Smoking Boston Butts & Ribs Together?

[CUTiger80]

I am planning to smoke a couple of 10 lb butts this weekend for a group.
I have an extra rack of St. Louis style ribs that I got on sale recently and just threw them into the freezer since I didn't want to smoke them at the time.  While I have everything messy and the smoker going, I thought I would try the 3-2-1 method on the ribs.  (I know that most of you prefer the "no-peek" method, but this has produced inconsistent tenderness for me so I am wanting to try the 3-2-1 method to see if there is an improvement.)
Obviously, I would like for everything to be done at about the same time.
The butts will be well into their cook time and the smoke will be long gone when it is time to put in the ribs.  Is there any way to get the smoke going again in the middle of a long butt cook so that the ribs will have some smoke flavor, or should I just forget about the ribs being smoky and just let them cook?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Walt]

I would do one of 2 things;

1.  Put all in together, do not open for 5.5 hrs, then remove ribs & let the butts continue.  I have done this sucessfully. The ribs get smoke this way & opening up once quikly doesnt allow enough moisture or heat out to affect the butt.

Or

2.  Cook ribs seperately. Better time to try the 321 if interested. Im not a fan of the 321 in these smokers.

 

[NDKoze]

I would do one of 2 things;

1.  Put all in together, do not open for 5.5 hrs, then remove ribs & let the butts continue.  I have done this sucessfully. The ribs get smoke this way & opening up once quikly doesnt allow enough moisture or heat out to affect the butt.

Or

2.  Cook ribs seperately. Better time to try the 321 if interested. Im not a fan of the 321 in these smokers.

Totally agree with Walt on this. While option 1 is definitely doable, I would go with option two. Even if it is right after you remove the butt.

 

[SuperDave]

I think you could quickly pull the ribs at 3 hours, wrap them and hold them for the last three hours of the butt cook and reintroduce. 

However, I'd love for you to save the ribs for another day and do half your racks 3,2,1 and half your racks with no peek and do a critique of the results in this smoker. 

 

[CUTiger80]

Thanks for the input guys.
I definitely will not have the time to cook the ribs after the butts are finished.
I could cook them together at the beginning, pull the ribs after 6 hours and then re-heat after the butts are finished, but all of that activity will probably occur in the middle of the night (based on when I need for the butts to be done) when I was hoping to be asleep.
I used the following no-peek method last weekend and the ribs were tough.  They were certainly edible, but not falling-off-the bone tender like I wanted them to be.
Using the Auber, I ran the temp to 150 for 30 minutes and then 5-1/2 hours at 235.
These were decent St. Louis style ribs (Swift Premium, I think) that I caught on sale for $2.99/lb.
I did not measure the IT of the ribs when finished.  They seemed to be relatively tender to the feel, so I took them out.  I'm not sure if I cooked them too long or not long enough.
I had done some Smithfield brand several weeks before using the same method and they were perfect.

 

[NDKoze]

If they were tough, I would say that they weren't cooked long enough.

 

[DivotMaker]

I would do one of 2 things;

1.  Put all in together, do not open for 5.5 hrs, then remove ribs & let the butts continue.  I have done this sucessfully. The ribs get smoke this way & opening up once quikly doesnt allow enough moisture or heat out to affect the butt.

Or

2.  Cook ribs seperately. Better time to try the 321 if interested. Im not a fan of the 321 in these smokers.

+1 on either of these methods.  Like Brian says, foil is the F-word!   Not a fan of 3-2-1, personally, having tried it several times with less-than-stellar results.

 

[CUTiger80]

I think that you guys have convinced me to smoke the butts, eat and enjoy and save the ribs for another day.  Sounds like I need to continue to work on my "no-peek" method to perfect it for my smoker and abandon the idea of trying the 3-2-1 method (although it does sound intriguing).
On a positive note, I have had one out of three rib smokes turn out perfect.
Maybe next time I will push the smoke time up to 6 hours (from the previous 5-1/2 hours) after the 30 minute ramp up to 150 degrees.
Do you guys smoke ribs at 225 deg or 235 deg and have you noticed an overall time difference between smoking a single rack vs. multiple racks?

 

[NDKoze]

I know a lot of the guys have switched over to 235, but for whatever reason I have had better results with 225 for a little longer time (6-7 hours). I need to do some more testing at 235 I guess.

 

[SuperDave]

I think the 10 degree temperature difference can have a very noticeable impact on the time of the cook.  More so than 1 rack vs. 3.

 

[DivotMaker]

Do you guys smoke ribs at 225 deg or 235 deg and have you noticed an overall time difference between smoking a single rack vs. multiple racks?

I always smoke 3 racks at a time, as that's how they come from Sam's, so I can't comment on different amounts.  But, when I switched from 225 to 235, I saw a decrease in cook time (about 1/2 hour), with no difference in moisture or tenderness.  I believe the bark is better on the 235 ribs, though.