Ribs: What am I doing wrong?


 
J

James O

New member
Hi everyone!
So I'm having some trouble getting ribs done right. This would be my 5th attempt and out of those 5 I've had half a success so 0.5/5 is not looking good :/
I'll explain everything I do and hopefully someone can show me what I'm doing wrong and impart some wisdom
So I have a 18.5" WSM with a foiled water pan with water in it.
I have a wind barrier and a maverick therm probe at grate level to tell me the temps.
I took my spare ribs and cut them for the most part st. louis cut, took off the back membrane, slathered mustard, wiped off a bit, added dry rub. I cut the full rack into 3 pieces so maybe 3-4 bones per rib.
I did the minion method and got my smoker going in the 225 range. Throughout the cook it probably went from 210-240 but mostly in the 220-235 range.
I spritz with Apple juice/oil mixture every 30-45 mins.
I did the 3-2-1 and foiled the ribs with apple juice. Total cook time was pretty much 6 hours.
I put sauce on at the end only for maybe 30-45 mins.

Ok so here are my problems.
1. It's not fall off the bone.. in fact it's almost still tough. It's fully cooked I'm pretty sure and it tastes ok (maybe a bit too smoky if anything) but it's not really juicy/tender/fall off the bone. I did the bone seperating test but they don't really seperate easily if at all. I took them off for fear of burning and darkening too much which brings me to my next point...
2. It's very dark almost burned even before I put sauce on it.

If anyone has any suggestions on what I can do to improve or if I'm doing something wrong it would be great. It's getting so frustrating not being able to do this properly. I wanted to try to master ribs before I moved on to brisket/burnt ends but at this rate I don't think I'll get there before summer ends :/
HELP!
 
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/rib4.html I would try this or at least read the method. Notice the no peeking for the first three hours! By my calculations you have had your lid off 3 times more than you should and lost heat everytime. I would start by changing that method. The recipe used above is pretty much fool proof. It works for me but I do mine dry rub style.
 
Everything sounds right so the only thing I can think of is that your temp is not as high as you think and you're not getting the ribs done. Usually the 3-2-1 method has ribs falling off the bone and most people have found that two hours in foil is way too long. Most talk about less than an hour in foil. I don't use that method so can't say for sure. But, if you're not getting done after foiling for longer than most, I can only conclude that your temps are not as high as you think. Also, the way you describe the meat is as if they were not done. Frankly, 225 is very low for ribs. I would kick that up to at least 250 and not worry about it going up to 275.
 
As the two other guys said, I don't think you are at the temp that you think you are and you are opening the lid too many times. At the end of the foil time, if they are not close to ready, wrap them back up and put them back on. When I go to unwrap, I test between the bones with a toothpick. If it goes in almost like butter, I know I'm very close. The darkness may be a result of the rub you are using, or maybe even the oil you put in with your spritz liquid. Not sure on that one, but I would take the oil out and just spritz with apple juice. IMO, take the water out of the pan and let the temps come up a little. I usually cook a 2-1.5-.75 @ 270 and they usually come out perfect. I do spritz once after the first hour. Try it again and let us know how it comes out.
 
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Gary S said:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/rib4.html I would try this or at least read the method. Notice the no peeking for the first three hours! By my calculations you have had your lid off 3 times more than you should and lost heat everytime. I would start by changing that method. The recipe used above is pretty much fool proof. It works for me but I do mine dry rub style.
Click to expand...

Gary is right. This is my "go to" for baby backs and I have yet to cook a bad batch. I can't cook so if I can to it, anyone can! Good Luck!
 
I am a pretty new owner as well and have only done ribs a couple times so far, but they turned out really good both times. I think if you get more in the 275 range, they will fall of the bone. I think if you increase the number of lit briquets that you throw on the unlit for the minion method, and open the vents a little more, you pull the temp up a bit.
 
The only thing else I would add to the great advice given is not to cut the racks down to 3 bones. I would cut no smaller than needed to fit. Then keep it simple. Ribs, rub, smoke, sauce at the end if you like and enjoy. Spritzing, mustard, foil is not needed for a good rib. Introduce those items later on when you do them for a specific reason
 
Can't say anything that hasn't been covered but get your cooking temps up for ribs to around 270-275.........
 
Spritzing cools the ribs and slows the cook, think of it as your body sweating to cool itself.
Darkness of the ribs can be either the type and amount of smoke your using or the rub, a rub with lots of sugar will make your racks dark.
As others have suggested increase your temps. I do ribs at 325-350 and they take 3-4 hours with no foil.
If your peekin your not cookin.
 
Ahh I see!
Before I got my wsm I read on soem sites that ribs were done at 210 so I tried that the first tiem and they sucked.
So more recently I see people recommending 225-230 and I tried this and again the results were less then satisfying.
So I'm going to try this again at 270 and hope for the best.
I always thought smoking happened at the 210-250 range but what do I know.. I'm opening my lid every 30 mins lol!
Does anyone know if it's the Apple juice in the spritz that's making it darken so quickly? Should I be using apple cider vinegar instead?
I will also stop cutting the racks and just curl them with some wooden skewers.. I'll skip the mustard and stick to just a simple dry rub
I hope these tips work because buying these ribs and barely eating them is getting expensive lol

Sorry one last edit.
The link you posted on baby back ribs.. would this method change at all if I'm using spare/side ribs?
I heard spares need to be cooked longer?
 
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Concept is the same, but spares do take a little longer to cook than BB. You will not want straight cider vinegar, at least I think you don't :) If you must spritz, start with just apple juice. You rub is what is darkening. What rub are you using? I cooked for years at 225 until I found this site. Now I prefer, 250-275. Nothing wrong with cutting them, I just suggested not to cook that small, but maybe you have to to fit.

