I hear you Brad, normally I won't buy beef ribs that have the meat cut off the top and/or meat gouged out from between the bones. These came as two butchers paper wrapped packs in the frozen markdown bin. I could feel through the paper to tell that they were already separated, which was no big deal, but because they were already frozen, I couldn't tell they were all shiners. Oh well, at $1.50/lb for these which normally go for close to $4/lb, it wasn't a bad deal, but certainly not a great deal when I compare it to the cuts I typically get from the university at their processing facility (corn finished, not-free range, non-organic beef though).

I was actually thinking about throwing the bones in the pressure cooker for stock, but decided against it, figuring that all the smoke would be extracted too, so I'd end up with 4-5 quarts of briquette flavored stock.
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Sweet looking smoke ring, Adam!

You're an animal, Steve!
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Don't get me wrong Adam, I ate em til I just couldn't get up for it anymore, some $200 worth over a year
or two. But in the end it was the gall of them taking all the meat, selling it to someone else, and then trying
to sell me the leftovers as beef ribs that made me mad. If it didn't have a good reduced for quick sale price on it,
I would never have gotten caught up in it. Add to that the fact that they are only good hot off the grill, and it
was an easy habit to break. Re-heated they are really lame. Or certainly not worth serving to friends as an
example of your smoking skill. I could eat them re-heated MYSELF, but found them a bad idea to share.

I won't lie, though....looking at the pics again today, my mouth DID water.
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Question for you guys - I'm doing back ribs tomorrow for my first cook. I obviously can't time it exactly because I haven't done them before on the WSM. I'd probably rather they be done earlier and kept warm than later and everyone else kept hungry. So what do you recommend if they are finished an hour before I want to serve them? Stick them in the oven at 180? Something else?
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If I were me, I'd wrap them in tin foil, then wrap in a towel, and put in a cooler to retain as much heat as possible without cooking them further. Then fire up the grill to reheat. If you plan on saucing them, you're going to want to finish on the grill to caramelize the sauce a little anyways.

But again, I've never cooked ribs for a large group. "Eating time" when I cook ribs is whenever they get done :-)
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That's always been my thing too! I'll give the cooler/foil/towel thing a try. Thanks for suggesting it.
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Good tip right there.

I did 16 7.5lb butts this past saturday for a picnic sunday after church. When they were at temperature saturday night (about 11:30pm) i pulled them off the smoker, wrapped them in two layers of foil, and stuck them in one of my large coolers with some towels. Sunday morning around 8:30 when I started pulling them to serve, my assistant was still doing the hot-hands two-step thru 3 pairs of disposable gloves (I gues to be fair, I really should invest in another pair of nice, insulated gloves like I use for my helper... :-))

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BTW, if you are cooking them ~225*, I would probably figure on about 5 hours to cook. At least that's what mine average out to.
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Thank you, Steve. I appreciate the advice and the time quote. I'm shooting for 225, so that's great to know.
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If you are using a WSM, you shouldn't have too much trouble. THose things keep temp pretty well as long as you pay attention.

A lot of guys get pretty anal about keeping exactly 225* (and now doubt these guys turn out awesome product), but I usually don't get that worked up about it. With a shorter cook like ribs it may make more of a difference, but most of the time I am cooking for 12-18 hours on average. I think it pretty much averages out as long as you don't let the temp dip too far. You definately do not want to loose time trying to get the smoker back up to temp.

Of course I have been cooking on my Lang for a LONG time and know what her mood is on any given day. After you have cooked on your WSM for a few times you will have a better feeling for how long various items are going to cook and how much fuel you will need. For example, this past weekend, I used half a bag of lump (5lbs. maybe) and 2 or 3 logs to get her fired and warmed up, then maybe another 15 or so quarter sticks of blackjack oak for the entire cook. Once she's up to temperature, she just cruises along.

Enjoy the ride, and especially the eating!
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Mark, just ordered mine today. Got a free set of bear claws with them. Amazon has the combo deal for the same price as the single unit. I'm stoked!
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15.5 lbs of boneless Boston Butt from Costco. Brining solution - salt, cracked black pepper, and mined garlic for 12 hours. Rubbed with homemade pork rub. Smoked at 235-255F for 9 hours on Saturday. Beautiful deep smoke ring and absolutely perfect flavor! My entire family has been enjoying them since supper last night. Still have enough to freeze for later. Probably the best butts I ever smoked!

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Looks awesome Jamie!
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Awesome pics Jamie! Great Job, looks tasty
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Nice! :-)
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Well guys, I pulled off the ribs on Saturday for the most part. I did 6 racks, 2-2-1 ish, had the smoker holding pretty steady around 225. I would say 3 of the racks came out perfect - great flavor and texture. The other three had good flavor, but were not as tender and some of the larger pieces of meat actually were a little dried out. I don't know how to explain them being not as tender (which I think means they needed to cook longer) and also drier except for maybe the placement within the WSM and the idea that maybe I should have used more apple juice for the larger racks when I wrapped them. I'll have to do some experimenting and figure it out. It will be fun "work". I really did enjoy the whole process.
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Were the ribs all the same size Colin?
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Some were a little bigger than the others, but not hugely so. They were the cryo-packed ones from Costco.

I've attached a pic of them before going into the foil, but I don't think you can tell very much from it.
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Has anyone tried using tobacco when smoking meat? I'm thinking of trying it for a BBQ event (BizzareBQ) I'll be going to in June. The idea if the event is to be creative with your dishes. I found a link to a chef who did tobacco smoked ribs with a Guinness sauce, but no recipe. I might have to do some test runs.
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Not intentionally.

Accidentally burned the nub of a cigar once. Didn't really do anything noticeable, but it was a rather small quantity of tobacco, maybe not enough to be noticed. Honestly never felt the need to try it again with a larger cigar and see.
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