Jonnymack's biggest cook yet coming this weekend - advice welcome.

jonnymack · August 2014

So I have about 10 adults total (50/50 male/female) to cook for this weekend. Have a large BGE and was thinking about doing ribs and some chicken wings. I generally prefer St. Louis style ribs but would like to attempt Baby Backs. My thought was 4 racks o'ribs and about 40 wings. I have a rib rack I purchased off Amazon that will allow me to stack the ribs on their sides to cook. I'm thinking put the rub on Friday after work, let marinate overnight and get that egg to 225-235 range and let them babies smoke. I have some dumb questions to ask:

With baby backs smoking on their sides, can I do a 2-2-1 method and effectively wrap the ribs in foil with any type of liquid? Should I?
How can I sauce the ribs for the final hour if they are sideways?
Once the ribs are done, I plan on keeping them warm in the oven for the time needed to cook the wings (just over an hour). Will the ribs get mushy in the oven? If my oven can get down to 170, will it dry out my goodness?
Does that number of racks sound right?

I'll post pics of the good bad and ugly Saturday. Thanks to all.

SoCalTim · August 2014

After 2 hrs when it's time to wrap them, I'd remove the rib-rack and just overlay them while they go thru the foil (tenderize) phase.

The trick will be the final hr. When you remove the ribs from the foil as they will be very very tender, almost to the point of falling off the rib.

I'd used two spatulas to do any moving, then gently lay the ribs directly on the grate as it will be near impossible to put the oh-so-tender ribs back in the rack. I often will put the finished BB's in an aluminum tray and put foil directly on top. They (for me) stay hot for a good hour or so.

Oh, I never sauce my ribs. I let whomever is gonna eat them sauce their own when it's time to eat, Just like in a restaurant.

DMW · August 2014

You can FTC the ribs rather than warm them in the oven.

mslaw · August 2014

Don't foil. When I foil they tend to turn to mush

JRWhitee · August 2014

I used to foil them, I find they are much better without foil. 4-1/2 - 5 hours at 250 works best for me on the large.

DMW · August 2014

The foil/no foil during the cooking phase is a matter of texture. Last weekend I foiled for about 40 minutes (Stl cut spares) because of timing. I'm usually a no foil snob, but a short foil this time really worked nicely.

MeTed · August 2014

Do not foil or or you will have mushy ribs. Then FTC.

DMW · August 2014

Not mushy... again, this was a 40 minute foil, not 2 hours.

Legume · August 2014

Agree with @DMW. Short foil period works really well to just make sure they're super tender and to manage your time. Too much and they're mush. I never add liquid when I foil, always enough moisture coming off the rack. Based on your constraints, I would foil the last 30 min and then pull them off and put them in a low oven while you cook the wings. I wouldn't sauce them, but if you want to just hit them with a light glaze (sauce thinned with either water or cider vinegar) to keep them from drying out in the oven, that would work. You could even just heat the oven to 170 or so and turn it off when you put the ribs in. They'll hold fine at that temp for an hour. Wrapping them will keep them wet, unwrapped with give you a drier rack. It's preference.

MeTed · August 2014

Point well taken!

jonnymack · August 2014

Wow many awesome tips thanks so much! I didn't know what the hell FTC was but a quick google tells me Foil Towel Cooler....good stuff. Sounds like a brief foiling will do the trick and I probably won't sauce. I'm not scared!!!

SoCalTim · August 2014

@jonnymack ... sounds like a really fun day. Good luck

EGGjlmh · August 2014

I don't think that is enough ribs, I would do 6-8 racks for that amount of people

EGGjlmh · August 2014

o crap, only ten people, at first I thought your post said 50...oops, you should be good with for racks

jonnymack · August 2014

EGGjlmh said:

o crap, only ten people, at first I thought your post said 50...oops, you should be good with for racks

Hahahaha....I was like "Damn! EGGjlmh isn't messing around when it comes to ribs." Thanks.

I'll post pics of the journey, hope it works out.

SmokeyPitt · August 2014

Just to throw this out there, I think I would consider serving the wings as an app and serving the ribs a little later. I think I would consider a 3-1.5-.25 as follows:

Ribs in egg for 3 hours at 250-275
Ribs wrapped in foil in oven for 1 to 1.5 hours (check them in an hour, if they are getting too done then just pull them and let them rest in foil)
Cook wings in egg while wings are in oven
Finish ribs off in the egg. I find that 15 minutes or so is usually enough to set the sauce and finish them off.

Mattman3969 · August 2014

Turbo the ribs at 350 for 1 1/2-2hrs till passing the bend test, FTC while wing are cooking raised direct @ 400-425. And of course sauce on the side.

evie1370 · August 2014

i never foil but will try based on some of these comments. Saucing on the rib rack is easy, i just brush them around the rack...works real well.

