Buying and lighting calculator · Pork
How much pork ribs do I buy and when do I light?
Pork ribs are sold as whole racks: St. Louis, flatter and more rectangular, and baby back, curved and more tender, usually weigh between 1 and 1.3 kg each. Almost half of that weight goes in bone and in the water and fat the meat loses as it cooks, so we count about 420 g per person to end up with roughly 200 g of meat on the plate. It is a main-course portion; with starters and sides you can go lower. Time barely depends on weight: it depends on thickness and on how far you want the meat to pull from the bone. In a kamado they work best indirect at about 120 °C, lid closed and no rush; the probe matters more than the clock.
How to ask for it
For 4 people: Ask for St. Louis cut pork ribs (the full rib without the tip) or baby back ribs, 2 kg in total. Keep the membrane on the back: you pull it off at home in ten seconds.
Between bone and cooking loss, ribs leave less than half on the plate: 200 g of clean meat comes from about 420 g bought. 93 °C, and the probe slides in between the bones with almost no resistance.
How we calculate it
We start from a reasonable cooked portion (about 200 g of meat on the plate, 170 g of cleaned fish) and convert it to raw weight using each cut's bone and trim loss. "Hungry" adds 25 %. We round up to what is actually sold: quarter kilos, whole pieces, units.
To the cook time (per kilo or per piece, at each method's temperature) we add the kamado's lighting and stabilising (20-45 min depending on the method, as on the recipe pages), the rest, and a margin for long cooks, which vary from one piece to the next. Times are approximate: your kamado, the wind and the charcoal decide; on big cuts, trust the probe.
Frequently asked questions
How many pork ribs per person?
Count about 420 g of raw rack per person if ribs are the main course. That leaves about 200 g of clean meat, because bone and cooking loss take a little over half. A 1.2 kg rack feeds about three people. With starters and sides you can drop to 300-350 g.
How long do ribs take in a kamado?
Count about four and a half hours indirect at 120 °C, with a range of three to six hours depending on rack thickness and whether you wrap. It does not multiply with the kilos: two racks fit together and take the same time. Pull them when the probe reads 93 °C and slides in without resistance.
St. Louis or baby back?
Baby back is smaller, curved and more tender; St. Louis is flatter and fattier and handles a long cook better. The calculator uses the same portion for both, because the bone difference is small. If you hesitate, St. Louis cooks more evenly and is easier to cut into portions.
Other Pork cuts
- Pork shoulder (pulled pork)
- Pork collar (neck)
- Pork loin (roast)
- Fresh pork belly (skinless)
- Pork knuckle (hock, bone-in and skin-on)
- Suckling pig (half, split and cleaned)
- Ibérico pork presa
Approximate figures. Sources and the portion rule are in "How we calculate it".