First try at St Louis style pork ribs. Have a question...


 
M

MitchS

New member
I did my first ribs on my WSM 18.5 and they came out pretty good. I gave them a 7/10. Not bad for my first time. As good as they were, I had an issue I was hoping someone could help with.

The ribs taste great and are wicked tender except for the 'crust'. It came out very tough and took some serious chewing to get through. Is that the 'bark'? Is it supposed to be that tough, almost like jerkey but with sauce :)

I'm sure it was something I did.

I smoked them flat on the top rack and bone down for 2 hours at about 250. After the first hour I opened the lid and misted them with apple juice. After the 2nd hour I took them off and double wrapped them with some brown sugar and honey (meat side down). I then put them back on for about 2.5 hrs at 260-265. When they were done I put some sauce on them and let them stay on for another 15-20 minutes to let the sauce set. They then rested about 20 minutes (couldn't wait any longer!).

Maybe I cooked them too long? When I tested the temp, before the sauce, they read about 200.

Any ideas?
 
It doesn't really explain why the surface was dried out but your time wrapped was too long. Check this article on the 3-2-1 method. I like this approach too. I love the drizzle of honey. In fact I bought a bunch of honey at Costco just for this recipe.

Proper level of doneness on ribs is a very personal choice. Some people like them falling off the bone, some like them with more bite to them. 200F is way toward the falling off the bone end of things.

Next time you might want to experiment with taking individual racks off at different points so you can do a direct comparison of various levels of doneness. Wrapped in foil and held in a good cooler the early pulls should stay warm for a fair while. Or you could just start nibbling as they come off.
 
I suspect that when you foiled and put the meat side down the meat was getting the heat coming up and it overcooked the bark. That's a guess. I cook ribs different than most folks because my wife likes fall off the bone ribs and tender bark. I cook for her - 4 hours on the grate at 250 then foil with sauce on the ribs and apple juice in the foil. Another 1.5 hours in the foil and she's happy. The meat is always up and bones down. Just another way of doing them.
 
I really like Jay's "pull and test" idea, a nice long afternoon snacking along on ribs sounds like an ideal way to relax!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top