Very dry spareribs


 

Ken J

New member
Smoked some spareribs yesterday and unfortunately they were extremely dry. The cook time was 5 hours. I have a SMS that I have drilled 2 3/4" holes on opposite sides of the base. I control the heat by covering/uncovering these holes with metallic discs. Shortly after bringing the temp to 225 and putting the ribs on the grate I was distracted and didn't realize that the temp had spiked to about 450 degrees for a short period of time. I had forgotten to close the side vent holes. I closed them and trying to rectify this, I spritzed with apple juice every 45minutes. After 3hrs the ribs were foiled for 1 and 1/2 hrs. Pulled the ribs removed the foil and put a glaze on and continued the cook.

They were flexible, bent in the middle and the ends of the ribs were visible. The problem was they were very tough and chewy. My question is, if I had had a water pan filled with water, do you think the ribs would have turned out tough?

As a side note, I really like the fact that the 4 extra vent holes lets me really crank up the heat leading to really crispy chicken.
 
Regarding your water pan question, no. I don't think water in the pan would have helped the chewy ribs. I haven't cooked with water in over 10 years in any of my Webers, but especially not in my mini. My personal opinion is that you are trying to get every ounce of heat you can out of the limited amount of charcoal you can load into a mini. The water bowl to me is a heat sink, and it ribs you of precious energy from your coals. But again, that is just my opinion.
Tim
 
Tim K,
Thank you for your reply. Yes your right, I do want as much heat as possible for the chicken cooks. At times I use the Mini as an oven outside when my wife wants to keep the kitchen cool. In the past I have had some pretty good ribs though. Maybe this time the high temp spike was the culprit.

Thanks again,
Ken
 

 

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