Baby Backs on my new 22.5" WBS w/ Q-View

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mortisdraco

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 10, 2010
21
11
Columba, MD
Hey Everyone,

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been lurking around reading the board.  I got a new 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker this weekend and I thought I'd share some pics from the first smoke.  I did 4 racks of baby backs.  I made two racks with a pretty basic rib rub and the other two I tried a cocoa based rub for the first time.  I used a 2-2-1 method for cooking.  During the last hour I added some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce to one of the racks with the basic dry rub, and some Pineapple/Habanero sauce I found at BJ's to one of the cocoa dry rubbed racks.  I left the other two racks dry.

Here are the four racks of ribs rubbed Friday evening and getting ready to go in the fridge for the night.  The two on the left are the basic rib rub and the two on the right are the cocoa based rub.

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Here is my new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker after I put it together Saturday morning.

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Moved it outside and fired the sucker up!

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Ribs are on and ready to let the smoke work it's magic!

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Two hours into the smoke and I'm getting ready to foil them with a little apple juice.

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Four hours into the smoke and they're coming out of the foil to firm up for the last hour.  The rack on the left has Sweet Baby Ray's and the one on the right the pineapple/habanero sauce.  I applied it right when they came out of the foil and then flipped them after 30 minutes and applied it to the other side.  I did the two with sauce on the lower rack so the sauce wouldn't drip on the two racks I was doing dry.

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Here are the two racks I left dry after they came out of the foil at four hours.  The rack in front is the basic rub and the one in back is the cocoa based rub.

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Finished product from left to right.  Basic rub w/ Sweet Baby Ray's Sauce. Cocoa based rub with pineapple/habanero sauce.  Dry rubbed with basic.  Dry rubbed with cocoa based.

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Last, but not least, here is the "money shot."  :-)

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Overall I was very pleased with the WSM!  It lived up to everything I'd heard.  So much easier to manage heat then in my modified Brinkmann I've been using the past few year.  The WSM ran a little hot, which I'd heard would happen the first few smokes, but nothing that messed things up.  I thought the ribs were a little too well done and probably would have been a little better if I'd done 2-1.5-.75 instead of 2-2-1 since the hear was closer to 240 most of the smoke.

The cocoa rub was very interesting and I'm looking forward to playing more with some cocoa based rubs!  The combination of the cocoa based rub and the pineapple/habanero sauce was a huge hit in my house!  I was a little worried it would be too much flavor and get all muddled, but it was really tasty.  I sure am glad I happened to notice the bottle of sauce near the BBQ sauce when I was walking down the isle at BJ's, otherwise I'd never have thought to try it.

see ya,

Brad
 
Great looking ribs! i love when there is a variety to choose from.  I've never seen the cocoa rub but i definitely want to give it a try!

yea the WSM will run hotter the first few smokes.  if you have a free afternoon just load it up with coal and fire it up and let it burn down.  i did this my when i first got mine...let it burn close to 300 for as long as the coal lasted.  only took taht one time and one other cook for it to be "broken in". after that controlling temps is a breeze!  open full to increase heat. close to 1/2 open vents to maintain and slowly climb over time, close to 1/4 (or closed) open to maintain heat.

it's funny i took the same R2D2 shot when i put mine together in my living room.

good luck and keep up the smoking!
 
Brad, mornin'..... congrats on the ribs and your new smoker..... looks scrumptious... I have heard chocolate and chilies are a good combo but haven't tried it yet... I think you have convinced me to give it a go...  Thanks...... Dave
 
Last edited:
Congrats on the new WSM, I see it has black handles now, looks pretty cool. The ribs look great! I use cocoa in one of my rib rubs and in my one of my chili recipes. Took the idea from Mole and it works great. Chocolate and chilis do go great together. My brother has this cayenne hot chocolate that is really good.
 
Big Twig,

I think it's just the lighting in the photo that makes them look black.  I'm pretty sure just the handle to the front door is black and the handles are grey.
 
Congrats on the new WSM, I see it has black handles now, looks pretty cool. The ribs look great! I use cocoa in one of my rib rubs and in my one of my chili recipes. Took the idea from Mole and it works great. Chocolate and chilis do go great together. My brother has this cayenne hot chocolate that is really good.
 
nice looking racks. did you make the cocoa rub? i was just investigating rub recipes and was talking about adding cocoa to a rub mix with my wife just a few days ago. if you made it,  what kind of cocoa? how much did  you mix in?
 
Great lookin pig bones for sure!

 wife does a lot of baking and she uses chocolate and chipotle powder in some of her sweets . Good stuff.
 
Not sure where I got the recipe from, but more then likely snagged it off here.  Whenever I see an interesting rub recipe on one of the forums I copy them into a text file and keep them to try sometime.  I really should put some notations as to where I get them so I can give credit to whomever I got it from.  Here is the recipe I used:

[font=arial, sans-serif]3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]1/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]1/4 cup smoked paprika[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]2 tablespoons kosher salt[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]1 tablespoon dried ancho chile powder[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]1 tablespoon ground cumin[/font]

I just used plain old Hershey's cocoa powder.  I also used ground cayanne since that's all I had on hand at the time.
nice looking racks. did you make the cocoa rub? i was just investigating rub recipes and was talking about adding cocoa to a rub mix with my wife just a few days ago. if you made it,  what kind of cocoa? how much did  you mix in?
 
Big Twig,

I think it's just the lighting in the photo that makes them look black.  I'm pretty sure just the handle to the front door is black and the handles are grey.
 
Oh, that makes sense. I thought jeez the black handles look sweet, I gotta change my handles. Thanks for saving me the time of searching the internet for something that doesn't exist.
 
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