Cooking ribs for Fam Sunday, need help!

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Hello!

This is my second cook on the WSM. First was 3 racks of BB cooked via BRITU. Went well! Except for the folks that equate 'super tender' ribs with 'perfect ribs'. Since I'm cooking for lots of those same folks, I'm going to introduce foiling for an hour. Can anybody let me know if they see any pitfalls in my basic procedure below? Please, all pitmasters chime in!

> Rubbed, de-membraned ribs tonite, they will be cooking tomorrow (Sunday)

> Gonna use the Minion method

> Cooking 9 BB racks, each cut in half and smoked on Char-Broil rib racks. Gonna have to use both grates and stack 2 half racks on top of racked ribs.

> Gonna use 6 2" square pieces of apple wood and 4 2" pieces of pecan.

> After 2.5 hours, I'm going to exchange ribs on top rack with lower rack. Flipping each end over end in the process

> Going to attemp to maintain a 225 degree temp monitored at the top grate. Will have temp readings at the bottom grate and at the top vent as well.

> I don't plan on basting.

> After 4 hours I'm going to pull all ribs and wrap each 1/2 rack in foil and return them to their rib racks. No 'steaming liquids' will be applied. Is this ok? Or should I discard the ribracks at this point and stack them? Do I need a steaming liquid?

> After 1 hour in the foil, I'm going to remove all ribs, baste them with a glaze/BBQ sauce and return them naked into the rib racks for another hour. I'm not going to exchange between grates at this point.

> Check for doneness.

> Pray to the Gods of Que that i pulled this off.

Please, if anybody sees any flaws with this method, please let me know asap /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif I have lots of folks that are counting on great ribs and I need to deliver! And with the techniques and feedback from this forum I know it's possible!

Thanks fellow WSM'ers and Pitmasters,
-Willie
 
Willie,

If these are baby backs you are doing, I'll offer my 2 cents:

10 pieces of wood seems like alot to me...butt..to each their own.

After foiling, you can just stack, if you try to get them back in the racks you'll rip the foil. Stacking them is fine.

You might want to consider a slight spritzing of apple juice or pineapple juice, not alot, just to moisten them.

Adding sauce and returning to racks...this might be tricky; if these are baby backs, after removing from foil they may already be falling off the bone and it will be difficult for you to handle the racks.

If they are BB's, try 3 hours on WSM, 1 hour in foil and 45 minutes sauced. The longer in foil the more tender they will become. shorten your time their if you are not looking for "fall off the bone" and lengthen your initial cook time

Hope this helps and is not too confusing, I didn't get too much sleep.
 
Sounds like a variation on 3-2-1. With 1 hour in foil you might not get ribs as tender as you expect. To me, the time in foil is the trickiest part. You want ribs that are just about to fall apart, not actually falling apart - or else the post foil glazing can be a real chore.

Good luck!
 
i concur and reaffirm two of the suggestions you have recieved here 1) If tenderness is what you are looking for in this cook add a little time in the foil. 2) spritz lightly with apple juice before putting in the foil.


good luck let yus know your results!!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>[qb] 3-2-1 is tried and true..when you foil, spray them with apple juice, and add some brown sugar to them [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Just keep in mind that the times (3-2-1) are for spares, not baby backs.
 
I think it's best to always consider 3-2-1 as a ratio and not in terms of time. As Russ' post notes, six hours, including 2 in foil, for babybacks is way too long. Even with spares, though, it's not carved in stone. The weight of the individual rack, the cooker temp, and even how tightly you seal them in the foil all factor into the equation. I've backed off the 2-hours-in-foil for some time now because I typically run my cooker at 250*-- the short bone ends were coming out of the foil looking like rack of lamb. For me, an hour is plenty.
 
Thanks folks!

The tips helped reformulate my game plan. I'll use less smoke wood, not use use of the rack during the foil phase, use some apple juice during foiling, and slighly increase the foil time to probably 1.5 hours.

They are babybacks.

The only unknown right now is when I should get started on the grill. I'm trying to have things ready between 6:30 - 7:30 with a slight preference towards the 6:30 side. So probably around 12:30 (in 20 minutes - better put fresh batteries in my thermometer and print out some time sheet!)

One of the things about the WSM I'm learning is that so many folks seem to achieve great results with wildy varied total cooking times. I've read some folks saying they never cook their BB less than 7 hours, others say they are done in 4, etc. Probably testimony to the WSM rather than supremacy of one method over another...

What I'm going to try is probably 3 to 3.5 hours at 225 without foil, and 1.5 hours in foil at 225. If the ribs are too tender at that point to glaze and throw back on the grill for half an hour I may just glaze and serve.

Thanks again! I'll post results later today.

-Willie
 
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