*Charcoal* BBQ/Grilling

Ned01

The chan chan man wrote: »

Thanks! They weren’t the short ones. I cooked them in a bunch of 4 (ie, didn’t cut them before cooking).

I have a rack of these that I'm doing next weekend. Did you wrap them? What rub did you use?

bamayang

Looking for advise from more experienced bbq'ers.
Was doing a bbq for family on webber master touch 57cm (8 burgers and hot dogs and few steaks). Filled a charcoal kettle about 3/4 full , lit it for maybe 35 minutes and it was burning red hot, with most of the coals white throughout the kettle. I poured the coals into 2 charcoal basket/trays. But then my wife asked me to hold off putting food on, as oven chips were going to be 30 more minutes. So I left the charcoal burning about 15 minutes (i think with lid off) and then put the food on, but the really good heat had gone out of the coals. I put the lid on to try and help cook the food, but the thermometer on the webber only read a max of 150C, it was a job to get the burgers and hot dogs cooked, really slow cooking.
Am i doing something wrong that I got so little good time out of the coals? Or, if i wanted to slow down the bbq and delay it, should I have put the lid on and closed all vents, or opened them up and get the fire burning? I thought I'd get a good hour out of a full kettle of charcoal (webber charcoal), was more than a little stressfull trying to get everything cooked with 6 people waiting

Treepole

bamayang wrote: »

Looking for advise from more experienced bbq'ers.
Was doing a bbq for family on webber master touch 57cm (8 burgers and hot dogs and few steaks). Filled a charcoal kettle about 3/4 full , lit it for maybe 35 minutes and it was burning red hot, with most of the coals white throughout the kettle. I poured the coals into 2 charcoal basket/trays. But then my wife asked me to hold off putting food on, as oven chips were going to be 30 more minutes. So I left the charcoal burning about 15 minutes (i think with lid off) and then put the food on, but the really good heat had gone out of the coals. I put the lid on to try and help cook the food, but the thermometer on the webber only read a max of 150C, it was a job to get the burgers and hot dogs cooked, really slow cooking.
Am i doing something wrong that I got so little good time out of the coals? Or, if i wanted to slow down the bbq and delay it, should I have put the lid on and closed all vents, or opened them up and get the fire burning? I thought I'd get a good hour out of a full kettle of charcoal (webber charcoal), was more than a little stressfull trying to get everything cooked with 6 people waiting

Can you remember if you had the bottom vents open or not?
I had an issue in the past with charcoal dying in the left hand side basket a few times in succession. I wasn't able to figure out the reason and it's been fine since.

FixitFelix

bamayang wrote: »

Looking for advise from more experienced bbq'ers.
Was doing a bbq for family on webber master touch 57cm (8 burgers and hot dogs and few steaks). Filled a charcoal kettle about 3/4 full , lit it for maybe 35 minutes and it was burning red hot, with most of the coals white throughout the kettle. I poured the coals into 2 charcoal basket/trays. But then my wife asked me to hold off putting food on, as oven chips were going to be 30 more minutes. So I left the charcoal burning about 15 minutes (i think with lid off) and then put the food on, but the really good heat had gone out of the coals. I put the lid on to try and help cook the food, but the thermometer on the webber only read a max of 150C, it was a job to get the burgers and hot dogs cooked, really slow cooking.
Am i doing something wrong that I got so little good time out of the coals? Or, if i wanted to slow down the bbq and delay it, should I have put the lid on and closed all vents, or opened them up and get the fire burning? I thought I'd get a good hour out of a full kettle of charcoal (webber charcoal), was more than a little stressfull trying to get everything cooked with 6 people waiting

Was the charcoal packed tight into trays, if placed on loosely it'll cause them to burn out quicker

bamayang

I think I had the bottom vents quarter open. I presume they need to be somewhat open?

