Two racks for Sister Sarah.

No, not really. No Sister Sarah involved. We have no more ribs left in the freezer and we're doing stuff around the house so I broke two racks of spares out of the freezer to smoke today. I'll be giving them a try using the hanging method. I did back loin ribs this way before. One will be using my previous rub and one using Harry Soo's Slap Yo' Daddy rub. Both got a little oil as well.

At about 10:30 when I'm firing up the cooker, it is a gorgeous 72°F with some clouds and wind light at 10 mph.

I had some rub left from this cook and used that on one rack. On the other one I'm trying Harry Soo's Slap Yo' Daddy rub. (Note: Commercial link) As noted, I am hanging these and this time I've added some support string to prevent the phenomena of the rack falling apart and falling into the fire. <roll eyes> I also squirted some oil on both racks because I think that helps to keep them moist. I started to remove the membrane and then decided to leave it on to help support the ribs. And it was not coming off very easy.

This is going on the 18.5 WSM with the hanging supports in place. I'm using a charcoal ring mostly full of Royal Oak briquettes with some hickory, black walnut, maple (box elder), and some apple for smoking wood. I had a few small pieces of cherry left over from a previous cook and threw them in as well. I lit the fire with a mini-chimney full of briquettes. It's perfect size for lighting enough charcoal for a Minion method fire. After the fire was starting to spread I closed up the cooker and left two vents about half way open.

time	temp	comment
10:50 AM	°	Meat on!
11:00	221°/220° (remote/lid)
11:35	250°/240°
12:30 PM	286°/285°
1:21	279°/?°	It is surprising how consistent the two temperature measurements are.
1:30	268°/263°	Temps are running surprisingly steady with no adjustment on the bottom vents. I just opened the cooker for a bend test. Meat is not pulling back on the bones too much and the racks don;t bend much. More time!
2:25	268°/260°	Done (by bend test) - meat off!

(remote/lid) => (ET-732 cooker probe stuck in the grommet near the top grate supports/lid thermometer.)

Here they are at two hours.

And done.

They were good but not great. The end towards the fire was sort of like jerky. They seemed like they were a little overdone and didn't have as much meat as I have come to expect with spares. Both rubs tasted good, the chief difference is that my rub had a little heat to it. Could be a little oversmoked as well.

What to do differently next time? Little less smoke, little shorter cook? Maybe do spares on the racks but w/out the water pan.