Firing up my Sequoia

The effort to clean up and refurbish my Sequoia grill is nearly complete. (I still have to get H/W to mount the towel rings.) Today I do my first cook in it. I had gone to the store with plans to pick up some salmon steaks to grill. I found baby back ribs on sale for $2.99/lb. and since that's the first thing I ever cooked on a Weber kettle, I decided it would be appropriate for the first cook on the Sequoia since it has come into my hands. To go with, I'll grill some spuds and broccoli and squash. To avoid the conflicts between grilling and smoking, those will be done on my 18" kettle.

Weather is pleasant at 73°F with wind light at about 10 mph. The sky is clear of clouds resulting in bright sun.

I peeled the membrane off the back side of the ribs and rubbed one rach with Slap Yo' Daddy rub and for the other I used some rub left over from a previous cook.

Ribs will be done in the Sequoia using a wire basket to hold the coals and a drip pan under the ribs. I'm going to use Coshell (coconut shell) charcoal for this because it seems to burn slowly and with less heat - ideal for ribs. To the briquettes I've added some oak, pecan and apple chunks for smoke. Shortly after closing the cooker I went to a single bottom vent wide open and I'll monitor cooker temperature through the lid vent using the Weber thermometer.

time	temp	comment
2:35		Fire in the hole! Lit coals are put with the smoking wood in the basket in the grill.
2:50	320°	Meat on!
3:11	320°	Seems to be holding steady at 320° with a single vent open.
3:35	340°	Closed single bottom vent to half. I'd prefer temps about 300°
4:00	290°	That's better. Ribs look good!
4:45		Added more smokin wood and stirred the (mostly burned up) coals.
5:00	250°	Ribs looking good but not starting to pull back on the bones. Opened the one bottom vent full and stirred the ash that had fallen on it. Need to bump things up a bit. I'd be happy to be resting the ribs now. Starting lump for the veggies.
5:20	275°	Opened another bottom vent.
5:30	300°	Let's get this show on the road! (SWMBO will be home any minute and the ribs are not done.)
5:54	340°	(Not peeking...)
6:20	300°	Threw some lump on for a faster finish. I'm getting hungry!
6:40		Meat off! One slab closest to the coals was done and the other finished in the oven.

5:30 - I want them done!

Results: The ones with my rub were a little over seasoned. The rub was good for a butt but I applied too much on ribs. I was also disappointed not to have the ribs finish on time and on the grill. But dinner was good anyway. Did some veggies on another kettle

And had enough coals left to make some peach pies. :D

What to do differently next time: Start earlier. Add briquettes more frequently. (The Coshell briquettes seem not to last longer than other briquettes.) Go easy on my rub.