ribs - how many and how to transport?

 
Regarding the transport side...

When you ribs are done wrap tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil. Take a blanked or a lot of towels and again wrap tightly, there was no need or a cooler.

I have kept ribs hot for 2 hours with this method.

I went to a fabric store and picked up some heavy fleece (stadium blanket material). My cut was 52" wide bias to bias and I picked up 2 yards. After foiling the meat and keeping the seam of the foil up, I fold the material in half then wrap the meat, ribs, chicken, butt, brisket and leave it on the counter or transport. Works fantastic.

GG

I made 2 racks of St. Louis cut spares as an appetizer for our 5-person wine group a few weeks ago and they were all gone. So if the ribs are the main course for 8 people I'd sure do 4 racks, but if there's a lot of other food and only 5 people, two racks should be fine.

Mine took just over 5 hrs at 225 indirect with no foil step but mopping with apple juice every half hour starting at 3 hrs. Went great with Poulsard.

Cheers,

T.

225 was my grid temp. That's about 260-270 on my dome. I put a drip pan of water on the plate setter below the cooking grate, and that acts as a heat sink to keep the cooking grate a bit cooler.

I've never done the foil thing, but I'll try that sometime. I like a tender rib, but not soft like I'd expect with a braising step. Mostly though, the foil adds another step and I've had great success without it and see no reason to change. Plus, I enjoy looking at the ribs when I mop them every half hour or so. I've always liked to play with my food.

I'm no rib expert, but I think you'll do just fine with your plan.

T.

Thanks for the advice; I'll try a dry drip pan next time. My thinking was that the pan of water would put an insulator between the radiant heat from the plate setter, which is being heated by the fire below, so that the heat from the bottom wouldn't be more than the heat from the sides and top. And I did think about the steaming issue, but it never looks or feels like that's happening. Maybe it's because I've had the fire so low that it really doesn't drive much steam.

So if I try the foil wrap, doesn't that steam/braise the ribs even more since it's all held in the foil? It just seems like it would, but I know a lot of people swear by that technique so there must be something to it.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice. I'm looking forward to experimenting with this a bit.

Cheers,

T.

I've done some tests using platesetter, pans, pans w. water or sand. An empty pan works just fine as a radiant heat block when cooking ribs. Unlike the platesetter, it doesn't need pre-heating, and does not get as hot as the 'setter, which heats to over 400F. The pan needs no liquids unless the drippings begin to burn.

I stopped foiling a couple of years ago. Foiling can reduce the amount of cooking time, but unless you want to infuse the meat w. a warm sweet solution, there is little advantage. I've raised my average dome temp to around 275F. It shaves some time off, and I don't notice any difference in the final product.

I used to be able to put away a whole slab without much trouble, even w. sides. Now, a half slab is sufficient w. just a few mouthfuls of sides. I think 4 slabs would be a min. for 8 eaters.

Best thing about ribs is how many different ways there are to get them perfect. I use foil, it gives me that "fall off the bone" finish, your mileage may vary. A few famous St. Louis BBQ joints seem to agree.