Hello this is Wiley from Learn to BBQ. This video is cooking baby back
ribs on a weber kettle 22 using Thermo Works billows and the total cook time
will be three hours. Here's the Weber Kettle with the Billows temperature
control fan. We also have two weber baskets full of Kingsford blue
briquettes. I am also using the Grill Trade tumbleweed firestarters I just
need one starter at each basket and I'll let them burn for about five to ten
minutes it is very important that the cover has a good seal so the billows can
control the oxygen in the kettle you can see I added gasket material to the lid
and it totally eliminated my overshoots using the billows then I put the cooking
grate on the grill with the pit temperature probe and then I put the
cover on
it is very important that the cover is centered and fully sealed now it is time
to turn on the billows and set the pit temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit
now with the billows coming up to temperature it's time to prepare the
ribs
I found these Smithfield baby back ribs on sale as you can see a lot of meat and
not a lot of fat now we need to remove the membrane so find the dullest butter
knife in the kitchen lay the ribs with the bone side facing up starting with
the meaty end of the ribs find the membrane using the knife the more times
you do this the easier it gets but you'll always have a rack that can be
difficult when you find the end of the membrane go get a paper towel and then
grab it
slowly pull the membrane off
when you are done with the first rack do the same process on the second no two
rib racks are alike so all you can do is take your time and relax some people
think it's too much work to remove the membrane but if you bite into a rib and
the hard cook membrane gets stuck in your teeth
you will regret not removing it they're all done and now it's time to add the
rub
so the easy way to add rub is first prep both racks into a large foil pan the rub
that I'm using is Montreal steak seasoning well this is not a steak but
right on the label it says pork and trust me it is great on pork and has no
sugar so if you're on the keto diet you'll be fine now you see why the foil
pan works so well when you are done just rinse the pan and you are all done
we clean up make sure you cover the ribs but don't go crazy
the idea is to enhance the meat not bury it with rub now season the other side
with the membrane gone the rub can now penetrate the deep so I'm sure there is
someone out there the same so where's the binder my experiences the binders
add very little flavor and can mess up the bark really is not needed to cook
ribs grill setup is lower vents are completely closed and upper vents are
open to 1/4 now I'm at 7,000 feet so if you're near sea level you may want to
take down to 1/8 open because I do not want to be flipping ribs over I'm using
the rack that fits perfectly between the Weber baskets
this allows them to be vertical and allows them also to cook evenly on both
sides now it's time to put on the lid and just let them cook you also want to
make sure the upper vents are straight across from the billows like that one
hour later the ribs look great they had that mahogany color and are
consistent from end to end the only issues that can get stuck in the rack
and I do not want to wreck the bark
finally the last one breaks loose and now it's off to foil them
they're not even done and they look fantastic now this is one thing I think
can make your ribs even better when foiling them add pineapple juice
when foiling fold the sides first and then the top and bottom making it into
like a pocket where you can pour the half a cup of pineapple juice
then seal all the foil so none of the moisture can escape
here we foil the second rib but with the pan out of the way so we can see better
so with both racks foiled we put them back on the kettle this time we do
not use the rib rack but instead we use the foil pan the ribs cannot receive any
more smoke for their sealed in foil it is during this phase we are tenderizing
the ribs you have to bend the foil pan or you need to seal the kettle lid so
the billows can maintain the 300 degrees Fahrenheit now we prepare for the final
touch and if you like dry ribs then don't do this
but if you want a little sweet and heat this will do it for you get a small bowl
and a silicon brush get a bottle of Stubbs sweet and heat or any barbecue
sauce that you like pour into bowl and then back to the grill remove ribs from
foil and lay them in the bottom of the pan
now with brush paint the sauce onto the top part of the ribs
I'm not a big saucepan so I put it on lightly but you can do whatever you want
now we place the kettle lid and cook for 30 more minutes 30 minutes later the
ribs are done
I just showed the right way to cook now I'm gonna show you you what really
happened temperatures normally do not lie so here
is the complete history of the cook after grill got up to 300 degrees
Fahrenheit I placed ribs on the grill the billows maintained temperature
between 282 degrees Fahrenheit and 300 degrees Fahrenheit but no the grill
never really overshot after one hour the ribs were removed and foiled with
pineapple juice foil ribs were then returned to the grill
now the truth the grill ran out of charcoal before I forgot to add charcoal
when I was filing the ribs don't make that mistake or it adds 30 minutes to
the cook this should have been a two and a half hour cook and it turned into a
three hour cook after the 30 minute delay we glaze the ribs and 30 minutes
later they were done total cooking time was 2 hours and 55
minutes the good news is the 30 minute delay did not change the outcome these
ribs looked perfect but I cooked them to eat not to look at let's get them on the
cutting board
now move them up so we can see them firsthand
when cutting ribs always flip the ribs over so you could see where the bones
are my first cut looks really good
Second cut even looks better so much better I had to take a bite.
Now here is the perfect tug me just not falling off the bone but with a little
tug it comes off clean second bite just as good as the first one big greasy
thumbs up the ribs are by far the best ribs I've ever done on a weber kettle
when cooking at 300 degrees fahrenheit you need to be able to stay in that
temperature range and the billows made it very easy to stay in the sweet spot
of 282 degrees fahrenheit to 300 degrees Fahrenheit the billows allowed me to
even make mistakes like not add charcoal and then fully recover without incident
well all I can say is Bon Appetit
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