I've rigged up my own aluminum foil baffle today and just put 2 slabs of spares on. Looking forward to see how well this works out.

Edit---------------------------------

It worked great, as good as I've ever done with spares. I do need to add a reliable thermometer to the mix before I do it again. The KC style spares took 4hrs on the grill and I held them foiled for about another hour before serving. Used RibStars Rib Rub and Blues Hog sauce. No leftovers.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rob K,

quote:

David,

Where did you get the fire bricks? Any particular kind one should look for?

I got the firebricks from a masonry store. If you check your yellow pages for masonry, you should be able to find several places in any small city. Fire bricks come in two standard sizes:

Narrow 9" X 4.5" X 1.25" and
Wide 9" X 4.5" X 2.5"

I use the narrow type. My thought was the wide ones would leave too little space on the indirect side.

quote:

Now if I understand this correctly, these absorb heat and therefore help keep the chamber temperature low and stable, correct? But don't they also radiate heat? Would having your brick on top of the coals on the cooking grate next to the meat tend to cook the meat next to it directly? Do you think foiling the brick on top would help at all, allowing the brick to still absorb heat, but cutting down on the heat that is radiated off of it?

I typically have at least 3-4 inches from my fire bricks to the meat. I think the heat that is radiated from the fire brick is a lot less than the heat that would otherwise radiate from a fire with no barrier. I've tried holding my hand close to the fire brick and close to the fire, and the fire feels a lot hotter.

I'm trying beef ribs for the first time tonight, with the Yum Yum rub from the beef rib instructions over in the Cooking Tips section.

After a few more experiments, I am still using two firebricks but have gone back to using a Weber charcoal basket as well. I have the basket filled with tightly packed lump at one side of the kettle, with a wide firebrick standing on its edge between the basket and the indirect area. Foil covers the rest of the charcoal grill, and a drip pan over the foil. A second firebrick, also on edge, is on the main grill directly above the first firebrick. I found this helped to protect the meat better when I had the grill filled with spare ribs. It also leaves enough room to keep the hinged grill open in case I need to add charcoal or smoke wood.

On previous cooks I had trouble with runaway temperatures as the unlit coals started to catch. I used a water pan to moderate the temperature rise, but in hindsight I think the problem was that I had not preheated the kettle so I put the meat on as soon as the lit coals were ready and still had vents open trying to get the temperature up to 225-250.

This time I took the temperature up to 250 and closed the bottom vents before putting the meat on. It still got a bit too hot (maybe 280) so I'm now running the top vent at 50% as well and it seems to be holding nicely at 250F.

I started with 12 lit Kingsfort briquettes placed on top of the unlit lump, followed by two chunks of apple wood. I think I would have been able to get 6 hours from a single basket of unlit briquettes but will probably have to top up today since I'm using lump.

First impression of beef ribs is great. These are the brontosaurus ribs I remember from watching the Flintstones as a kid. The membrane is more like wallpaper than Saran Wrap. Seven ribs, four pounds. Yeah !!

5:00 PM (approx) - started lit coals
5:30 PM - ribs rubbed and placed on preheated grill
7:00 PM - lid temp still rock solid at 250F
8:00 PM - temp started to drop a bit, opened top vents to 100%
8:30 PM - turned ribs over (now bone side up), basted with bbq sauce/vinegar/rub/crushed chili mix
9:00 PM - added a couple of handfuls of lump; coals were maybe 1/2 gone after gentle stir
9:15 PM - outside temp dropped maybe 20 degrees and wind died, lid temp down to 225

10:15 PM - got hungry and hacked off a couple of ribs. Knew they wouldn't be fully cooked but I was surprised to find nothing but fat. I know there was meat on those bones when I started, maybe the meat dripped of and left the fat behind ? Highest internal temp was about 145F so they definitely need to cook for a while longer. Added about 10 briquettes to keep things going; original lump was almost gone.

10:45 PM - lid temp back up to 250F. I figure I'm looking at a midnight snack.

12:15 AM - 6 hrs 45 minutes total cooking time. Finally found some meat on two of the ribs -- very tender & tasty. If I had any idea how little meat there was I would have used about 1/4 as much rub -- all the meat was right at the surface so too salty from the rub. Oh well. The cook didn't go too badly; I'm starting to get the hang of it. Maybe will stick to pork ribs until I learn about more about picking & choosing cuts of meat.

While it's still Father's Day, I would like to raise a toast to Jim Minion.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Bridgman,

I should have clarified that I also usually use a charcoal basket with this method as well with just one fire brick beside the charcoal basket.

A second variation is to line up two fire bricks on edge and make a briquette pyramid along the outside edge of the charcoal grate from one fire brick to the other. The pyramid is 3 briquettes wide at the bottom and 3 layers high. You add about 3 lit coals at one end and put several wood chunks a couple of inches apart on top of the briquettes. You get an extremely uniform fire as it burns across. It takes about 6 hours to go from one end to the other, and with the vent closed it will hold about 250-275.

Trying the "Ridgeway method" (alternating MM burns between two baskets) with a rack of spareribs in preparation for trying my first brisket on a kettle tonight.

I had more lump than Kingsford briquettes, so I started with a half dozen briquettes on the bottom of each basket then filled each basket with "bottom of the bag" lump. The Kingsford helped to stop the small bits of lump from falling out, and should give me some good coals to start the other basket when the time comes.