I never put mine in the oven, wrap in parchment paper, then foil, put in cooler. I did this a few weekends ago and one and a half hours later they were still nice and hot. Did this cause i was also doing a beer but chicken. Putting them in the oven, IMO, over cooks them.

KiterTodd · August 2014

jonnymack said:

...
With baby backs smoking on their sides, can I do a 2-2-1 method and effectively wrap the ribs in foil with any type of liquid? Should I?
How can I sauce the ribs for the final hour if they are sideways?
Once the ribs are done, I plan on keeping them warm in the oven for the time needed to cook the wings (just over an hour). Will the ribs get mushy in the oven? If my oven can get down to 170, will it dry out my goodness?
Does that number of racks sound right?
I'll post pics of the good bad and ugly Saturday. Thanks to all.

Apologies if these have been answered. I didn't read all the replies already received...

1. Just keep the grill closed, the temperature right, and let 'em smoke! Ribs cook relatively quick. You'll do fine.
2. Picture below of a large cook I did. Once the baby backs shrink down a bit, you can lay 4 of them on the grill to sauce no problem. They may overlap a bit...but it'll be fine, or do two stages.
3. FTC while you cook the wings. Wings are quick. The ribs will still be hot.
4. Each guy can eat a half rack or more, each girl will eat less. But, you also have the wings so yeah, 4 sounds perfect....don't be afraid of putting a 5th on. Leftovers are a good thing.

Both these cooks done the same day as well. Wings as soon as I took the ribs off. ONLY issue I notice with this was flare-ups while I was saucing the ribs and loading the wings from all the rib fat drippings. I think a drip pan would take care of this. I had it all dripping on my platesetter which would have been fine with only 1 cook, but was problematic with two.

cul-de-sac-er · August 2014

Holy smokes what's on the wings?

SoCalTim · August 2014

KiterTodd ~ Ribs & wings look fantastic! Never rally understood the fascination with wings thou, there's actually very little meat on em. I do the 'leg' thing myself ...

KiterTodd · August 2014

cul-de-sac-er said:

Holy smokes what's on the wings?

I smoked them at rib temperature with DD Swamp Venom. When they were done I tossed them in a home made wing buffalo sauce. No recipe, but I remember these were intentionally very hot so they'd last longer at the party.

I am an evil genius.

I started with the traditional base of butter and Frank's Red Hot... but then added a lot of dried hot spices to get the temperature where I wanted. And some more Swamp Venom just to make sure the carpet matched the drapes! They were excellent.

SoCalTim, for me wings are more about the experience & flavor less on the quantity of meat. You're right, there aren't any big bites on 'em. Kind of like eating crabs...but different. As you are usually eating a smaller portion, you can just plan on them for appetizers or really experiment with strong flavors that might overwhelm you for a meal. For me, anyway... All I know is that if they're spicy enough for me, they are too hot for the wife and if they are just right for her, I can't taste anything.

)

jonnymack · September 2014

So I successfully pulled off the cook several weeks ago. My apologies for not posting after but I got sick the week after the cook (severe sinus infection) then went on vacation (no internets allowed) and then had my ass handed to me with a mountain of work. I'm just now able to discuss what is now the biggest cook I pulled off. Purchased 3 racks of spare ribs as the grocer did not have the cut St. Louis style or any baby backs. Plus our guest count dwindled down. Utilized the Oakridge BBQ rub and also some DD for an overnight rub.

I'm kind of a BBQ noob so had to look up that what I purchased was really the St. Louis ribs with rib tips (bonus meat!!). Trimmed them down and had several nice chunks of meat to throw on with the 3 racks. Much meat, filled to capacity. Got the temp to a steady 220-230, threw a few chunks of mesquite (the preferred brand of jonnymack wood) and let that baby smoke for about 4 hours. Pulled them off and some passed the bend test and some didn't. Perfect! I only wanted to sauce some of the ribs anyway so I foiled the done racks and then sauced the others for some extra time. After about 40 mins they too passed the test. Wrapped them in foil and put them in the cooler and toweled (great tip gang, thanks!) and then went on with the wings. Got that temp up to about 350 and put the wings on as you see them. After about an hour they were good to go.

Everything was pretty much devoured. The ribs were the best I've ever done on the Egg and everyone was legit loving it. Made a quicky homemade BBQ sauce the night before which went perfectly with everything. The only issue I had was some temp problems with the wings, couldn't control it well enough to avoid some "dead soldiers" that were too burnt. No matter, still quite successful.

Jonnymack's biggest cook yet coming this weekend - advice welcome.

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