Again, you could just salt and pepper them, smoke at 250 til a toothpick goes in them like a stick of butter and they will be great.
 
I'm using a basic kansas city rib rub
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne

applied not liberally and not sparingly but in between
ok I will try to maintain 250 next time and see how it goes

I did have the meat pull back from the bones a little maybe an 1/8th of an inch but the ends getting really hard (seemed on the verge of getting the carbon look/taste) and the dark colour and the un-fall-off-the-bone-ness of it led me to believe it was overcooked so I pulled em. This could be a result of me not properly trimming the ribs as I notice one end of the rack is always thicker and the other end thinner with less/no bones.
I try to make them as square and uniform as possible except for the thickness which I don't really know how to trim. Costco spare ribs :p
 
In your original cooks your ribs didn't cook long enough. Tough and dry is underdone, juicy with a little tug to get meat of the bone is perfect, FOB is border overdone.
 
If you don't like that dark color you could:
1) cut your sugar some and try your 250-275
2)leave your sugar alone and just cook at 250-275 and foil them tightly when they look like you want them to, w/ a nice color Add a little shot of Apple Juice, and pay close attention to the tear test from there. firm when finished on med. heat grill or smoker and apply finishing sauce/glaze/whatever now if you are, or ....
3) if you like the sweet meat (many do of course) do whatever you want w/ sugar in your rub. It will/could be replaced another way if you want to cut it though. What I mean is if you wanted it in smoke longer w/ out getting so dark soon. then cook same as #2, fill your foil w/ brown sugar, honey, or both, and a little apple juice to braize (sp?) in. Watch close the tear test then firm on a med heat grill (and apply sauce/glaze/whatever if you wish). Back in the day I stole that from Dr. BBQ's book.

...I don't always do this, most the time I don't, but I like any ribs, sweet or not, and I used to do this for a go to, and people MUCH preferred it to what I do now, and I don't mean by a little. Either way that foiling/braising (at a minimum) always helped me even things out after a rough learning curve w/ not wanting to foil anything :)... hope that helps w/ your color prefference, and possibly your finished product. Just keep an eye on tear testing esp. while there braising in the foil.
 
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That link was intended to let you see a simpler and retty much foolproof way to do them but also to reinforce the "no lookin". Maybe once you get what you consider to be a successful cook under your belt then you can start to deviate and adopt your own style.
Best of luck.
 
IMO... The temp is the main thing you need to correct. I suggest you go ahead and try cooking at 270. I used to be just like you are. I was afraid I would overcook and the meat would be dry. I always pulled it off the smoker too early. It would be technically "done" but tough. In my experience, brisket or pork needs to be cooked to nearly 200 degrees internal before it gets tender like I want. It will take many hours to get the ribs tender cooking at 225. The bigger the temp differential between your targeted done temp and the cooking temp, the shorter the cooking time. You can greatly shorten your cooking time by using a higher heat. Foiling after 2-3 hours will speed up the cook and also help with the color. With ribs, just cook them until you can tug on two bones and the meat gives freely. Remember too that spares take longer than baby backs.
 
Everyone have given solid advices.

And try just salt/pepper on your ribs,Brush with honey the last 15-20 min and you are golden.
I would cook around 270 as stated,No foil,No spritzing/mopping. And se if you get better resaults. And i bet you will. Then move from there.

Good luck and report back!
 
Hey James, FYI, I had the Brats, Outlaws and Grandbrats here yesterday, smoked 13 racks of BB ribs. I pretty much used the recipe for beginners with my own version of Memphis Dry Rub. Had both smokers going and 16 cobbs of corn on the kettle. I did not have time to get fancy. The ribs were outstanding. For some reason yesterday I had a little problem geting temps in the 270 range so cracked the lid on one and opened the second (modified) lid damper on the other. Five hours and they were perfect. Such a simple recipe to follow and it is dependable.
FYI two months ago I was looking for help with my ribs.
 
James - I may be all alone on this one...but I'm thinking 6 hours on racks cut into smaller 3-4 rib pieces might be too long? One of the things that has really helped me in this learning process - 'cause I'm definately still learning - is to just use time as a general guide and focus on probing meat for proper tenderness. I just did some StL spares this past week - 2 smaller racks, 240-250 WSM temp, and they were done in 4:30 hours (one rack done in 4:45). I foiled for an hour and half during the cook and the racks were pretty thin, but 6 hours would have been way overdone. Keep trying and good luck!

Jim
 
Something else to consider is the 3-2-1 for spares and the 2-2-1 for baby backs is just a guideline and not a hard and fast rule. Also "Fall-off the bone" ribs to many people are over cooked. Especially for comps but my family prefers the fall off the bone ribs so that is how I cook them also. You can achieve "Fall-Off the Bone" ribs at 225 but it will take longer. I have done it multiple times on my OTS. I put mine on and once they have the color/bark I want I foil them. In the foil I add some butter, apple juice and some of the rub I used to rub them before I put them on. I leave them in the foil until they are as tender as I want. I do the bend test but the toothpick test that was mentioned earlier will work as well. I then remove them from the foil and back on the cooking grate with a thin layer of sauce until the sauce sets. Take them off and let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes and enjoy. As far as timing I have no idea how long each step takes because I go by look and feel. It typically takes around 6 hours for spares sometime longer. If I don't have that long I will crank up the heat to 250-275 but I will still follow the same method. I have found I get a better smoke ring at the lower temp because the meat is in the magic zone for a longer period but the ribs are every bit as juicy and tender at the higher temp just not as big a smoke ring.
 
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