Cooking Spares......question about technique and time


 
C

Chris D

New member
Ok, so I have had about 10 cooks doing spares. St. Louis trim the spares and usually cook 2 racks. I usually rub the ribs with cider vinegar and then mustard, then a nice coating of rub.

I use the minion method to start and gradually bring the temp up to 240-260 vent temp.

The question I have is..I have tried unsucessfully to get ribs as tender as I like...not mushy but will easily tear from the bone.

As a reference point....I sometimes go to Smokey Bones chain restaurant and have their St. Louis style spares. The ribs come out great ...I would even say a tad too soft.

Does anyone know what they do differently? I thought they were a true BBQ style.....no boiling...no foiling?

I usually cook my spares for about 6 hours....can i let them go 8 or more hours without drying them out??
 
Have you tried a 3-2-1 cook or a 4-1-1?

With a 3-2-1 you smoke them for 3 hours, wrap in foil continue cooking 2 more hours, unwrap the foil and cook a further hour. The way this works is that the first 3 hours put some smoke flavor on / in the meat, the 2 hours cooking in foil, helps to tenderize the meat, the last hour helps to firm up the bark and add a little more smoke to the meat.

4-1-1 is effectively the same but with a 4 hour smoke, 1 hour in the foil, and an hour to firm up.

Follow either one of these on your next cook, and see how that does for you, don't forget the times to the final done position, are all subjective, I actually really do a 3-2-3/4 most of the time, as I like the meat to have a little tug to get it off the bone.
 
I just done 3 racks of spares Saturday. I used the 3-2-3/4 time format and it worked great for me. They were tender but not fall-off-the-bone. A toothpick would slide in easily but they were firm enough to hold up on its side to slice apart. Me and the kids eat 2 slabs Saturday and saved the other for Sunday. I had it wrapped in foil and added some apple juice and placed in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes just to warm up, but they continued to cook even more and would not even slice. When you tried to pick one up the bone would slide right out. I had to basically pull the meat like you would a butt or something. It was good but just way to mushy for me.

Randy
 
No clue what Smokey Bones does but you can get what you are looking for. Though I like to foil at the end you do not have to do this. I'd suggest cooking at a higher temp though. I like ~275 grate temp (whether I foil or not) but if you prefer something lower that's fine--try 20-25 degrees hotter than you are currently cooking. Yes, you can cook longer without the ribs drying (to a point) but you can avoid such a lengthy cook if you cook a bit hotter and you'll also lessen the chance of drying out the ribs.

The ribs will be somewhat dry before they hit the spot where good rendering occurs, then will hit 'done' where they will be moist and tender and the meat will pull from the bones with a gentle tug, then will dry out after that point. When the meat has retracted from the bones a bit start checking for tenderness with a probe or pick. It should insert very easily between the bones. Pull, rest 5-7 min, eat.

If the meat doesn't pull from the bones with a gentle tug (tantamount to a probe not inserting easily) the ribs are undercooked though they might have started moistening up again if rendering has started--they just haven't gone long enough. If the meat pulls from the bones with a gently tug but the meat is dry then they have cooked too long. Foiling can get you to the stage you want as well (again, it is not required) but care must be taken with foiling so as not to overdo it. Foiling too long can bring the ribs to the fall-off-the-bone stage; many people like this result but it means overdone to me.
 
Great advice from all posters, I'll just add my 2 pennies.
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Sometimes too, you just have to stay flexible. I did a couple racks last weekend that were getting done way to fast. I was planning on a basic 4-1-1 approach, but at the 4 hour mark, the toothpick was starting to slide in quite easily. Knowing it would be at least two hours befor the rest of dinner would be ready, I took this approach:

Instead of wrapping in foil as I had planned, I piled the 4 half slabs (I was using a rib rack) in a disposable 9x13 pan, rib side down. I then sacrificed about half of the beer I was drinking, and poured it in the bottom. Next was a layer of foil kind of pushed down tightly to the ribs, and another layer of foil tented loosely and crimped to the edge of the pan.

By the time I did all this, I'm sure the ribs had cooled enough that the "cooking" had stopped. Back on the smoker they went at a slightly reduced temperature for the next hour. Since dinner time was now approaching, I took them out of the pan and laid them on the grate (no rib rack) for the last half hour.

Turned out to be some of the best I've made!

Don't know if this helps, but I had fun writing it!
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JimT
 
I've tried foiling ribs during the cook and did not like the way they turned out - way too mushy. What I do now is go through a normal cook, then let the ribs rest in tightly wrapped foil. This resting period in the foil turns out a rib that is moist and tender, but still offers slight resistance.

I personally like them right out of the smoker, but I'm not always cooking for myself and my likes. Either way try using foil in different ways to see what works for you.
 
Thanks for all the help everyone, I am just getting home from work. I think with the responses here I have at least 4-5 new angles to look at.

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I will report back later and hopefully with pics. I love the taste and meatiness of the spares....as well as the price.

I believe after reading the above posts that I may well just leave them on for a while longer. I think I am stuck between having the meat done and having the fat really rendered.....probably also the reason I get worried they are drying out.

Thanks again for the advice, great people on this site!

::long time lurker, first time poster::
 
Don't feel bad. I spent about two years on ribs before I felt I could consistently get 'em where I liked 'em.

They're a thin piece of meat, so the window between tough, done, and dried out is a narrow one.
 
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