Ribs hanging 'round my WSM

Smokin Patriots said:

I have never tried the hanging method...How do you like it?

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I'll find out in an hour or two. This is the first time I'm trying out hanging meat. When I checked, the meat was pulling back on the bones but did not pass the bend test.

Big Portagee said:

Imagination at work. I'm thinking the lower parts would cook hotter. Maybe the water bowl wrapped in foil would help disperse direct heat. look forward to see your results.

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My thoughts too. I hung the ribs with the thicker parts down. Maybe not the best choice though. When I opend the cooker at about 2 hours I found that one rack had separated and left about 2/3 of the rack laying on the lit coals. :mmph: Next time I'll either provide a lower grate or additional support to the hanging meat. I left the bowl out this time because I was attempting to duplicate the conditions that are produced in the PBC.

With all the rave reviews of the PBC I decided to try to duplicate the method on one of my WSMs. The one thing I wanted to do was to take advantage of the space in the dome lid since the mid section itself is probably shorter than the PBC. I thought of a number of schemes to do this, most of which would have made Rube Goldberg proud. :loco: Then it occurred to me that a piece of 3/8" rebar bent to the right angles and slotted at the ends should be fairly secure on the tabs that would otherwise support the top grate. I had intended to make two of those and notch them in the middle to provide additional support. The bends give me about 7" of additional head space and sit about 24" above the charcoal ring.

Today I found baby back ribs at Sam's that were marked down because they were approaching their sell by date. I grabbed a package of three to use for the first test of my contraption. When I finished the the first piece I found it fit securely enough to use for the initial trial run and proceeded to prepare cooker and meat.

Time will tell. They're not ready yet. I brought the rack in that had fallen in the fire but that's hardly a fair piece to judge by. (And surprisingly, they don't seem to be done either.) I'm riunning the WSM with one bottom vent open which produces a temperature of a little over 300°F

I had more hooks so I decided to rehang the portion of the rack that had fallen into the fire. Before I did, I cut a couple bones off to sample. :-D It was pretty good. It had landed meat side down and there was light charring on the surface but the meat was fairly tender and juicy. So far this is good.

charrederhead said:

PS- Your WSM has a lovely layer of gunk!

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Thanks! I read the thread about how do you clean your Weber and I realized that I don't.

Short answer: I like! The ribs were flavorful and moist. I'll probably be hanging my ribs from now on. I will also finish the apparatus off so I can hang heavier meats such as butts and birds (or maybe just cook them on grates with the water pan removed.)

Couple things... I don't foil and don't sauce. I serve sauce with the ribs but a surprising number of people prefer them naked.

Here are the ribs as they came off the cooker. I like the color



After resting about half an hour I cut onto them for a closer look. Moisture was perling on the surface and the cut edges looked pretty good as well.



I forced myself to eat a bone. (Did I mention that I had a couple grilled lamb chops, grilled potatoes, carrots and zucchini and salad for dinner while these were smoking?) I really liked it. It had a nice bite and was as moist and tender as it looked in the picture. the surface of the meat is more like broiled meat than what I've come to expect from the WSM. I think the exposure to the coals does that. The only down side is that I could not taste any of my rub. I think that as the fat renders off during the cook, it washes the rub into the fire. Aside from that and the half rack that fell into the fire (and was still not a loss) this trial was a resounding success.