Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We've done ribs and such a few times now on the Weber using the Smokenator 1000 insert. I have mixed feelings about it. On the plus side is it generally does exactly what it claims, which is keep your meat from direct heat. It allows more of the food grill's area to be used for smoking.

Traditionally for smoking on the Weber, a three zone charcoal fire is built, two hot zones on either side of the BBQ grill and the center holding a pan full of water to catch drips and help stabilize temperature. This works great but the two fires end up limiting what is being smoked to a relatively narrow strip of the food grill down the center of the BBQ.

The Smokenator, when functioning correctly, takes up only one side of the grill. My problem was it would not get up to the necessary temperatures for cooking the ribs. I think this is due to the quality of the charcoal available in the Philippines, not the unit's design. We were stuck at 185F with the Smokenator's charcoal area full of charcoal. We resorted to a small secondary fire on the lower charcoal grill, built on the opposite side. The temperatures quickly hit our 220F to 250F area without a problem.

We have been using coconut shells to smoke with. They are cut up pretty small to fit through the Smokenator's feed holes. That caused them to go very quickly. Lots of smoke but not lasting very long. So much smoke I was afraid we might end up over-smoking the ribs and giving them a bitter taste, but that did not happen. The ribs came out moist once we started watching the food instead of the clock. I use a 3-2-1 method that is 3 hours of grilling (but adjusting time based on when the meat starts to pull back from the bone), then 2 hours spritzed or brushed with apple juice, wrapped in aluminum foil, and finally 1 hour or so giving the ribs a glaze on the meat side. If a toothpick slide through the meat easily without resistance, they are done. Ours were moist and tasty. Nice flavor, and pretty easy to do.

So in the USA, I think it would work great with good quality charcoal. I would invest in the second food grill, a smaller diameter accessory sold by the makers of the Smokenator that gives you a second level to smoke meat on. I am fabricating one from an older, defunct local charcoal kettle grill we used previously.

But if smoking a single large rack of ribs is what you need, the Weber will do it fine without a Smokenator. And a second level food grill might be all you really need if you want to do 2 racks, cutting 1 up to fit the smaller secondary grill.