PBC- 1st cook tomorrow

[Durham Smoker]

I'm doing my first cook tomorrow for NFL Sunday.  I have 4 racks (each around 1.8 lbs) of some pasture raised St. Louis ribs.

I prefer my ribs with just salt and pepper and no sauce.

If I do the lighter fluid method and wait 20 minutes before hanging, when should I check on them?

2 hours?   3?

[smokeasaurus]

I would check after two hours doing spare ribs. If you like to cook em till they fall off the bone.....might wanna foil wrap em and set in the cooking grate.....those ribs get tender enough they could fall to the inferno below 

[jjjonz]

What Smoke said...I use the fluid method also. Leave the lid off at least 20 minutes...make sure you coals are good and hot. I then put the lid on and give it time for the temp to settle...about 15 minutes or so. I always lay the meat out before I light the PBC...give it time to warm a little .I know you are going to love the PBC...be sure to put some pictures of the cook.

[sparky]

3 to 4 hours for perfection.

[Durham Smoker]

Thx for all the help.  In general how does rack size come into play as far as cook time?  As mentioned these racks are less than 2 lbs. 

[PapaBob]

Wow Durham....what a gimme!.....I've learned after many successful cooks like you describe, when it comes to ribs, he Pit Barrel is the only place in life where size doesn't matter!

Here's the procedure I follow:

1.  Get your coals ready 20 minutes before kickoff
2.  Hang ribs at kickoff and close the lid....go watch the game and don't peek
3.  Check ribs at halftime...they should be ready for sauce...sauce and rehang
4.  At the end of the third quarter....they should be ready to go!

Enjoy and I hope you win all your bets!

[Durham Smoker]

Sorry guys no pics as my storage on my phone was maxed out.

Decent first cook but felt the meat was overdone/burnt at the bottom of the racks.  They finished very quick in about two hours but as said the racks were small (1.8 Lbs). 

I used lighter fluid and waited about 25-30 minutes as my coals had an uneven burn with one side still black as the other was ashed over.  Had too much black charcoal smell and I waited until the other side was mostly ashed over.  I think this extra time made the fire too hot resulting in a very quick cook and burnt ends.

Next time I will try bigger (3 lb or so ) racks.  Do you guys usually wait until most (all) of the coals are ashed before hanging?  It just seems like 8 lbs of fully lit coals will produce a very hot fire.

The flavor was really good and I know I will love this thing when I get it dialed in.  First time using lighter fluid in probably 20 years and no bad taste. 

[sparky]

At that weight for each rib you should check at the 2 to 2 1/2 hour mark.  Pit barrel cooks fast.  I re adjusted my bottom vent.  More better. 

[scottv]

Make sure you cut the racks in half and hang separately. That way the hang hire and you won't have burnt bottoms

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Durham Smoker]

Does anyone have a pic of what they consider the perfect lit charcoal basket prior to hanging?

[PapaBob]

To keep the bottom of the racks from burning, wrap the bottom 3-4 inches with foil.  That does it without having to cut the slabs.

[amshepar]

I too cut my racks in half.  You will no longer experience the bottom one or two ribs being burnt (the burnt bottom ribs happened to me too the first time I made them in the PBC).  Additionally, I put both half racks on one hook.  You could still get 8 racks of ribs in the PBC this way.

Also, you may consider adding a touch of brown sugar or turbinado sugar to your mix.  The sugar will help create a caramelizing for the ribs that will give it a nice char.  For spare ribs I have cooked right at the 3 hour mark on multiple occasions.  At this point I'm able to get serious separation off the bone with the meet if I pull on the bone hard enough.  That's the rule of thumb for ribs being done.

I always do exactly 20 minutes.  even if some of the charcoal has not burned to the level of others.  Keep in mind with the lid on and bars in place you are creating an almost humid oven like atmosphere in the PBC.  The temperature is evenly distributed in there even if the charcoal has not burned evenly.  20 minutes with the lid off gets the fire temp to a certain point and then cools down to the 275-300 range (generally speaking and will vary by humidity, wind, elevation) once the lid is on.  Leaving the lid off longer will get the fire significantly hotter and take much longer to get to the ideal cook range.

[Durham Smoker]

Great thanks.  I was more concerned about the foul smelling black unlit coals than I was about temperature.  1/2 of my basket was ashed over and 1/2 was still mostly black with only the corners ashed.

Do I need to worry much about taste from under ashed black coals?  I know with the minion method this is typically not a problem as only a few partially lit coals are going at any given time.  I had 1/2 of a basket of coals partially lit and it smelled like it would ruin my food.

[jjjonz]

I do get my charcoal pretty hot ....after that I put the lid on for about 15 minutes before I put the meat on. I know thats not what Noah says ,but it works for me.

[jjjonz]

Does anyone have a pic of what they consider the perfect lit charcoal basket prior to hanging?

Durham here is a idea of what the coals should look like.

http://www.letstalkbbq.com/index.php?action=post;quote=195180;topic=14502.0