Rolled Ribs

Shawn - Welcome to the forum! I've not tried this myself but have seen posts before that imply that this is a way to get more ribs in a smoker (don't know if it works or not). Do a search on rolled ribs and I bet you'll come up with something.

On buying a an 08, 09 or 50, most will tell you to buy what you can afford. If you are going to do volume on a regular basis, definitely go with the 50. Me, I have the equivilent of an 08. It's just me and the Mrs. and a party or two during the year. We do just fine. Others will surely chime in and give you their opinion. Either way you go you will have a fine smoker. You'll not be disappointed!!!

Have fun!

I've been happy with my 08. If I decide to have a larger gathering, I'll do up a few pork butts in advance, then for the day of the bbq, use the Cookshack to cook chicken or ribs and re-heat the pulled pork in the oven, or in a crock-pot.

Then again, I've cooked up to 30 pounds of meat in the 08 at once. Probably could fit a little more than that. At 50% loss, that's still 15 pounds to serve. At 8 ounces per person (a LARGE serving), that's 30 people.

If ribs are your thing, and you want to cook quantity, you'll probably want to consider the 50.

Just my 2 cents.

Rolling ribs and skewering them with a bamboo skewer is a technique Paul Kirk teaches to get more ribs in a smoker. So who am I to argue with the Baron? But it's mainly for those who don't have rib racks, which allow you to stack the ribs without them touching.

Cookshack also sells a 5-rack rack holder for the Smokettes so you can lay your ribs flat on five racks.

As for whether to get a 50 or an 008/009, I went through the same dilemma. I settled on the 008 because it's the perfect size 95 percent of the time. And I've cooked for crowds of 100 with it breaking it into two cook sessions.

But yea, I still wish I had a bigger smoker.