Grate Stacker question

Hoops10

I plan on smoking some ribs for the 4th and wanted to use the Grate Stacker shown in the photo.  My questions are heat and temperature related.  I am using a FlameBoss 400 as well.

1) When getting pit temp, will the temp be the same on both levels of grates?
2) Should I put the FlameBoss pit probe on the bottom or top grate?
3) Do the different level of grates cook at different rates (does bottom cook faster than top or vice versa)?

Thanks for all your help.  

dmourati

Depending on how you want to cook your ribs: 3-2-1, foil, no foil, etc, you could swap the racks top and bottom as appropriate throughout the cook. My guess is the ones on the bottom will see more direct heat on the edges as the heat goes around your platesetter/whatever. 

WeberWho

I have a stacker as well. There's no perfect combination. You could switch them around part way through the cook if you wanted. The toothpick trick will be you best indicator to see where your ribs are at. 

Hoops10

Dumb question, what's the toothpick trick?

pgprescott

I would rotate them half way. 

Foghorn

Toothpick test - means probing the rib meat (with a toothpick, Thermopen, or whatever) between the bones for loss of resistance - tells you when they are done.  Typically when the meat is a 180+ F.

Foghorn

Also, I've done a lot of multirack cooks on kamados.  

Here's one from a little over a year ago.
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1212190/8-briskets-and-30-racks-bosss-house-for-worldwide-colleagues-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/p1

Here are some principles:

- Make sure you use more than just one layer of ceramic to block the heat.  I use a few rolled balls of aluminum foil to create a space and then use a double layer of aluminum foil that I fashion into a drip pan that I "custom fit" into the space.  I try to block heat flow over almost the entire layer leaving just small spaces for airflow in the periphery.

- Get the egg stable before you put the meat on and then ignore the thermometer after you load the meat.  Putting that much cold meat into the egg - possibly with some of it near the tip of the thermometer - will mess up the thermometer reading.  And if you open the vents enough to see the dome thermometer hit 250 or 275 or whatever your target temp is, the bottoms of the ribs on the lower racks will burn.

- Because of this, plan on more time than usual for a cook.  Turbo cooking (300+ degrees) is probably not your friend in this scenario.

- If you have the heat properly blocked from below, the ribs in the center of the lower grate will cook slowest.  You can deal with this in several ways: 1) rotate the ribs around, 2) just leave them on longer (if the whole rack seems to be cooking evenly, 3) cut those racks in half partway through the cook and rotate the halves so the least cooked portion is toward the outside, 4) if the ends of those racks get done (the picture of the whole rack in the thread I linked above has a mild, but tolerable, case of this), but the ribs/meat in the middle is not yet done, cut 3 ribs off of each end and declare them done - while leaving the middle six ribs on to cook some more.  

I've done all of the above at some point.

Good luck.

You've got this.