I've been tapped to smoke ribs for 20 on the 4th of July. Six racks are the most I've done at a time (I had planned on an 8 rack cook three weeks ago but 4 guests bailed). I know some folks have loaded up their PBCs in the past with more than 8 racks at a time. What was your experience/method? One idea I had was do two cooks, one right after the other, and hold the first cook wrapped in foil and towels in a faux cambro. My other ideas was to load the barrel with 10 and let her rip. Thoughts? Experiences?
I think the PBC site claims up to 12 racks. Check out Mad Scientist BBQ on YouTube. I’d smoke the racks hanging, then wrap in butcher paper with optional tallow, put the grate on the PBC and crank the temp. You can stack the ribs, the pit barrel is now an outdoor oven - they’ve already absorbed as much smoke flavor as they are going to. If you need more space you can put them in your actual oven.
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I"ve done 9 racks and found it was a little difficult keeping a consistent temp due to all the drippings and the cook took a little longer than anticipated and the temps were all over the place. About every 45 mins I moved all the racks around so they would cook as even as possible, but everything came out pretty good.
If you wanted to do two separate cooks I would recommend after cooking to let the first set cool a little, wrap in plastic wrap then foil and keep warm.
10 racks for 20 people? You doing nothing but ribs, or planning to send a lot home with folks? I'd think if you've got multiple other sides, maybe 6 or 8 racks of decent sized ribs. Having extra BBQ isn't usually a problem, though... lol.
Yeah, I did 2 racks of SLS ribs last week for me, my son and son in law, and the boys are bigger than me. I thought they would each eat at least half a rack, but I don’t think anyone had more than 4 bones, based on the leftovers the wife and I had for 2 days….
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The PBC site says the standard PBC can do 8 racks of ribs. You might could push it to 9 or 10 racks if you rest a bar or two on top of the two main rebars. I use the bar from the turkey hanger for that.
For me, it sounds like a fun but definitely a hands-on cook, constantly monitoring the PBC temperature to make sure the coals are not overwhelmed by the moisture in the barrel.
A thought would be to pull some of the rib racks at the 2 hour mark (whatever is usually halfway through for you) and wrap in foil (or maybe use a foil boat?) to finish in the oven, giving some breathing space to the others as they go all the way in the PBC. The foil-wrapped ribs might be more toward the fall-off-the-bone type, which some people love.
I agree with this - 10 seems like too many racks at one time. I'd probably do 5 and 5, and after 2 hours or so, wrap the first set and move to the oven and then cook the 2nd set. Then you can faux cambro the first set when done and reheat/glaze/mop, etc on a grill, under the broiler or even back in the PBC for 10-20 min to get a nice bark on it
I've done 6 racks, yes lots of moisture from the dripping. I like to rotate them to a new position about every 30 min. to share the hot spots. Need to keep an eye out for doneness. I had some done as much as 30 min. before the last. Good luck!
I did like 10 racks before for a Men's group (about 20-30 people). I smoked the ribs the day before and cooked them to about 95%. Wrapped the ribs in foil and refrigerated over night. Next day and a couple hours before the group came together, I warmed them up (still in the foil) in an oven and then glazed them and gave them some grill marks over a gas grill. They came out very good. FWIW.....
Only issue with this approach is that some folks (ask fzxdoc, my daughter in Law or one sister in law) are very sensitive to warmed over flavor, and reheated day old leftovers are not quite the same as fresh off the smoker ribs.
jfmorris - thanks for the comment, but it goes without saying that fresh off the smoker is better. But that being said, this is also not leftover food. You don't finish the cook. You do bring them back up to temp in the foil and then grill them to set the glaze. It worked very well for me, so I respectfully disagree.
My big cook was a success. I hung 9 racks of St. Louis Spares and set up my DigiQ fan system for temperature control (275 degrees). Ribs were done in-between 3 to 4 hours. My niece had her grill going for hamburgers and hot dogs. It was pot-luck and others brought sides and desserts. Twenty-two total guests. I got great comments saying the ribs were the best they ever had and better than their favorite local bbq joint. There were three racks left over that people fought over when it was time to go home! Sorry, no pics, I was too busy pulling racks as they finished and serving. I used a simple rub of 2-1 pepper and salt, some granulated garlic and onion powder as well as smoked paprika for 7 racks and sauced them for the final 20 minute with either Sweet Baby Rays of Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce. I used Walkerswoods wet Jamaican Jerks rub for two of the racks. Several of the dads were interested in the PBC (they had never seen one), asked a bunch of questions, and took pics. Great food was had by all. I'm telling you, my PBC made me look real good!
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