Four racks of ribs is a lot for the Bradley, so keep your vent fully opened. What type of ribs are you doing?
- When doing 4 Racks, do i need to increase the temp of the cook given the amount of meat in the smoker?
No! I would preheat the smoker as high as you can get it prior to placing the ribs into the cabinet, then reset your cabinet temperature to the temperature you want to cook at.
- Do i need to rotate the racks? And if so how often, and to what positions? Bottom to top and then slide everything down whilst turning them 180 degrees at the same time?
If you are going to move them to the kitchen oven after applying smoke, I wouldn't bother rotating. If you are going to fully cook them in the Bradley, I would rotate (as you described), once after foiling, then again the last hour or so - when the foil is removed.
- I plan to smoke for 3 hours, wrap and then put them in my oven to finish them off. Given i wouldnt have opened the smoke tower for a full 3 hours the ribs on the lower rack are going to be more cooked than the ribs on the rop rack. Is this going to be an issue when i transfer them into the oven?
Maybe a little more cooked, but it shouldn't make that much of a difference, but as I mentioned earlier - the three hour mark would have been the time I would have done the first rotation. I mainly cook spare ribs, and when I cook multiple racks of ribs, they never finish at the same time. Some may have more connective tissue than the other, some may be thicker than others etc. As for foiling, you don't want to foil too long, maybe 2 hours at the most for spare ribs; or one hour for back ribs. Once you get close to the tenderness you like, then cook about an additional hour unfoiled - sauce them at this time if you like. If you like sweet ribs and going to foil, do a search for competition style ribs.
Example: Competition RibsPay attention to the part where he foils. That is liquid margarine (Parkay) he is using. You can substitute pats of butter, or solid margarine. It may sound like a lot, but I use 1/4 cup of brown sugar on both sides of the ribs, if you are using butter - use 2 - 3 tablespoons per side.
- The Bradley struggles to get to about 250F oven temp. I may have to wait hours in order to get in the 250-300 range. It is winter here in Australia so this may be adding to that struggle. Is this normal, and if so are there any tricks i can use to help it get up to temp faster. For example when i open the door to put the meat in after pre-heating it can take 45 mins - 1 hour to get back up to the 225F temp i am smoking at.
Sit the meat at room temperature for an hour or so prior to smoking/cooking. Place a brick that can fit between the water bowl, and side wall. This will help a little for heat recovery, after opening the door and loading the meat. Preheat the Bradley much higher than you plan to cook at, then after loading reset the heat to what you plan to cook at. Load the meat as quickly as possible. With this size load, leave the vent fully open.
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