The first thing I ever smoked on my Weber Kettle (and on any grill/smoker for that matter) was beef ribs. That was three years and a LOT of meat ago. I posted about beef ribs here but wanted to do an updated post showing how I smoke beef ribs on my Weber Kettle.
This post is going to focus specifically on how do make beef ribs on a Weber Kettle but you can definitely apply a lot of it to your pellet cooker, electric smoker, or whatever you have.
Disclosure: This post is monetized with affiliate links. If you buy something through them I earn a commission which helps support this site and lets me buy more meat so I can write about it.
BTW, if you don’t want to read 2300 words on how to cook beef ribs on a Weber Kettle let me boil it down:
- Buy and prep your meat
- Cook your meat
- Eat your meat
Each of these steps can go dozens of different ways. Some of them are wrong, most are just different from what I do, and some of them will be better. Since I haven’t found “better” yet you just get to read what I do and how I do it. Want more details?
First off, let’s start with the ribs themselves. Above is a picture of the ribs that are currently cooking as I type this. I will be adding to this post throughout the day and tonight after they are done cooking. So kind of a live blog and kind of a random mind dump as issues come up during the cook.
Anyway, most beef ribs are either 3 bone Plate Ribs (from bones 6, 7, and 8) or 4 bone Chuck Ribs (from bones 2, 3, 4, and 5). I prefer plate ribs since they are a bit larger and have a bit more meat but if all you can get is chuck ribs that is fine too. These “dino ribs” above are from Porter Road and are 6 bones! I have never seen these cut like this. They weigh 9.36 pounds which is close to the size of two normal racks. They are only available for a limited time (and might already be sold out) but you can put your name on a waiting list and be notified when they are back in stock. And if you use code MEATLOVER you can save $15 on orders over $100 if you are a first time customer.
Snake River Farms also sells racks of American Wagyu plate ribs (3 bone) that weigh in around 7 pounds for $125. I have never cooked that particular cut from Snake River but I can only imagine it would be transcendent.
Since beef ribs like this have a lot of fat and connective tissue they can handle a bit more heat than some other cuts. My plan for these ribs was to cook them at 275 degrees for 8 hours. We all know plans like these can go many different directions but I always like starting with a plan.
I am cooking these ribs on my Weber 26 inch kettle with the Slow N Sear. At some point I will upgrade to the Slow N Sear XL which is designed for the 26 inch kettle but for now the 22 inch version works just fine. I lit about a dozen Weber Charcoal briquettes, put them on one side of the SNS, then filled the rest with unlit charcoal. This should get me 8 hours but I can always add another handful or two of briquettes at the end if I need to.
For beef I like to use oak wood. Oak smoke gives a great flavor to the beef and is a bit stronger than woods like apple or pecan. I put a couple chunks of oak (just a bag of wood chunks from Home Depot) below the coals and 3 more on top. That will provide plenty of smoke for 2-3 hours which is about all the meat will take.
I like to season my beef ribs like I do brisket so that means salt and pepper. I like to rub a bit of Frank’s Red Hot on the ribs to get the seasoning to stick but you can use mustard or even just water for that if you need to. The salt went on the night before and I dry brined them in the fridge overnight. This morning before I put them on the grill I slathered them in the hot sauce and then on went the pepper. All in all it was probably 1/3 cup of coarse ground pepper but since I didn’t really measure it that is a guess.
Before I put the ribs on the cooker I filled the water trough in the SNS with hot water and put a bit of water in some disposable aluminum pans underneath the meat. The pans are mostly just to catch any drippings but the extra steam also helps keep the meat moist.
Once the kettle got up to about 225 degrees or so I put the ribs on. All the temperatures are monitored with my Thermoworks Smoke thermometer. I love this thermometer because it is accurate, precise, easy to use, durable, and with the remote unit I can be down in my office working and still keep track of the meat and grill temperatures. If you plan on smoking anything I couldn’t recommend this thermometer more. In a perfect world I would just be sitting out on the patio by the smoker with a cool beverage in my hand but this is real life. Other things need to get done.
After 2 hours the temp of the ribs was already up to 125 degrees and here is what they looked like:
After 2 or 3 hours cooking I like to start spritzing the meat. Most of the time I just use apple juice. Since I have kids I almost always have some apple juice in the fridge. I have even been known to steal a couple of their juice boxes and dump them in my spray bottle. Feel free to use apple cider vinegar or most any other liquid for this. Or skip it all together. I think spritzing keeps the outside from drying out too much but it will slow down the cook just slightly. I usually spritz every hour or two or whenever I go take a look at the kettle.
You can see they are starting to pull back on the bones and they are taking on some good color. After 5 hours they were at 175. Not sure if the stall is coming later or if I just powered through it. I am guessing I just powered through it. Usually when cooking at 275 as opposed to 225 the stall is either much shorter or non-existent.
What is the stall? When you are smoking a large hunk of meat at somewhere between 140-170 degrees give or take a few you will notice that the temperature of the meat stalls. This happens because of moisture evaporation. The stall can take hours on some pieces of meat and go very quickly on others. I usually just let things ride but if you are stalled there are generally two ways to speed things up: Wrap or increase the temps.
