side: :woohoo: :side:

Hungry Joe

I would cook the ribs the day before except take them off with 1 hour left and refrigerate them until you pull the pork off the next day. Foil the pork and put it in a cooler to keep them hot then throw the ribs back on and finish them. You or your guests will never know the difference..

NoVA Bill

I'd do it Hoss' way erroring on the upside of the times listed. Resting in a cooler or 170 degree oven does wonders for holding pork.

You've got a LBGE, let'r rip!

Little Steven

Maynard,

Why don't you pick up a replacement grid, 16" or so from a big box store. Put that on top of the butts and do the ribs on that. If you want to you can use long bolts nuts and washers to get some space.

Steve

fishlessman

if it were me, i would plan about 18 hours for the shoulders, have them off the
egg at the 13/14 hour mark and in the oven wrapped in foil and finish the cook there. cook the ribs on the egg while the butts are now finishing up in the oven cooking at 275/300. the butts will finish up quicker wrapped in foil in the oven giving you some cooler time while the ribs are still cooking. no one will know the difference except you.

CBBQ

Everybody is giving you good advice so I'll just throw in my 2-cents worth. When I'm having a party the most important thing for me is to actually get to enjoy it without stress. Butts are an easy and popular cook but the one thing you can't control is when they're done. You also have to have enough time for them to cool down enough to pull them.

I usually pre-cook everything ahead of time. I pull the ribs off within the last hour of the cook, wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate -unsauced. The I put them back on the grill about an hour before serving, first warming and then saucing.

I Pull the pork and put it in Foodsaver bags or plastic bags. If you use foodsaver bag you can just throw them in a pot of hot water ahead of time and then sauce after it's done. Otherwise you can put it a pan and warm up in the oven. A lot of people use coca cola or apple juice when warming it up. I use a little chicken stock/broth in the bottom of the pan.

You can't go wrong with any of the suggestions others have given you either.

fishlessman

thats even easier. i usually have 2 to 3 butts at camp ready for the boiling pot in the freezer ready for the instant parties. no reason to ever cook just one butt on the egg. never did that with ribs though, are you bringing them back to temp slowly or giving them some heat to char them off a little and then saucing

Maynard

Thanks for the advice, guys. I will let you know how it worked out. It's for a friend's B-day party, and he LOVES bbq. He's never had egg bbq before, so I'll see how he likes it.

CBBQ

I tend to cook them fully but not "fall-off-the-bone". I set them out for a while to bring up to room temp. I then keep the lump in my egg to one side. I throw them on the cooler side to bring up to temp and then over the fire to char and sauce. If I'm doing more than a couple racks I will heat them in foodsaver bags and then char or indirect to heat, pull platesetter and char.