help for a newbie with ribs


 
C

Craig Lax

New member
I have now had my Weber for 5 days and have made ribs twice. The first time, I used natural lump w/o any flavored woods. 4hrs cook a little hotter than 250.

ribs were ok, but no smokey flavor at all.

2nd time used applewood w/lump, 225 4hrs. The ribs were not bad, but really had no smokey flavor and were not that tender.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm going to try to have the ribs be at room temp. before rubbing them and putting them on the grill.

I used the water pan, and refilled half way through.

I used about 6 small pieces of applewood. combined maybe 1.5 fist size.

any advice would be appreciated. I want ribs that are smokey tasting, and tender. I know that real bar-b-que is not fall of the bone, but I was hoping for a little more tender than what I had.

they were fully cooked. should I have let them sit even longer? 5hrs? 6hrs?

Thank you

Craig
 
Hi Craig and welcome!

OK, Your 1st attempt didn't use any smoke wood so you didn't get that flavor. Also you didn't cook them long enough; they may have looked done, but they weren't tender. On the 2nd go around, you needed to use more wood (3 to 4 times what you used) and let them cook longer. Ribs normally will take about 6 hours give or take in the 225-250 range if you don't foil them near the end. If you bump your temps up, you can cut your cooking time. You mentioned the ribs on the 2nd attempt were not tender. That's because you needed to cook them longer. Next time check them with a probe or something similar and see if it goes in with little resistance. Here's an excellent step by step to follow. You can adjust the rub to your liking, the main thing is to get a feel for holding the temp and knowing when to pull them off. Try it again and let us know how they come out.
 
thank you for getting back to me. I'm going to go for a longer cook. The videos I've seen kept saying 4hrs so that's what I did.

I'm going to go for 6hrs. and use the poke method and a lot more smoke wood.

one question, should I throw the smoke wood in the beginning of the cook? middle? near end? or spread it out?

thanks so much

Craig
 
Toss your wood in at the beginning. I'm not sure about a 4 hour rib cook, that seems a little short for the temps you were using and as you verified by the chewiness of the ribs. Many people will foil their ribs during the last hour; this will cut some time off as will higher temps. If you're going to foil, don't leave them foiled more than 1 hour otherwise they may come out mushy (overcooked). You'll find that bbq'd meat is ready when it's ready. There's not a set formula like baking; x amount of ingredients at x amount of time = perfection. With bbq, the meat all varies and so will the cooking times. Qing is a combination of art and science. There are many variables involved so ultimately you'll have to physically check to see if your meat is done. This is many times accomplished by piercing the meat with a thermometer probe, a fork, a toothpick, etc. to see if the meat is tender. There are certainly guidelines such as cook times and temps found throughout this site which are extremely helpful. Many of us suggest doing a pork butt as one of your 1st cooks. It's very easy and almost fool proof.
 
thank you for your response. It is very informative and I'm getting the hint that I need more time to cook. Thank you. I'll be trying again soon and see how that goes.

Craig
 
I'd say the only way to get ribs done in 4 hours is to cook them at 225 for 3 hours, then foil & bump up temp to 275 for the last hour.
 
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