Getting from Good ribs to Great ribs?


 
JeffB

JeffB

TVWBB Pro
It's mom's birthday today so I cooked 3 racks of BB's for dinner on my 22.5. They hours at around 250*, 1 hour foiled with brown sugar, squeeze butter and some apple juice, then 45 minutes to finish. Not falling off bone but tender enough. I suspect could have gone another 20+ minutes without issues.

I think pretty good results in general but as the uncut third rack sat while we ate, the end bones turned darker with bark and dried out a bit. Some pieces got a bit chewy and hard.

Is that just the nature of the beast? How do I overcome this? Foil the ends? Cook fewer racks?

How do I take my ribs to the "next level?" How do I insulate against drying out?

Words of wisdom are welcome. Like our POTUS... I'm all ears...(hee hee)
 
I do my BB about the same way you mentioned, but I go 275 ° for 2hrs foil for 45mins then sauce and finish for about 15-20mins. So that's only around 3hrs cook time. Maybe 5hrs is too much? But then again, your talking about the ends being dry. Thats just going to happen to some extent.
 
I built a Mini-Joe, and also have a 14.5" and a 18.5" WSM. After I built the Mini, I bought a couple of Brinkman Rib Racks. Because of the small size of the Mini I had to cut the racks in half. It turned out that even doing eight half racks of ribs, each and every rib was/is cooked evenly. No more dried out and over cooked ends.

The problem is simple. The heat from a WSM travels up the sides of the smoker and over heats the rib ends (which are right in the path of that super heat). Using the racks puts ALL of the racks of ribs within the central area of the smoker away from that "super heat".

Now, I wouldn't think of NOT using the rib racks. My better half used to always get the over cooked ends and I would definitely hear about it:rolleyes:). No more!

Those rib racks are only about $10.00 each. I wouldn't think of being without them...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
We usually do spares and I do the 3-2-1 on them and the couple of times I have done BB's I did the 2-2-1 and they came out pretty darn good and so do the spares of course....lol.......
 
4 hours and 45 minutes is a tad long for BBR's (imho) I would have guessed 2.25 hours, then foiled for .75 hours and un-foiled in sauce for .25 to .50 for a total 3.25 to 3.50 hours (at 250)
 
I agree with Chuck. That does seem a bit long for BB's. We prefer spares so that's what I do. I cook at 250° and don't foil.
 
You want to get ribs as tender as you can without the meat falling off the bone. I use a toothpick poked between two bones near the center of the rack. It's a hit and miss proposition if you just go by time whether foiling or not. Start checking before you think they're ready to give yourself an idea of where you are at. When ribs are tender, a toothpick will go right in without resistance.
 
JeffB said:
It's mom's birthday today so I cooked 3 racks of BB's for dinner on my 22.5. They hours at around 250*, 1 hour foiled with brown sugar, squeeze butter and some apple juice, then 45 minutes to finish. Not falling off bone but tender enough. I suspect could have gone another 20+ minutes without issues.

I think pretty good results in general but as the uncut third rack sat while we ate, the end bones turned darker with bark and dried out a bit. Some pieces got a bit chewy and hard.

Is that just the nature of the beast? How do I overcome this? Foil the ends? Cook fewer racks?

How do I take my ribs to the "next level?" How do I insulate against drying out?

Words of wisdom are welcome. Like our POTUS... I'm all ears...(hee hee)
Click to expand...

Drying out will always happen when they sit and cool down. But how much they dry out will be determined by the whole cook. I Never go buy time. When those bad boys start shrinking up the bone. It's time to foil. If you add apple juice,butter, or any type of marinade make sure its close to the temp of the ribs. As dumb as it sounds adding cold juice to a super warm rib (which is a muscle) will seize it up a little. Just like going from a hot spa to a ice cold pool.
When you foil, make sure it's super super tight. No air. You don't want to steam your ribs. Lose foil will cause your ribs to get that ham taste and texture. An hour in the foil is about as long as I will go. (do the bend test.) I usually go about 45min. Once I unfoil them. I can control the rest of the cook from there. In a nutshell, The only real way to up your craft is...Cook as many racks as you can. Don't be scared to try anything out of the norm.
 
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