Is it better to not use the trays if just doing direct grill on burgers/steaks?

bamayang

bamayang wrote: »

Looking for advise from more experienced bbq'ers.
Was doing a bbq for family on webber master touch 57cm (8 burgers and hot dogs and few steaks). Filled a charcoal kettle about 3/4 full , lit it for maybe 35 minutes and it was burning red hot, with most of the coals white throughout the kettle. I poured the coals into 2 charcoal basket/trays. But then my wife asked me to hold off putting food on, as oven chips were going to be 30 more minutes. So I left the charcoal burning about 15 minutes (i think with lid off) and then put the food on, but the really good heat had gone out of the coals. I put the lid on to try and help cook the food, but the thermometer on the webber only read a max of 150C, it was a job to get the burgers and hot dogs cooked, really slow cooking.
Am i doing something wrong that I got so little good time out of the coals? Or, if i wanted to slow down the bbq and delay it, should I have put the lid on and closed all vents, or opened them up and get the fire burning? I thought I'd get a good hour out of a full kettle of charcoal (webber charcoal), was more than a little stressfull trying to get everything cooked with 6 people waiting

1. 15 mins is enough to ignite the coals in the starter kettle- otherwise you’re just letting them burn on full heat needlessly - however it’s not a huge amount of coal for a 57cm bbq - did you have extra lump wood in the bbq itself?

2. After 15 mins, place coals in baskets along with other fuel such as lump wood, open bottom vents and top vents and let bbq come to temperature keeping an eye on the gauge

3. As desired temp reached close down the bottom vents a level and regulate using top vents- if you use enough fuel this should keep for hours

I just think you used too little fuel for a 57 cm bbq and you let the little you had burn out in the starter kettle

The chan chan man

bamayang wrote: »

Looking for advise from more experienced bbq'ers.
Was doing a bbq for family on webber master touch 57cm (8 burgers and hot dogs and few steaks). Filled a charcoal kettle about 3/4 full , lit it for maybe 35 minutes and it was burning red hot, with most of the coals white throughout the kettle. I poured the coals into 2 charcoal basket/trays. But then my wife asked me to hold off putting food on, as oven chips were going to be 30 more minutes. So I left the charcoal burning about 15 minutes (i think with lid off) and then put the food on, but the really good heat had gone out of the coals. I put the lid on to try and help cook the food, but the thermometer on the webber only read a max of 150C, it was a job to get the burgers and hot dogs cooked, really slow cooking.
Am i doing something wrong that I got so little good time out of the coals? Or, if i wanted to slow down the bbq and delay it, should I have put the lid on and closed all vents, or opened them up and get the fire burning? I thought I'd get a good hour out of a full kettle of charcoal (webber charcoal), was more than a little stressfull trying to get everything cooked with 6 people waiting

What brand of coal did you use?

bamayang

I have never used any form of lump wood, only ever a kettle of charcoal. I'll try and use a bit of wood next time. The flame/fire would only be at the very bottom of my kettle after 15 minutes, is this good enough to go ahead with? I would have thought the fire would die out if you threw the coals into the bbq at that stage.

Used a bag of webber charcoal, which i always find to be of good standard/consistency.

bamayang

bamayang wrote: »

I have never used any form of lump wood, only ever a kettle of charcoal. I'll try and use a bit of wood next time. The flame/fire would only be at the very bottom of my kettle after 15 minutes, is this good enough to go ahead with? I would have thought the fire would die out if you threw the coals into the bbq at that stage.

Used a bag of webber charcoal, which i always find to be of good standard/consistency.

Keep the lid open once you pour the coals in to ensure the fire takes hold of any unlit charcoal in the BBQ- once everything is burning nicely to a white hot consistency then close the lid adjust down the bottom air vent to a small opening and regulate temperature from the top regulator -

blue note

What are people's opinions on babybacks versus spare ribs? I keep hearing that spare are better, but I generally find them quite fatty. And they take a long time to cook. I did some yesterday and took them off after 6 hours and it was probably too soon. But it was also midnight, so I thought I better get some sleep!

