Timeline on 40 Racks

Maybe a few minutes more to preheat the cooker?

Let the slabs come to room temp before loading.

Be sure cook temp is actual and time should be close.

You can always start an hour earlier,finish and use the cooker as a warmer/holding oven?

Sounds like you have time to slice and plate to serve.

watch so none of the ribs touch the temp probe in the smoker, I did 45 racks of st louis ribs and if I remember it took about 6 hours, but it was about 20 degrees here

Your biggest issue will be saucing and opening the door too much.

Take a rack out, sauce it outside and put back in.

If you START them cooking (not start prepping) at 500 it will be close.

I'm with Tom. If you've never done 40, give yourself time to have them done early. Wrap and hold in a chest and they'll still be too hot to hold 2 hours later even.

well if you guys haven't convinced me, my wife has. She insists I give them time to rest before eating. So, Looks like I'll be going in a lot earlier, probally by a couple of hours. You're right, I'd rather be earlier than to cut it close! Now if my rib racks would get here. I ordered them yesterday and he said they'd ship the same day, but no email confirmation yet from the charcoal store.

Ok, change number six. Serving time is now 1230 and I am cooking them at home and will bring them in with coolers to keep warm. So I'd like to add some low temp smoke on the front end. My question is how long can I go at 160 lets say to add some more smoke flavor before boosting up to 275? I've done an hour before on SLs with no ill effect. Would two hours at low temp be ok, or will it harden the crust and dry out the ribs? Also, when I dump 40 3-pound racks of ribs in the smoker, the temp will drop and the firepot will compensate, even to make it to 160, which will not provide much smoke. Anyone have suggestions for the modified timeline. I guess it won't be that much different because I probally have to leave here by 11 to get there and set up in time, just the frontend low temp smoke.

We never seem to have a hardining problem cooking large volumes.You will be holding in foil which should keep them tender.Seems to me you might be overthinking the whole process.

Cooked right will be far more important than smoke.

Over about four decades,I've learned to cook them correctly to start with,hold them the best we can,and they are always the best they will eat.

Heat the cooker early,cook the slabs to finish early,hold them until serving time.Cut them correctly.

Worse case,with an FEC,they will be the best they ever ate.

I never met a caterer/vendor that worried about having product done ahead of schedule.

Just my $0.02

Well Said Tom! specialy the 'overthinking' comment! Earlier is better!

Bill,

You've never done 40 and you're complicating it. Really.

Can't give you a timeline if you're doing 40 ribs, part smoke then finish. Two stage cooking, figuring out the time, taskes practice, something you don't have time for.

Don't worry about more smoke. You're going to smoke/cook/sauce them.

I'm with Tom. Cooking 40 ribs right is the goal.

Get them done early, wrap, put in a cooler and they'll stay plenty warm.

Cook them right, they'll be the best 40 ribs they've ever seen.

Great advice guys, thanks!

Ok, finished the 40 Racks! I'll post some pics, but just let me say that the FEC is a real champ. The best I can figure, I cooked 120 pounds of ribs at one time!. I weighted the Racks of SL spares and the majority of them were 3LBS, a couple just over four, a couple at two and some in between. Preheated and began prepping at 2am and loaded at three. I didn’t open the door again till 630 when I rotated top to bottom and bottom to top and spun all four racks. Sauced one rack at a time around 900 and pulled them all at 10 and coolered. I sliced them at 12 and served about 1245. Smokin is right, best ribs anyone had ever had! We had actually rubbed them with mustard and cookshack rib rub the afternoon before and let them set in the fridge. We really applied the rub thick (like pork-butt thick). At first I was afraid I’d ruined them, but they were the best ever. The sauce soaked in the rub, (which had already ‘barked’) and they were wonderful.
I loaded the largest racks to the left slots with the heaviest in the top and bottom racks.
Some observations, I preheated to 325 and put the ribs in. The temp fell to 90 and began to climb. I set the smoker to my Rib Temp, which is 275. It climbed, but never raised above 220 the entire smoke. I did leave the slot adjacent to the probe empty so I would not interfere with the probe. I also had a maverick positioned adjacent to the probe to and it was not far off on temp.

I had a couple of racks that were a little overdone and a couple that were a little underdone. I think next time, I'll rotate top to second and third to bottom to kind of give the middle dwellers some top and bottom hot time. But some racks were larger than others; it's just something I have to deal with. If I'd had more time (or more sense) I would have pulled the ‘dunest’ ones and let the larger ones cook longer. It was only a rack or two that 'might' have been a little underdone, so I foiled them and buried them in the bottom of the cooler and served them last and the massive carryover from all the ribs, had actually cooked them enough where they were eatable.
Every rib was pink all the way thru from the smoke. A couple had some ‘grey’ around the center.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. See pic attached.

Heres my planning timeline with actual annotated

Nice job chaplain. Good report.

quote:

Originally posted by Chaplain Bill:
... Smokin is right, best ribs anyone had ever had!

What sounds like you thought I'd be wrong

Congrats. I know you stressed about it. I think we recommended the rack rotation, like you mentioned later. You want everything to cook evenly and rotating the racks helps. Not sure I'd ever coat ribs that heavy and I don't use mustard, but it's hard to argue with success.

I've not normally had any issue with temp other than it taking a while to recover, but if I do, I just bump the requested temp to get it to what I want it to be. If it's holding at 260 and I want 275, I bump the IQ4 temp 15 degrees.

All in all a good success story.

What's your next adventure?

My next adventure is to clean the blessed smoker!

I need to do some more bacon, as folks at work are really wanting some. I unloaded all my jerky and Sausage already. I will probably cure 30 or 40 pounds of pork belly. My challenge here is letting it smoke low (bout 160) for about 6 hours until the temp comes up to 140-145 internal. I'd like to get some 100 percent hickory pellets for this, and have seen a few online, but we'll see. I'll probably do another 10 pounds of jerky this weekend, as all of mine has been sold.

Clean? whoa there pardner....

Just clean the racks, pull up the foil and throw it away, and empty the grease pan. You did line it with foil right?

Don't clean the sides at all, leave the seasoning you've built up.

I know, I know, Don't want to ruin all that good flavorn! Reminds me of a Unit Commander I had in Afghanistan. He never cleaned his coffee pot (or cup). The vessels literally held half their intended volume due to the buildup. While he was on leave, I cleaned them both -- He almost fired me!

And Yes, I foil everything -- I'd even foil my kids if they'd set still long enough!

Just got a couple of pics a buddy took of the ribs at the luncheon. See attached

My only problem with you putting all your stuff in powerpoint is the photos are too small. The photos should show the food and not all the fluff around it.

Love to see food only photos, showing off the end results (hint, hint)

Congrats on the job well done.It is easier for me to tell you not to overthink the cook,because I've been there.

A couple more runs and you'll be advising the next cook with your good tips.