The setup looks just like regular indirect grilling -- basket on each side, foil and drip pan in the middle. No firebricks, but a small pan of water over the active basket and a bit of water in the drip pan.

11:30 am - lit 11 Kingsford using the Performer's built-in gas lighter

12:00 pm - placed the lit briquettes on the first basket, added a couple of apple chunks, put lid on to warm up

12:05 pm - temp at 250F, closed bottom vents, half closed top vents, put ribs & trimmed bits on grill

12:20 pm - temp at 250F, hopped in car to go buy a WSM (unrelated, honest)

1:45 pm - returned home, temp just under 300F. Remembered that I need to set top vents at 25% not 50%. D'oh !

2:20 pm - temperature dropping a bit even with vents opened, gently poked coals and decided it was time to light the other basket

2:30 pm - removed small water pan to make room, shifted ribs closer to first basket. Picked up ~8 lit coals from first basket and placed in metal can (don't want ashes on the ribs) then placed coals on top of the unlit lump in second basket, closed hinged grills and put water pan over second basket. Lower vent open 25%, top vent open 50%.

3:00 pm - temp around 200F. Moved a few more coals over to the second basket.

3:30 pm - temp dropping below 170F, don't think the coals I moved were hot enough to light the second basket of lump. Probably didn't knock enough ash off. Moved a few more coals over from first basket, trying to knock enough ash off to expose the burning part but not put the coals out.

4:00 pm - temp back up to 200F but apparently no interest in going higher. Admitted defeat, and lit a half dozen briquettes in a home-made chimney and dropped them on top of the second basket.

4:15 pm - back up to 250F. Closed lower vent, upper vent at 50%. Lesson learned -- it's probably not worth trying to move coals, just start some fresh briquettes in chimney and drop 'em on top. This also allows second basket to be lit without losing heat from the first basket or having the lid off for too long.

5:00 pm - holding at 250F. Had to open vents a bit. Mopping occasionally with cranberry cocktail 'cause I ran out of apple juice

5:30 pm - holding at 250F with lower vent at 50% and top vent at 100%. Second basket still full of lump bits... er... dust... but nothing is burning. I think all the heat is coming from the half dozen briquettes I lit in the chimney.

6:30 pm - still holding at 250F. The meat had hardly pulled back from the bones at all (maybe 1/8" on one side) but passed the tear test a couple of times so sauced 'em and served 'em. Best ribs yet. The cranberry cocktail might have been a Good Thing, hard to say.

9 pound brisket goes on at midnight. I'm scared.

I figure I'll leave the setup exactly the same, fill both baskets with Kingsford briquettes, and light the second basket with fresh briquettes started in the chimney rather than moving coals. From what I remember you can get almost 5-6 hours per basket with a minion burn of briquettes, so 3 basket-loads (preload both, refill the first basket through the hinged grill while the second basket is burning) should be enough for a 9 pound brisket.

The second basket of lump finally started burning. I'll watch the temps for a couple of hours to see how long I could have gone with 2 baskets of small lump. I think the main benefit of two baskets rather than one big pile is better control of temperatures, ie less chance of a whole lot of unlit catching fire at once.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Bridgman,

JRPfeff, make sure that piece of metal is not galvanized. My neighbor is an environmental engineer and told me not to use any galvanized metal in the cookers.

Brad, there’s a difference with using a kettle and a WSM. For long cooks the kettle does not cut it. For a 4-6 hour rib or chicken cook, the kettle works fine. Even a high temp brisket would work on the kettle.


Our team placed 13th last weekend in the ribs category using a hand me down kettle.

Here’s our method for slow cooking in the kettle.

1. Use a hinged grill.
2. Soak some chips (fruit wood is my favorite).
3. Position one side of charcoal grate where the charcoals go directly over one of the three vents. Shut this vent off entirely by using foil tape. Cover a 2nd vent entirely with foil tape. The third vent should be on the other side of where the coals are. This is the only vent used for air/temp controls.
4. Line one side of the charcoal grate with foil except the side where the coals go.
5. Place a tray of water over the foil which is under the food area.
6. Add a piece of metal such as expanded metal to keep the briquettes in place. Our piece goes from the charcoal grate to the food grate. The problem with the Weber ones is that they are too small.
7. Minion the charcoal. Add a layer of briquettes, add 2-3 pieces of smoke wood (chunks), add another layer of briquettes, add a couple of small wood chunks, and layer more briquettes.
8. Add a few lit briquettes over the top.
9. Allow it to light a few minutes and cover the kettle and shut down the third vent to ½ to ¾ closed allowing it to settle into a low temp range of 220-250 range.
10. When your ready to add meat add the soaked chips at the same time over the lit coals.
11. You should be able to get several (4-6) hours of low temps with this method before having to add coals.

If you get a temp spike, close the third vent down all the way until it gets under control.

The best Weber kettle to use is an older one that has three, three hole vents on the bottom of the kettle like the WSM. I don’t know what year these came out, but if you find one grab it because they are easier to control because you don’t have to use the tape.

John

I used aluminum clothes dryer vent pipe from Menard's (it comes in a flat sheet). I wouldn't have been able to cut galv-steel with my office scissors.

Thanks for caring.

Jim