First WSM cook, ribs took over 8 hours

[IdahoJim]

I broke in my new-to-me 18" Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) last night. We had some family over for the USA men's national soccer team game. I made baby back ribs. I had a three pack of ribs from Costco. Six people eating. I cooked two racks on my Memphis Advantage pellet grill and one rack on the WSM.

I ran the pellet grill at 250. I ran the WSM with a Minion method, a few chunks of wood and about 1 1/2 gallons of water in the water pan. The WSM ran pretty close to 250 without too much effort. I had my Thermoworks Smoke air probe in the WSM. Here's the WSM temperature graph:



After 5 hours, the pellet grill ribs were done. I had to be careful not to tear them apart pulling them off of the grill. At that point, the WSM ribs had very little flex to them and did not probe tender. I left them on the WSM and we ate dinner. The pellet grill ribs were quite good.

Then I just kept checking the WSM ribs every 20 - 30 minutes. It was over 8 hours until they were what I considered done. They had some decent flex to them and there was little resistance to my instant read thermometer probe. Here's the final product:



I ran unwrapped the whole time, same as the pellet grill ribs (I'm too lazy to wrap ribs). No sauce, just a rub. I tried a couple of ribs at about 9:30. They were OK. There was more bark than I would want on ribs. They were reasonably tender and had a good flavor. Not overly smokey but definitely different than the pellet grill.

My question for you all is, why did these take so long to finish up? Is it because of the water pan? Is that just the nature of cooking on the WSM? I'm confused.

[HawkerXP]

I don't have a WSM but I would agree with you about the water. Ribs look good!

[jlazar]

Water pan goes down at the bottom of the WSM near the coals. Did you have it resting on the lower cooking grate?

[IdahoJim]

Nope. It was on the water pan brackets. I didn't have the lower grate in it since I wasn't using it. Didn't want to have to clean it for no reason.

[STEbbq]

Yep. I’d definitely remove the water pan next time and see how the results are.

[ecowper]

I always run a full water pan. I always run my charcoal in a Harry Soo style donut. And I generally get back ribs done in 5 hours. Here's an example cook on the WSM with three racks of back ribs. I did not make any significant changes to vents, etc .... I just let it run.

The ribs went on at 11:45 and came off at 4:50

[IdahoJim]

Hmm. Very similar temperatures to my cook. Curiouser and curiouser...

[ecowper]

IdahoJim your temp line looks pretty comparable to mine. I've never had ribs, either back or SLC, need 8 hours at 250 on a WSM. I'm thinking that maybe that was an ornery rack.

[Jerod Broussard]

A humid environment shouldn't slow things down, just the opposite. My best guess is you got a tough rack and the pellet was pushing more airflow.

[Richard Chrz]

This, at least for me, I love a water pan on ribs or longer.

[IdahoJim]

I am wondering if running close to 275 for ribs will work better in the WSM...

[Jerod Broussard]

I run 275 on ribs but that is on SLC's and the people I cook for like the membrane which I score to make sure. 5-6 hours in the pellet.

[IdahoJim]

Well, the leftovers were pretty darn good. Wrapped up a chunk of about 5 ribs in foil with a few spritzes of apple juice and some Sweet Baby Ray's. Put in a 250-degree oven for about an hour. Tasty, maybe a bit too tender, but a darn good lunch.

[tstalafuse]

So, a 3hrs difference is a long time...

Have you verified the temp on your pellet grill? On mine, I set it at 250 and discovered that it was really 275 next to where I was cooking ribs on the upper rack. Yes, the grill's temp probe was clean (nice and shiny using steel wool to keep it that way), and yes, I understand that the pellet grill's temp probe sets the temp by an algorithm to get an average overall temp.

Have you boil test your temp probe to make sure it is giving a good reading? Maybe it claimed 250, but was really 215...

I don't actually trust either probes, so I always test my SmokeX probes to make sure I am getting a good reading to compare against the pellet grills temp. Sometimes they are spot on to each other and sometimes they aren't.

If everything else was right, maybe that one rack just came from a mean pig that didn't want to give up the ghost.

[Richard Chrz]

I have smoked a lot of ribs on my 22wsm, almost always 5 1/2 to 6 hours, I generally run 260, and turn down if needed.

[radiodome21]

I have an 18 WSM and have never had ribs go that long. I do the minion method too and generally don’t use water in my pan for ribs. But I have and using water does add to the overall time. I find it’s also good for keeping temps down too. Outside weather conditions also play a part and it’s a breezy day then all bets are off.

[IdahoJim]

When I put the rack of ribs on, I draped it over the ball of aluminum foil you can see in the picture to make it fit on the cooking grate. I left it that way untouched for about three hours. When I looked after three hours, it was pretty dry on top, so I gave it a heavy spritz with apple juice and layed it down flat. I kept spritzing when I was checking because it looked so much drier that the racks on the pellet grill. I wonder if that spritzing slowed it down that much. I did some spritzing on the racks in the pellet grill, but not as much as the one on the WSM.

[STEbbq]

https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/mythbusting-basting-mopping-and-spritzing/

[jlazar]

The WSM temp will run hotter around the edges as the heat rises around the water pan. Make sure your probe isn’t too close to the edge.