I didn't mean any offense; I was genuinely interested in learning if most of the experienced rib eaters here prefer bite, or no bite. I once made ribs in an Instant Pot--kept them in too long--yet my wife and mother-in-law preferred them that way, lol. I thought I was eating baby food. When I was a kid my mom made spares with sauerkraut pretty much the same way, which to me would be more tolerable than eating them from the bone in that condition.
No offense taken. Thanks for your reply.
So you want tender moist ribs not mushy fall off the bone ones? Cool. It takes practice, and foiling helps at the beginning but once you get the hang of it and cook till tender you'll nail it. Try the bend or toothpick test.
Tim
Yes, thanks for your reply as well!
Today I did the bbq. Ribs Chicken and store bought pre cooked links. The biggest suprise was the links. WAY BETTER on the smoker. Juicy and the casing gets nice and crisp to where it cracks when you bite into it. Wow. I see no need to make links from scratch now. Evergood Hotlinks are so good already, smoking them makes them taste pretty much bbq joint quality. I smoke them a little extra too, they start cracking and dripping juice, and get a little extra crispy on the casing. They were great.
Chicken was great. I just cut in half and smoke half chickens. Then after smoking I might break it up into thigh / leg and breast / wing servings. Thigh and leg were very tender. Breast was about as good as I've ever cooked it. Not sure how to get it super juicy dripping like competition bbq chicken (that looks complicated I've seen a few videos on that) but its good enough for me, and tastes about on par with any bbq chicken I've had.
For the ribs I did the 3-2-1 method. But i did not individually wrap the ribs. I ended up getting some apple juice, so I used apple juice, brown sugar and honey and said, might as well see how it goes. I tried to individually wrap the ribs but the juice ended up leaking out of the first rack package, before I could even get it to the smoker. I don't think my reynolds wrap is heavy duty or large enough, I need restaurant quality aluminum foil. Since I didn't have that, what I did was get a big metal pan and put all the ribs in there, slathered on the honey and sprinkled brown sugar on each. Then poured apple juice in the bottom. This seemed to work, and after 2 hours in there, it definitely added some moisture as the ribs were looking dry after the first 3 hours.
Then I put it on the smoker again for another hour (with a little more hickory, smoker seemed to have ran out). And waited an hour. Did the pull test but they still seemed a little tough so i waited another 20 minutes. They still seemed a little tough in 20 minutes but looked fully done so I took them off. They weren't fall off the bone, but they weren't dry. And they did come fully off the bone so I know I did them right. I was very happy with my ribs and couldn't stop eating them. I will now start doing the 3-2-1 method from now on. Definitely the best ribs I've ever made, but could have been a little better. I'm still learning.
I had some problems with the heat, when I first put the meat on I was running the smoker too hot for about 45 minutes. I couldn't get it down to 225 no matter what I did. Then when I finally did, I was able to stay at 225 for an hr before it just went to 250 and wouldn't let me go lower. So i settled for that but I would have preferred 225 the whole way. Then when I took the ribs off to wrap them and put the chicken back on, and the links on, I couldnt get it up past 200 without opening the door. So I would have to open the door, wait til it gets to temp. Close the door, wait til it starts going down, then open back up. Wasn't perfect but it worked. Next time I'll work on controlling my heat better I think If i would have stayed at 225 constant it would have been almost perfect ribs. I used a FULL bed of charcol which is why it was probably so hot to begin with, but it burned out fast which is why it was hard to keep temps up after a while. I also had a FULL water pan. I used about 7 chunks of hickory to start. 5 Regular size and 2 small ones. Then Added 2 more when I unwrapped the ribs. Smoke was perfect on this cook though.
this is a picture of the chicken at 3 hrs in, and just adding the hotlinks right then. Also ribs can be pictured wrapped up on bottom rack
These were how my ribs came out (no sauce applied) pretty good. It got dark or I would have cut into them and given a picture of the inside.
just for fun heres some chicken and veggies i grilled the other day on my weber go anywhere grill. I actually grilled veggies like this today to go with my smoked dinner