Ribs on the WSM, just charcoal, no wood added? No water in pan?

[worm304]

Soooooo. I went to Talladega this past weekend for the race. Me being myself I had to share my smoked meats with some folks around us and spark up some conversation about smoking. As I am trying the ribs from the gentleman across the way I decided I really liked the flavor. He was using a very crude tank style smoker with no firebox and just charcoal. He said he doesn't wrap his ribs and just uses charcoal. So I got to thinking that I am going to try this weekend to do some ribs with no wood added to the WSM and no water in the pan. I was also think of maybe taking out the water pan near the end of the smoke to get a little char on them. Has anyone approached it this way? Thanks!!

 

[uncle eddie]

I always do my ribs with no water in the pan and I never wrap mine unless the wife is hungry and wants to eat sooner rather than later.

I doubt you will need to remove the empty pan to get nice bark. I also lightly smoke mine the entire cook using my AMNPS (I use an MES40).

Let us know the results on your WSM - I think, once you have tried it this way, you will never go back. There are many of us who have made this switch...but 3:2:1 ribs are easy to invite company over to eat at a specific time.

 

[worm304]

I always do my ribs with no water in the pan and I never wrap mine unless the wife is hungry and wants to eat sooner rather than later.

I doubt you will need to remove the empty pan to get nice bark. I also lightly smoke mine the entire cook using my AMNPS (I use an MES40).

Let us know the results on your WSM - I think, once you have tried it this way, you will never go back. There are many of us who have made this switch...but 3:2:1 ribs are easy to invite company over to eat at a specific time.

I usually go 4-1 so not wrapped too long and I have only tried no water in the pan once and my guru struggled to hold temps for some reason. I am more intrigued by no wood at all. I am going to go light rub, no water in pan, no wood, and no wrap and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[Smoke23]

I’ve never tried it but have read others trying it. My impression is you will not be disappointed. The drippings directly on the charcoal ads a very good unique flavor.

 

[worm304]

I’ve never tried it but have read others trying it. My impression is you will not be disappointed. The drippings directly on the charcoal ads a very good unique flavor.

I guess I will have to see how it goes with no water pan in at all. I will be doing minion with my guru so we will see how it handles it. If I have to throw the pan in empty I will. Now I can't wait until Saturday!

 

[noboundaries]

I dry smoke all the time in my WSM. The water pan is basically a heat diffuser and drip pan for my smokes.

I have never used my WSM without adding wood to the charcoal, except when using lump that had pieces of incompletely carbonized wood. Mesquite lump is ubiquitous out West. The flavor was VERY subtle and nice.

Early on I took out the water pan and used the WSM a few times like a UDS. The only thing I noticed were hotspots on the cooking grate, but I was inexperienced using the WSM at the time. Will be interesting to see how your ribs turn out.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Tried it? Yes. An entire generation of Baby Boomers, at least in the northern states, grew up on a varity of meat cooked by Dad over charcoal only on a Weber Kettle or other grill. There were no soaked chip or otherwise, no sticks, splits, logs or anything else but Kingsford Blue, a tasty petrolium derivative, to get thing going, and a match. At least at my house, there were no rubs, just salt and pepper on steak, ribs and chicken got a brushing of BBQ Sauce at the end...JJ

 

[bbqbrett]

Tried it? Yes. An entire generation of Baby Boomers, at least in the northern states, grew up on a varity of meat cooked by Dad over charcoal only on a Weber Kettle or other grill. There were no soaked chip or otherwise, no sticks, splits, logs or anything else but Kingsford Blue, a tasty petrolium derivative, to get thing going, and a match. At least at my house, there were no rubs, just salt and pepper on steak, ribs and chicken got a brushing of BBQ Sauce at the end...JJ

Yeah, I know my dad cooked like that a lot when I was growing up. Ribs, chicken, etc. Always came out good. I was sad when he went to a gas grill but he still made good stuff even then. Now he uses a gas grill but also has a Traeger since I helped get him into smoked foods.

 

[worm304]

I dry smoke all the time in my WSM. The water pan is basically a heat diffuser and drip pan for my smokes.

I have never used my WSM without adding wood to the charcoal, except when using lump that had pieces of incompletely carbonized wood. Mesquite lump is ubiquitous out West. The flavor was VERY subtle and nice.

Early on I took out the water pan and used the WSM a few times like a UDS. The only thing I noticed were hotspots on the cooking grate, but I was inexperienced using the WSM at the time. Will be interesting to see how your ribs turn out.

Yeah, I have always used wood as well (because isn't that the point of smoking?)but there was something about that charcoal only flavor I really liked. I have no idea how it will come out (and if it will even be similar to what I ate at the race) but we are laying low this weekend so I figured I would experiment. I am on the fence about no water pan at all. It will be a game time decision.

 

[SmokinAl]

Good luck & be sure to take some photo's!
Al

 

[worm304]

Good luck & be sure to take some photo's!
Al

Absolutely. Thanks!