# Expandable Rib Rack and Smoker Basket



## tallbm (Mar 7, 2018)

I have been trying to make my V-Shaped roasting/rib rack work for smoking pork ribs but it always fell short.  I was going to give up and then I saw expandable Sous Vide racks and thought wow that would make a great rib smoking rack.  I then looked and found something that was stainless steel, cheaper, and of the same design:
I bought a 2 pack in case I needed to do a ton of ribs... and if the racks didn't work out I would use the racks as pot and pan and lid racks like their title suggests lol

Last Saturday I smoked 3 racks of baby backs at 10 pounds.  I cut the 3 racks in half and stuck them in this exapandable rib rack.  Some finished faster than others so I had to remove them from the smoker separately.  The image below shows when I removed the final 3 that finished at close to the same time.

After just 1 usage, the vertical expandable rib rack worked better than the V-Shaped rack and I imagine better than any fixed shape vertical rib rack out there.
The nice thing about this expandable rib rack is that it can expand/contract to adjust exactly to the size of the largest rack of ribs.  This means that all other racks of ribs will fit in the slots and my guess is they should be comparable in size so there is never too much slop.  Also I had no real problems having baby back ribs stacked up in slots next to one another.  The ribs below have NO Bbq sauce on them and looked that way naturally being vertical smoked.













I need to do some more cooking of ribs with the vertical approach vs horizontal approach.  I think I am seeing that vertical ribs come out darker/blackish colored, less juicy, and not as tasty as horizontal style BUT only more testing will confirm this or not.  I can say that this expandable rack is a much better vertical rib rack option!


Though I'm not 100% sure I will continue to smoke ribs vertical I can undoubtedly say that I WILL be using this copper colored Baskets on almost any smoke I perform.  The following is a set that I just purchased that has the large basket and tray, a much smaller basket and try, and some tongs.  I paid less for this set than I did for the large Basket and tray alone lol.  After buying and using the large basket I fell in love with it and found the set of baskets for less money so I purchased it to have 2 large baskets and 1 small basket should I need to do a ton of chicken wings on multiple smoker racks.  I should have enough baskets to cover the job :)
One important thing to know about the large bask it is that it is PERFECT size to fit in the MES40 on the smoking racks.


I love these Baskets because they fit perfectly in the MES40, have handles, are no-stick coating, and make it super super easy to add and remove meat from the MES with ZERO hassle.

If you notice in the pics above I just set the expandable rib rack in the basket, put the ribs  in, and was able to add and remove the ribs to my MES smoker with easy handling!
I will still put my non-stick grate mats in the basket (the mats are a little big but work) to keep stuff from sticking and make clean up even easier.

The following are all items I plan to put in the racks for easy adding and removal and for some of them not to fall between the bars of the smoker racks:

Chicken Wings
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Meat Loaves
Ribs with the Expandable Rib Rack
Ground Meat Jerky (sliced as well)
Individual Sausage Links
Burgers
Stuffed Jalapeno's cut long ways
Peppers for Chili Powder
etc, etc, etc!
I am in love with these baskets and I will likely be using them on the grill as well to make life easy grilling things like vegetables, shrimp, scallops, etc.

I hope some of you find this info helpful and that some of these accessories help you with tougher items to manage while smoking/grilling!


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## chopsaw (Mar 8, 2018)

Ribs look good . That is a good idea for the rack , expandable . Nice .


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## Rings Я Us (Mar 8, 2018)

Sweet!


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## tallbm (Mar 8, 2018)

chopsaw said:


> Ribs look good . That is a good idea for the rack , expandable . Nice .



Yeah, being able to expand and contract is the key.  This way you have minimal slop possible provided all the ribs are within the same size range.  I don't think ribs come in sets where they are super BIG in one part and then tiny everywhere else.  They should be somewhat proportional so when you adjust to manage the biggest portion that sizing works well for all the rest of the ribs :)

I did pull off some plastic feet from the expandable rack.  That took some needle nose pliers.  I then washed the whole thing in my dishwasher to remove any oils and then it was ready to smoke :)



Rings Я Us said:


> Sweet!



