Finally.. I made some decent spares (pics)

[Richard Jimenez]

I have been working on my spare ribs for a couple of months and have always had something go wrong each time. I just bought a Maverick 732 so it was the 1st time using it. It was nice not to have to run out to the 18" WSM every 15 minutes.

Finally, I got the right amount of smoke and flavor (2 cherry and 1 apple chunk)that satisfied my wife. It didn't have too much of a smoke ring but tasted good. The ends of the ribs were a little overcooked but the middle ribs were nice and tender even though the pics look like the are overcooked. They held on to the bone when taking a bite.

Since there is only me, my wife, and my 11 year old boy I only made 1 rack. I wanted to try 2 different rubs so I put a basic homemade rub on one end and Stubb's spicy rub on the other. As for flavor the entire family agreed that the Stubb's rub was the better tasting.

Its been hard getting a completely honest assessment from my friends and family. Even though I know the ribs were far from good I have never received any criticism. How do you guys get honest opinions?

Next week is going to be my 1st attempt at a pork butt. Lets see how that goes..

Here is my 2nd attempted at cutting it to St Louis style.

Here they are on the WSM

I had to show off my new Maverick showing the temp difference.

The finished product:

 

[Jim Lampe]

Hey Richard, welcome to the forum!
I missed your intro, butt I'll stop by after this....
Your ribs look Fantastic!
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The ends of the ribs were a little overcooked... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Using the 18.5"WSM, that will happen with long racks...
what I did, roll the racks in a circle and skewer them or "tuck" the ends under to avoid hanging to the end of the grate.

As far as making the perfect rack of ribs, practice makes almost perfect. And eeting those trial runs are lotsa fun!

Try different ways of smoking/preparing your ribs... i.e., higher temps/shorter cooks, lower temps/longer cooks, foiling or no foiling... the list is endless.
So, don't give up and keep taking the praise while it's there for the taking!

 

[George Curtis]

sure looks good from here. my first few were so so but now they would not get turned away by anyone. practice makes perfect.

 

[Dave Russell]

For the reason you described, I don't cook whole slabs on the 18.5" wsm unless rolling/skewering. Half slabs cook just fine, and the wsm has a bottom grate for a reason. If I'm gonna put something over the outer heat zone, it'll be the rib tips.

 

[Wolgast]

Welcome! And that is some mighty fine looking ribs.

 

[Russ Sylvester]

When you do that cook again, try putting a piece of aluminum foil on the bottom rack going the same direction that you put the ribs. Make sure the foil ends go all the way to the walls of the cooker. That way your rib ends won't burn up, the foil deflects the heat. Just be sure that there's sufficient room on either side of the foil for heat/smoke flow.

Russ

 

[Bob LeFever]

Good job, Richard. They look great!! And the "burnt ends" look even better.