And also - what is a spare rib? Is it simply pork belly with the bone left in?

awec

blue note wrote: »

What are people's opinions on babybacks versus spare ribs? I keep hearing that spare are better, but I generally find them quite fatty. And they take a long time to cook. I did some yesterday and took them off after 6 hours and it was probably too soon. But it was also midnight, so I thought I better get some sleep!

And also - what is a spare rib? Is it simply pork belly with the bone left in?

In my totally non-expert opinion:

They are basically the same big chunk of meat, just cut from different parts of the ribcage.

If you imagine a pig, viewed from the side. You are looking at it's ribcage. The top of the ribcage, near the spine (at the top), that section is the baby back ribs. Then beneath that you have the spare ribs where there is more meat.

To be honest it varies a lot as I think the cuts you get here vary from butcher to butcher.

Spare ribs will have more meat, especially in between the ribs, baby backs will have more meat on top. Spare ribs are not supposed to be like pork belly, they should not be as fatty as that. I am pretty sure spare ribs are what is left after pork belly is removed.

The issue I have with baby backs here in Ireland is they are very small, in my own experience.

6 hours is a long time to cook. That's basically the 3-2-1 method, but that's all designed for the massive pork ribs you get in the US. What temp were you going at?

budgemook

If I knew where to get spare ribs, I'd comment. I have basically given up on them. There is a pork butcher in the honest to goodness market and sometimes he has ribs that you'd almost say are spare ribs but really they are baby back with a lot of meat left on.

Ribs with the belly left on aren't spare ribs, they are belly on ribs.

awec

budgemook wrote: »

If I knew where to get spare ribs, I'd comment. I have basically given up on them. There is a pork butcher in the honest to goodness market and sometimes he has ribs that you'd almost say are spare ribs but really they are baby back with a lot of meat left on.

Ribs with the belly left on aren't spare ribs, they are belly on ribs.

In my own anecdotal experience proper spares are hard to get here. Most places that sell pork ribs only do baby backs. Even butchers may not have them.

I don't really understand why.

blue note

I'm pretty sure he just gave me pork belly. I've nearly finished the spare ribs and haven't come across a rib yet!

And temp was very steady at about 105 for the 6 hours. It was essentially the 321 method I used.

awec

blue note wrote: »

I'm pretty sure he just gave me pork belly. I've nearly finished the spare ribs and haven't come across a rib yet!

And temp was very steady at about 105 for the 6 hours. It was essentially the 321 method I used.

Yea I've noticed that some butchers will do this. I have 4 racks of "ribs" in the freezer, in reality they are pork belly with the bones left in. If there is a big thick chunk of meat on top of the bones then you've got a load of belly there.

Someone posted on here that you can order spare ribs from Higgins Butchers online, you just need to specially request them. They'll even do the St Louis trim for you, which is where the rib tips are removed (the end of the ribs, i.e. the opposite end to where the baby backs come from).

budgemook

There was a post here with a video about cutting your own "American ribs" but I dunno if you'd even get the cut needed for that really.

I remember someone talking about ribs from a butcher in Coolock too but I haven't driven over.

Maybe some of the Asian supermarkets?

thejaguar

budgemook wrote: »

I remember someone talking about ribs from a butcher in Coolock too but I haven't driven over.

I got ribs of some sort from O'Mahony's in Coolock - I couldn't say which they were but from previous descriptions I'd guess baby back. Not a whole lot of meat on them but plenty enough for me as the sole rib eater in the house.

blue note

I usually get baby backs from the same butcher and love them. A full rack is a nice amount of meat. I was just looking for a change.

cubatahavana

awec wrote: »

Yea I've noticed that some butchers will do this. I have 4 racks of "ribs" in the freezer, in reality they are pork belly with the bones left in. If there is a big thick chunk of meat on top of the bones then you've got a load of belly there.

Someone posted on here that you can order spare ribs from Higgins Butchers online, you just need to specially request them. They'll even do the St Louis trim for you, which is where the rib tips are removed (the end of the ribs, i.e. the opposite end to where the baby backs come from).

