Hey all. So, I manage a small grocery store, and we have an abundance of spare ribs that we're trying to sell. So I decided to grill 3 racks of them and hand them out to customers. The problem is that I haven't cooked ribs in years.

I'll be cooking them on a Weber kettle. I have lump charcoal, a charcoal chimney, some dry rub, and we have bbq sauce in the store. I know about peeling off the membrane, and I know I should wrap them at some point.

Should I marinate them? If so, for how long? Should I go in the 300 range for 3 hours, or should I fully commit to the 3-2-1 method and make it an all day thing? Or something else? I will be working, so I will probably get pulled away intermittently.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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Posted by tigerfoot

Alexandria

Member since Sep 2006

60502 posts

Posted on 8/28/25 at 10:42 am to WaltTeevens

You will get plenty of good advice, but have you thought about contacting a vendor in the area that sells BGE or some cool pellet grills, you could get them the meat the day before and they could show up and demo the pits out front. Advertise the meat special in their tent? Just a thought. I know our local ACE sets up outside their own store and does this kinda stuff about every quarter.

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Posted by Grillades

Member since Nov 2009

621 posts

Posted on 8/28/25 at 11:14 am to WaltTeevens

EDIT: I screwed up the links on the original post. Things should be fixed now.

Because these cook quicker than a whole rack on a smoker and have a greater margin for error, you might try what folks call party ribs. It should work well with either spare ribs or baby backs. I have done them this way a time or two with baby backs and they come out great. They aren't as good as slow smoked ribs on a stick burner but 99% of folks will love them.

Party Ribs On the Weber Kettle

If you want to cook the entire rack of spare ribs, this is a good tutorial.

Chud's Spare Ribs on a Weber Kettle

This post was edited on 8/28/25 at 11:38 am

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Posted by jmon

Loisiana

Member since Oct 2010

9739 posts

Posted on 8/28/25 at 1:05 pm to WaltTeevens

Do you want ribs with a tug or fall off the bone.

Easy method:
Season the night before and wrap in plastic wrap.
Take them out of fridge to get the chill off for 30 minutes prior to cook.
Set Weber up for indirect cooking around 275°.
Cook and or smoke for 1 hour.
Take ribs off grill and double wrap in foil.
Place back on Weber and cook for another 2 hours, checking for desired doneness.
Take ribs off, unwrap exposing ribs and sauce them.
Open all vents and get grill as hot as it will go.
Put ribs back on until sauce sets, gets sticky.

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Posted by AlxTgr