Yesterday, I ran an experiment regarding foil additions for ribs.
I smoked 3 racks of st louis spares with my pork rub for 3 hours and then wrapped each rack in its own foil for another 1.5 hrs. One rack was left dry, one was smeared on both sides with rendered pork fat and bacon grease, and one rack was foiled with about 1/4 cup of reduced tamarind and pineapple juices.
I was using an 18" wsm so I had to stack one foiled rack on top of the other two, this happened to be the control (dry foil). I did rotate them after 1 hr (switching bacon with the control, juice stayed put).
observations:
in order of doneness 1)the fruit juice were the most tender (almost FOTB in spots), 2) fat/grease, 3) dry foil
I figured the rack with the liquid would result in the most tender, which it was, but it also make sense that it was the rack that was exposed to the most heat since it was on the bottom of the pyramid the whole time 1.5 hr, fat/grease for 1 hr, and the control 0.5 hr. I did use a rib rack for the 3 hour smoke, but I wanted them to lie flat during the foiling.
There was little noticeable flavor difference between the three. My first bite of the fruit, I could of sworn there was a fruit flavor, but switching rib to rib, I couldn't find it again. I think next try, I may go bone up so the meat will be sitting in a puddle of juice.
The ribs were a nice color prior to foiling, but came out looking drab. Nothing a finishing glaze couldn't correct, however its something I'm going to pay attention to in future trials.
conclusion:
adding liquid to foil and keeping ribs bone down is not an effective way to flavor ribs
dry foil may be a way to slow/control cooking ribs since this may have been the reason why the control ribs were the least tender
rotate ribs if they are foiled and stacked as this may slow the cooking of any ribs above the first layer.
HTH