Yeah both accessories are cool.  I'm really a huge fan of the large basket.  One time is all it takes having a hot disposable aluminum pan fold up on you and dropping your meticulously smoked meat on the ground to understand how nice having a basket and tray can be. 
The large basket fits perfectly in my MES40 and I just pull it out and set it on the tray to avoid drips everywhere and I can carry either piece (basket or tray) without worrying about it deforming or completely folding up on me!

Also no sitting there letting the smoke get into my eyes and sinuses as I use tongs to pick up individual items (wings, abt's, chicken breasts, etc.) up off the smoker racks.  Now I just open the the smoker door, remove the probes, and grab the whole rack in one shot to remove the meat!  Super fast, super efficient, and as hassle free as it gets!


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## chopsaw (Mar 8, 2018)

A good place to look for " something that might work " is the kitchen storage isle at big box stores . All kinds of ss trays and things . A pot lid storage rack , napkin holders and such can all be re purposed . The napkin holder works good with the Anova . Clip the bag to the holder , set it in the water .


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## petehalsted (Mar 8, 2018)

cool find, be sure to post your results after more vertical testing. Since I have a MES 30 I am interested in anything that can get me more meat smoked at one time, but not if the quality suffers.

I will lookup those baskets and see if the smaller one will fit the MES 30. I have QMATZ from Todd now that are great but not as sturdy as a basket or bradley rack that you can take stuff in and out on.


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## tallbm (Mar 8, 2018)

chopsaw said:


> A good place to look for " something that might work " is the kitchen storage isle at big box stores . All kinds of ss trays and things . A pot lid storage rack , napkin holders and such can all be re purposed . The napkin holder works good with the Anova . Clip the bag to the holder , set it in the water .


Yeah there a number of things that might work, I googled like crazy for ideas and possibilities.  The expandable rack was the best think I came across for what I was looking to do :)



petehalsted said:


> cool find, be sure to post your results after more vertical testing. Since I have a MES 30 I am interested in anything that can get me more meat smoked at one time, but not if the quality suffers.
> 
> I will lookup those baskets and see if the smaller one will fit the MES 30. I have QMATZ from Todd now that are great but not as sturdy as a basket or bradley rack that you can take stuff in and out on.


I will do more testing with the expandable rack and post what I find.
There are a number of baskets and tray sizes. I have the largest and with the 2 pack set probably the smallest rack as well.  I had to hunt hard to find the large one and lucked out that it was a perfect fit.

What size are the MES30 racks? 
I imagine that you/we can find one that is a close fit with a little searching :)
I also plan to use my mats with the basket though they are a little big.  One side of the mat will just stick up some but since they are super flexible thats ok :)


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## petehalsted (Mar 8, 2018)

tallbm said:


> What size are the MES30 racks?



Based on the QMatz that Todd sells:

11.5" x 13.5" fits 30" MES
11.5" x 18.5" fits 40" MES 

The smaller basket size (according to amazon) of your set is 

Basket Size 8.7" X 11.9" Tray Size 9.6" X 12.8"
So it would work but be just a tad smaller than preferred. I added to my save for later list.


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## tallbm (Mar 8, 2018)

petehalsted said:


> Based on the QMatz that Todd sells:
> 
> 11.5" x 13.5" fits 30" MES
> 11.5" x 18.5" fits 40" MES
> ...



This basket is 13x11x4 so it should fit perfectly for an MES30 :)

You might be able to look around for this exact brand an dmodel to find it less expensive somewhere :)


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## petehalsted (Mar 9, 2018)

tallbm said:


> This basket is 13x11x4 so it should fit perfectly for an MES30 :)



Thanks, and it has the added bonus of being the brand Batman uses LOL


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## tallbm (Mar 9, 2018)

petehalsted said:


> Thanks, and it has the added bonus of being the brand Batman uses LOL



Hahaha I thought I saw a few of them hanging from his tool belt :P


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