BTW, you will notice I use a lot of ambiguous terms like “usually” or “generally”. This is because every piece of meat cooks different.
Wrapping: If your meat is stalled you can choose to wrap your meat in foil or peach butcher paper. I definitely prefer butcher paper for this as it still allows the meat to breathe a bit. In foil you are basically steaming the meat and I think, especially for brisket and beef ribs, it makes it too much like a pot roast. With paper you still preserve some of the great bark of the meat. Me personally? I don’t wrap most of the time and if I do it is after the stall. I like the bark on my meat and I think you give some of that up if you wrap before the stall. But many times I will just forgo wrapping until the meat is done.
Increase the temps: If you are cooking at 225 and you stall out bump up your temps to 250 or 275. The stall will still happen but boosting the temps will speed it up.
When you do hit the stall don’t panic! Many people will start getting a bit fidgity when the stall hits. Unless you are in a huge time crunch just remain calm, crack open another beer, and ride it out.
At the time of this writing I am 5 1/2 hours in and sitting at 182 degrees. I am still debating on if I want to wrap the ribs or just let them keep going. They are on pace to be done in time so I am in no real hurry so I am leaning against wrapping but I could change my mind.
Let’s talk for a minute about “done in time”… Dinner is at 6 tonight. If I finish the ribs at 6, pull them off, and slice them up that will be doing a disservice to the ribs. I like to let them rest for at least 2 hours before eating. When I rest them I wrap them in butcher paper and then some heavy towels and put them in a cooler. This can keep the meat above serving temperature (140 degrees) for at least 6 hours. So when planning a cook I like to shoot to have the meat off the grill about 3 hours before eating. If things finish early that is fine and if time is getting tight I will still have plenty of buffer. I got this rack started about an hour later than I wanted but will still have plenty of time before it is time to eat.
After 6 hours these ribs are looking amazing:
They are really starting to pull back on the bone, the bark is looking great, and the fat is rendering nicely. So far I am very happy with how this cook is going.
Here is what the Slow N Sear looks like after 6 hours. There is still quite a bit more heat left in these coals but I threw some foil over the ribs to protect them from any ash, knocked down the coals, and added a couple more handfuls. I might have gotten away without doing this but a few extra coals wouldn’t hurt anyone.
It is getting close to the ribs being done. Temperature-wise you want them somewhere in the 195-205 degree range. Again, that will vary with each rack of beef ribs. When you stick a toothpick, skewer, or probe thermometer in you should feel very little resistance in the meat. As you stick your probe down between the bones there is a membrane down there. When the ribs are done you should be able to go through it with only a slight bit or resistance. I checked these just for fun and they need a bit more.
After another hour and a half (7 1/2 hours total) these ribs were done. They were at right about 198 degrees and the probe went through them very easily. I checked a few different spots on the rack to make sure and everything felt super tender.
I love the way these looked at the end of this cook. The bark was nice and black, the ribs had pulled way back on the bone, and the fat was rendered nicely. The next 2 1/2 hours until dinner was going to be a LONG wait.
The ribs came off the cooker, I wrapped them in peach paper, and then put them in the cooler with some big, heavy towels around them. Pro Tip: Don’t use your wife’s good towels for this. The smell of smoked meat will never come out of them. I have about 6 towels specifically for this purpose that I keep with my cooking gear. Wrapped up like this these could have stayed warm well over 5 or 6 hours.
Now it is time to slice and eat! I use a 12 inch Dexter slicing knife to slice stuff like ribs and brisket. These knives are wicked sharp and are inexpensive enough that you can replace them after a few years if needed. There isn’t much of a trick to slicing. Just cut between each bone and you will be good to go.
All in all I was VERY happy with how this cook went. I was able to keep some steady temperatures the whole time, the ribs finished within 30 minutes of my goal, the bark set nicely, and the meat was super tender and juicy. Does that mean everything went perfectly? Of course not. Here are a few things I learned or would do differently next time:
- Dry brine earlier – I was only able to get about a 9 hour dry brine on these ribs. When I took them out of the fridge in the morning the salt was still sitting on the fat cap and didn’t have a chance to penetrate the meat. If it was just meat it would have been fine but it seems like the salt takes a bit longer to penetrate the fat. Another day or so would have been great. A bit more pepper might have been nice too.
- Trim a bit more fat – These ribs came out of the package looking great with no weird pieces hanging off that needed to be trimmed. I thought the fat cap might have been a bit too thick but decided to roll with it. Looking back I wish I would have shaved it down ever so slightly.
- Large vein of fat – This particular rack of ribs had a fairly large vein of fat running through it. The rib above is pretty much perfect but a couple others further down the rack ended up with a very thick piece of fat in the middle. Not much could have been done about this and every rack will be different but that much fat made some of the ribs a bit tricky to eat.
- Wrap them earlier – Like I mentioned earlier, I tend to not wrap anything. But the last brisket I did I wrapped after the stall (about 180) and it was one of the best briskets I have ever made. I kind of wish I would have done that with these ribs to slightly soften the bark.
If you have never tried beef ribs on your Weber Kettle (or whatever smoker you have) I would highly recommend them. Pick up a rack from Porter Road or Snake River Farms or find them at your local butcher and give them a go.
