Dry ribs--help

[Mark B.]

I've become tired of dealing with the water pan so I bought a 14" clay saucer. I prepared some spare ribs with my favorite rub. I had put about half a ring of unlit charcoal in along with about 10 lit Kingsford briquettes. I watched the temp come up to about 200 degrees and closed bottom vents to about 25%. I put the ribs on. The temp. was pretty steady between 230 and 260 at the grate. At about 4 hours I checked the temp of the ribs and they were at about 185 degrees. I took them off and foiled and they set for about 20 minutes. I cut them up and started eating. The smaller ribs at the end seemed dried out. The larger were great and moist. This is my first time with the clay saucer and I'm wondering if the water pan does add moisture to the ribs? Any thoughts or help the for the next time? I'm going to try ribs again, except with water to compare. It seemed I did every thing right, but who knows. I've done ribs before with the water pan and all turned out moist.

 

[KenP]

Cook for two hours, then foil, put back on for two hours, remove foil and cook until done.

Use some sort of baste in the foil.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Tom Chips]

The problem isn't the lack of water, the problem is they were overcooked. Water in the pan doens't mean moisture in the ribs. It only acts as a heat sink.

 

[Bryan S]

Sounds like to me the ends of the ribs where in the hot zone,and yes that will cause them to cook faster and be dry, verses the rest of the ribs that where not in the hot zone. I never cook ribs to X temp. I cook them till they just break in the center when picked up with tongs from the long end,going across the rack/bones.

 

[KenP]

So he could simply put a piece of foil under the ends.

 

[Bryan S]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by KenP:
So he could simply put a piece of foil under the ends. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, same goes with a really long brisket, place some foil under the ends that's hanging out in the hot zone.

 

[Mark B.]

Thanks for the responses. I think next time I'm going to try the ribs with the clay saucer again and turn them a few times throughout the cook to even out the "hot" zones and think about foiling the thin end at a certain point. We'll see how it goes. Even though the thin end of the ribs were dry the other end was great. I don't think any restaurant around here could touch it. Good ribs are the hardest to find IMHO.