I may have ruined my ribs before I cooked them! Thoughts?


 
JeffB

JeffB

TVWBB Pro
I dry rubbed 3 racks of baby backs last night and put them in a cooler overnight for holding. There was a bag of ice underneath them and I put a bag of ice on top of them. They were wrapped in 2x saran wrap and sitting in a disposable aluminum pan. When I pulled them this morning to put on the smoker, the top bag had partially melted and they were sitting in 2" of water in the bottom of the aluminum pan. Clearly the saran wrap is not water tight so they have been sitting in water for some period of time. I'm not sure how long. Other than losing some of my dry rub, do you think I ruined the texture of the meat or otherwise? :confused:

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
I don't know but I would still cook them if the were kept in a safe temp. Just think of it as a marinade. Season again and let's smoke them.
 
I'm sure it won't affect your ribs. Do as described, season again, and smoke them.
Every Christmas I make traditional ribs as we do here in Norway. Part of the receipe is to store the rind side in a layer of water to be sure that the rind crisps up. Cold water does not change or affect the structure or taste of the meat a bit.
 
AlWielgosz said:
Jeff, let us know how you make out, this will another learning!
Happy Fathers Day!
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Thank you sir! My 9 year old daughter and 2 year old daughters are anxious to get their hands on my ribs! Hell, I even got a rib Father's Day card! No joke! ;)
 
I concur with tony that as long as temps were save you can re-season if some of the seasoning came off. if you re-season maybe do it with a version of your rub that is salt free as if they "brined" you could over salt with the reapplication.
 
Jeff Bryson said:
Thank you sir! My 9 year old daughter and 2 year old daughters are anxious to get their hands on my ribs! Hell, I even got a rib Father's Day card! No joke! ;)
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Very nice! "FATHER" ( a daughter's first love, a son's first hero) have a great day....save that card!
 
Geir Widar said:
What's wrong with them?
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Even after the "water incident," they still had a lot of color on them so I figured there was enough dry rub left without need to add more. To try something new, I ran these much lower (225* to 250*) than my last ribs (275* or higher) (which, by the way, were my best ribs ever), and I used hot water in the pan. Last time I used a foiled clay saucer with no water.

3 hours on grill, 1 hour foiled with apple cider vinegar + brown sugar + squeeze butter, and then another couple of hours until they passed the toothpick test and the bend test. I pulled 2 racks early and held them wrapped in foil until the 3rd rack finished. I thought they were all overcooked and dry. My family said they were good, but I don't buy it.
 
What were you trying to accomplish by rubbing overnight? Salt in the rub will extract moisture from the ribs and leave them swimming in a pool of wet stuff. Might make the ribs taste hammy. This, IMO, offsets any additional rub penetration. Better, IMO, to apply rub right before smoking
 
Dave/G said:
What were you trying to accomplish by rubbing overnight? Salt in the rub will extract moisture from the ribs and leave them swimming in a pool of wet stuff. Might make the ribs taste hammy. This, IMO, offsets any additional rub penetration. Better, IMO, to apply rub right before smoking
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Good point, Dave. Last time I made ribs, I rubbed 2 hours ahead of time and they were my best ribs ever. My dry rub definitely contains kosher salt, so I wonder if that was part of my problem.

Lesson: When you figure out how to make them well, don't fix what isn't broken! :rolleyes:
 
Funny this whole smoking hobby. We're always changing it up on ourselves. That's how we learn I guess. The more we read about things the more we want to try 'something' different. Thats what makes this so fun. Consider it a learning exerience. Lord knows we've all had (or are still having, in my case) them. Next time you'll know what didn't work out the way you wanted.
 
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