Had my first successful low and slow cook on my Weber OTG over the weekend. Did three racks of baby back ribs. Started out with 3/4 chimney full of Kingsford briquettes. When they were ready I dumped them all in the middle, put the cover on and slid both vents wide open to heat up the grill. After a few minutes I took the lid off and cleaned the cooking grate, took it off and rearranged the coals for indirect heat. I don't have the coal racks so I just moved them to either side of the kettle and put a drip pan in the middle. I put the cooking grate back on and put a thermometer on the grate. Closed up the vents a bit, about half way on each. After a few minutes the temp was still high (300 F) so I closed them up even more and got it down to 250. Then I put the soaked apple wood on top of the coals and put my ribs on the grate and closed the lid. After I put the rub on the ribs I rolled them into a circle and used bamboo scewers to hold them together. They take up less room on the grill. I used a mix of apple cider vinegar and soy sauce for a baste and "Butt Rub" for the rub. After 3 1/2 hours of 250 they were done. What a meal !! Everyone was extremely pleased. I learned a lot about how the Weber works on this one. Patience is key. The temp will respond to changes in the vent but it takes a few minutes.

AAAAAAAHHHHHH, my favorite meal!! Can't ever get enough Baby Backs! Great job. Sounds like you got it down to a fine art.

sounds like you are HOOKED buddy, Keep up the good Q.

I used to "cook" ribs by first wrapping them in foil and putting them in the oven at 250 for a couple of hours. Take the foil off and slide them on the gas grill to finish them off. They come out "ok" doing that but no comparison to how they come out after 4 hours in the Weber OTG with apple wood chunks smoldering. So yeah, I'm pretty much hooked !!

GAS GRILL.....it just doesn't sound right does it?

It's sort of like the difference between roasting a chicken in a conventional oven and roasting it in a microwave.

Exactly.

Very nice Peter!

Thanks Rob, it's getting there. Practice makes perfect. There's a great video on YouTube by the "Barbecueguys.com" that shows how to BBQ baby back ribs. Do a search on YouTube for baby back ribs or barbecue and it will come up. In the video they put all the coals on one side of the grill and no drip pan. I pile the coals on either side of the grill and use a drip pan in the middle. Every so often in the video they turn the ribs so that the side facing away from the coals gets some more radiant heat. If you put coals on either side you avoid having to turn the meat around.

Love my W-OTG !!!

You aren't referring to the BarbecueWeb.com video are you?

Yes, that's the one. My bad. Thanks for the correction. www.barbecueweb.com

So you're up in North East ? I live in the D.C. area and my kid went to Sandy Hill Camp for 3 summers up your way. I really enjoyed driving through the town.

Yep, been living here for about 8 years now.

As for the barbecueweb videos, some of those things scare me, the baby back one is useful to show indirect cooking on the kettle.

We discussed a couple of them awhile back - http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1780069052/m...310061674#1310061674

Yeah, I see your point. Those videos are a little on the "unsavory" side. I don't follow the video to the letter. I like the way they put a bamboo skewer to hold the racks together. I don't like the way they show turning the ribs around. You don't need to do that if you put the coals on either side of the drip pan (which is not even used in the video). The beer-can chicken video is absolutely disgusting and the chicken looks horrible at the end. Totally unappetizing IMHO. I tried the beer-can chicken and I used olive oil and a basic rub and I put some of the rub in the can of beer. It came out fantastic and again, no turning the chicken because the heat is on either side so it browns evenly. I would never think to use a hook or a fork to turn steaks as shown in the video. I use tongs for that job. A little olive oil on the steaks and I get perfect grill lines over direct heat.

Rib rolling works great, I do it to fit 3 racks of baby backs on the top rack of the WSM, good idea for the kettle to pack them together too.

I haven't seen the beer can chicken one yet, I'll have to check it out.

I always stack the coals on both sides when I beer can a chicken too, you can fit two nicely on a 22 1/2 kettle and not have to touch the a thing til they are done.

I saw the beer can chicken video, never had it take 2-3 hours to cook a chicken, guess it's cause of the way they set the grill up.

The video that has me scratching my head is the Pulled Pork recipe, it's cooked in a crock pot, how can you consider yourself to be a true BBQ site if your recommended way of doing pulled pork is to roast it in a crock pot?