That was me, but I'm not too sure that they did the correct cut, as I got the tips and were pretty thick (With a bit of belly on top). I am still on the search of a proper St. Louis cut

The Nal

You can cut St Louis st ylr ribs yourself. Just ask the butcher for this

neris

Ive gotten spares and baby backs in O'Mahonys a few times in the past. The pork belly ribs are the kind you get in a Chinese meaty and fatty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5JVFXYVTA

awec

The Nal wrote: »

You can cut St Louis st ylr ribs yourself. Just ask the butcher for this

Yea but the issue is getting that (untrimmed spares) from a butcher. They usually don't have it in my experience.

I wonder what happens to the spares here usually, maybe they're used for something else?

The Nal

awec wrote: »

Yea but the issue is getting that (untrimmed spares) from a butcher. They usually don't have it in my experience.

I wonder what happens to the spares here usually, maybe they're used for something else?

Just find out what day(s) they get the pig in and go in that morning before they break it down

surball

budgemook wrote: »

If I knew where to get spare ribs, I'd comment. I have basically given up on them. There is a pork butcher in the honest to goodness market and sometimes he has ribs that you'd almost say are spare ribs but really they are baby back with a lot of meat left on.

Ribs with the belly left on aren't spare ribs, they are belly on ribs.

I recently bought a rack of spare ribs from the other butcher at that market. He says he has them regularly there. They were very nice.

awec

neris wrote: »

Ive gotten spares and baby backs in O'Mahonys a few times in the past. The pork belly ribs are the kind you get in a Chinese meaty and fatty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5JVFXYVTA

It's mad how huge the ribs are in the US. Even the baby backs in that video are enormous compared to anything you'd get here.

budgemook

surball wrote: »

I recently bought a rack of spare ribs from the other butcher at that market. He says he has them regularly there. They were very nice.

Interesting, I often get (amazing) steak and other beef cuts from Ryan's but never noticed pork ribs. I'll keep an eye out.

About asking the butcher before they cut the pig, in the butchers near me the conversation goes like this:

Me: I am looking for pork ribs
Butcher: I have this baby back ribs here
Me: Well, no, I am after spare ribs, the bigger ones
Butcher: Ah yes, belly on ribs is it?
Me: A pound of sausages please

Cork Boy

awec wrote: »

It's mad how huge the ribs are in the US. Even the baby backs in that video are enormous compared to anything you'd get here.

Not sure I want to know what the yanks are putting into their pigs to get them that big. Not that pigs in the EU have it good or anything but at least they're hormone/steroid free.

The only way you'll get them that big here is finding a special breeder.

The Nal

budgemook wrote: »

Interesting, I often get (amazing) steak and other beef cuts from Ryan's but never noticed pork ribs. I'll keep an eye out.

About asking the butcher before they cut the pig, in the butchers near me the conversation goes like this:

Me: I am looking for pork ribs
Butcher: I have this baby back ribs here
Me: Well, no, I am after spare ribs, the bigger ones
Butcher: Ah yes, belly on ribs is it?
Me: A pound of sausages please

Yep have had that a few times. With cuts of beef too. Amazing really that butchers dont learn, cut and advertise tat they can do these cuts considering they must be asked for them so much.

awec

The Nal wrote: »

Yep have had that a few times. With cuts of beef too. Amazing really that butchers dont learn, cut and advertise tat they can do these cuts considering they must be asked for them so much.

I went into my local butcher and asked for a lamb loin fillet and he looked at me like I'd two heads.

I think a lot of butchers don't know much outside of the standard, popular cuts.

hurleronditch

awec wrote: »

I went into my local butcher and asked for a lamb loin fillet and he looked at me like I'd two heads.

I think a lot of butchers don't know much outside of the standard, popular cuts.

Not everyone behind the counter of a butcher these days is actually a qualified butcher in how we would traditionally expect. I would imagine plenty wear a white coat and know how to scoop 2 pounds of round mince or a few pork chops into a bag, but not much more.