Just did my first ribs on WSM. Harry Soo style.


 
J

Joey Rivera

New member
Just did my first cook of St. Louis ribs on my new WSM 18.5. I followed Harry Soo's advice of foiling the water pan with no water and doing 2 hours unwrapped at 275, then 1.5 hours wrapped in foil with a little applejuice.
Although a nice bark developed, the ribs were way too fall off the bone. When I tried to cut through them they just fell apart. Should I just cut back on the amount of time they're wrapped? or Should I drop the temp once they're wrapped? I'm a total noob so any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
I used to wrap but I got to lazy trying to figure out the timing so they wouldn't be too soft. A lot of people do foil with good results but now I just let them go no foil until they are done.

Time in the foil is the key. I started with the 3-2-1 method but found 2 hours way to long for foil. If you want to keep foiling try cutting the time until you get the ribs the way you like them.

Keep notes on your cooks so you can keep track of your changes.
 
I did a high heat butt and rubs today and used foil on both. the ribs came out really good but tender for me. I will go back to no foil. they did cook quicker which was the purpose. I did a 5lb butt and I got to 7 hours and it wouldn't go past 175 after foiling at 160lb at 325 degrees. It should have been done but it wasn't I ended up choppin git up. I will stick to my low and slow.
 
I did the Harry Soo method last week with some STL spares. Like you I found that the ribs were very tender compared to how I usually cook my ribs w/o foil. I kept my temps in the 250-275 range. Tomorrow I am going to try the method again and maybe only foil for about 1 hour. I was happy with the flavor of the ribs and now just need to fine tune the tenderness to my liking.
 
The only purpose I've seen for foiling is to speed up the cook. I'd rather bring my temps up than foil. I cook ribs in the 325 range usually.
 
foiling does more than speeding up the cook

it changes the cooking method from a simple smoke/roast to a braise or steam - which makes the meat super tender and moist.
 
I did some ribs Harry Soo style yesterday, there's two different timings in the pdf. I did the 3 hours unfoiled, 1 hour foiled, sauce and put back on the smoker for a bit to firm it up. Turned out great, I didn't spritz during the first 3 hours.

After a couple of hours the crust wasn't formed enough, the rub slid off when I touched it.
 
I cook ribs at 325-375. Once upon a time I cooked them lower - but it really doesn't matter. No matter what your cooktemp, if foiling simply cook in the foil till they are tender in the foil. Once they reach tender (a probe inserted between the bones goes in effortlessly), they can be unfoiled and returned to the cooker for several minutes to firm bark texture. (Sauce them at that point if you must. Me, I can't stand ribs sauced during cooking. Nothing wrong with that though. Your choice.)

By removing the ribs when they hit tender in the foil you will have tender, juicy - but not fall-off-the-bone - ribs. FOTB comes from longer time in foil.

If you have not done this before and are unsure of how long it will take the ribs to hit tender in the foil that's perfectly fine. Simply open the foil and check for tender. If there is much resistance go a good 20 min more and check again. If a little, check in 10 or so. If you need to repeat this another time or two no matter. There is leeway before the ribs get to FOTB so don't worry about it too much.

I don't care for FOTB ribs either. I often foil but not all the time. Either way, foiled or not, I simply check with a probe between the bones. When effortless, they're done. If foiled, a few minutes infoiled back on the grate and the barks firms nicely.

Give it a shot.
 
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