I have been experimenting with ribs for a while now on the SmokeFire, and most have come out outstanding. I pulled out my last rack of ribs from the freezer last night, a slab of St. Louis cut, thinking it would be fun to run some smoke today in the snow. Time got away from me in an ongoing home project, and I was running out of time, so I decided to do these high heat, a technique that I had good results before, with but hadn't quite perfected on the SmokeFire. I was also out of my rub, and the high heat seemed to like to char the sugar in my rub anyway, so I hit them with SPG, after a mustard binder. Since I was experimenting, I also left the membrane on just for kicks. Ran them at 400, top rack, meat side up for one hour. Wrapped in foil, and put back on top rack, still meat side up, (I have always gone meat side down), pan underneath, for another hour. I temped them then, they were exactly 200. Brought them in and left them wrapped for about 5 min or so, getting out sauce, plates, etc. Unwrapped and cut, and these were about the best ribs that I had ever made. Bite was perfect, very juicy, very flavorful. I was worried that the SLC would take a little longer than the babybacks, as they normally do on the normal low and slow, but the 2 hrs at 400 did them just right. Even at 400 got a smoke ring and slight smoke flavor. Running meat side up in the wrap prevented the char that I was getting during the wrap phase. No noticeable difference from the membrane, it seems to have pulled back and gone away with the higher heat. Oh, I was also out of my sauce, but I had some Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle that went real well with it. I'm not too keen on most store bought sauces, I like to make my own, but I have used this one many times and I like it very much. Light smoke and slight flavor from the black pepper coming through, might bump up the salt and garlic next time, but if I do them exactly the same I will be very happy.
