BB's on the kettle

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Buckeye02

Smoking Fanatic
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SMF Premier Member
May 26, 2020
323
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Ohio
2nd time smoking ribs on the kettle. Turned out pretty good both times. Went with the snake method. Wanted to get some different opinions on soaking the wood chunks? Are you for it or against it and why? Thanks for looking!
 

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Heck yeah man those ribs look good! I don't have a kettle but don't soak the wood. Causes it to smolder. You actually want it to ignite so it will burn clean
 
Heck yeah man those ribs look good! I don't have a kettle but don't soak the wood. Causes it to smolder. You actually want it to ignite so it will burn clean
Thanks. I finally bought one a few weeks ago. Bought it to have a charcoal grill. My wife and I figured out we like the taste better from charcoal vs gas. But I've seen a bunch of videos so decided to try some indirect cooking with the ribs. Def has a different flavor vs coming off a pellet grill or MES.
 
They sure do look good... did you go nekkid all the way... or did you wrap at some point ?? how to you go about telling when they are done ??

I'm gonna have to disagree with Jake as far as wanting the chunks to ignite... They never will ignite in a kettle with the air choked down to maintain temps... Myself I do not soak my chunks (as do most others) ... I want them to just smolder and put out smoke (as that is all they will do anyways) ...
 
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They sure do look good... did you go nekkid all the way... or did you wrap at some point ?? how to you go about telling when they are done ??

I'm gonna have to disagree with Jake as far as wanting the chunks to ignite... They never will ignite in a kettle with the air choked down to maintain temps... Myself I do not soak my chunks (as do most others) ... I want them to just smolder and put out smoke (as that is all they will do anyways) ...
Thanks. I wrapped them at 165°. And then I normally take them up to around 200° because my wife likes them overcooked where they fall off the bone. But if I make multiple racks ill take hers to fall off the bone and pull mine around 193-195°
 
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I have a kettle and I dont soak my chunks. If I'm just doing a offset cook on it I will place the chunk on the grate above the charcoal so that it will smolder. If Im doing a long cook Iike with the snake method I'll do as you did and place the chunks in with the coal.
Jim
 
They sure do look good... did you go nekkid all the way... or did you wrap at some point ?? how to you go about telling when they are done ??

I'm gonna have to disagree with Jake as far as wanting the chunks to ignite... They never will ignite in a kettle with the air choked down to maintain temps... Myself I do not soak my chunks (as do most others) ... I want them to just smolder and put out smoke (as that is all they will do anyways) ...
Makes sense
 
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Yeah, burning wood is likely to be bad/bitter ... ideally your wood chunks will end up as charcoal, not ashes.
Yea I've only done 2 longer cooks and both times they ended up as charcoal luckily. Any ideas other than the extra space would there be much of a flavor difference between smoking on the kettle and a WSM?
 
No soaking here. I don't want the water steaming out of the wood. Naturally seasoned is also better then kiln dried. Your ribs look really good from my screen.

Point for sure
Chris
 
Yea I've only done 2 longer cooks and both times they ended up as charcoal luckily. Any ideas other than the extra space would there be much of a flavor difference between smoking on the kettle and a WSM?

Basically the WSM is easier to control the temps, longer cooks because you have more charcoal, and additional space. Flavor wise not much different. I use my kettles for shorter cooks like ribs and such. The WSM gets used for briskets and PP although I have done both on the kettle,

Chris
 
Basically the WSM is easier to control the temps, longer cooks because you have more charcoal, and additional space. Flavor wise not much different. I use my kettles for shorter cooks like ribs and such. The WSM gets used for briskets and PP although I have done both on the kettle,

Chris
Thank you. I do smoke some pp periodically but never brisket. Probably be struck down by the BBQ gods but I don't like brisket. Idk if I've just been lucky but for the first 2 cooks of roughly 4.5 hours each the temps were pretty consistent between 230-250 so once I got it there I just let it do its thing. Figure I know my pellet had bugger temp swings than that so I wasn't worried about it
 
I don't soak wood chunks. Just mix a few in with the charcoal snake. You can get lower and more controllable temps with the WSM.
I've really gotten to like my Weber kettle lately, especially for ribs!
Those are some really BIG wood chunks....
 
I don't soak wood chunks. Just mix a few in with the charcoal snake. You can get lower and more controllable temps with the WSM.
I've really gotten to like my Weber kettle lately, especially for ribs!
Those are some really BIG wood chunks....
The first time I smoked on it I split the chunks into smaller pieces and spread them out. But there wasn't enough smoke flavor. And stuff I've read and listened too says after 140 meat doesn't really take on much more smoke. So I left em big this time in hopes of more flavor. It made a difference. Idk if the whole not getting anymore smoke after 140 is true or not just what I've kind of picked up
 
The first time I smoked on it I split the chunks into smaller pieces and spread them out. But there wasn't enough smoke flavor. And stuff I've read and listened too says after 140 meat doesn't really take on much more smoke. So I left em big this time in hopes of more flavor. It made a difference. Idk if the whole not getting anymore smoke after 140 is true or not just what I've kind of picked up
I think that 140 thing might have more to do with sausage smoking...
 
Ribs look good. I’m sure you’ll like the kettle, you can do whatever you want with it. As others have said, I don’t soak wood either I find it pointless. Good luck with the kettle. I use it to smoke all kinds of stuff with the snake method like you used. I find it pretty easy to maintain temps that I want
 
I thought that too, but have seen/heard others say it will take on smoke much longer.
 
Water just slows down the smoke production , the more moisture in the chamber the more the smoke will stick, spritzing can help build smoke flavor when done often
 
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