labor day ribs ( spoiler it was a bust)


 
S

Sandy B

TVWBB Super Fan
Well with labor day here I figured I try some ribs. This was really opportune time as I just did the notch mod and the nice mailman delivered my maverick et732.

Picked up two slabs of st Louis from Kroger, yes they were enhanced but they were on sale. Here they are with the membranes off ( sorry in advance for the number of pics but practice makes perfect)

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Here they are with a on the fly BRITU rub
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Here is how I loaded the charcoal ring, I got a knob creek tin can with lid and cut out the bottom. Started charcoal in the chimney let burn till completely ashed over then added 14 briquettes into the knob creek can, closed the top then pulled the can ( sorry its upside down)
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The wsm had boiling water added to the pan, let it equilibrate at 235-240 then added the ribs.

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The ribs were on the lower rack. The temps were pretty constant, never went over 260 and even then only for a couple of minutes.

Here are the ribs after the three hours of the 3-2-1
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Here they are layed flat prior to wrapping in foil with the addition of a little apple juice
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At this point I added some Mac and cheese that I made, pretty straight forward, to the top rack.

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Cooked both for the 2 hours but ended up being the 2.5 for reasons I won't get into. Here are the ribs post 2.5 hours and the Mac and cheese
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All in all the ribs were WAY overcooked, really way overcooked. The Mac and cheese was dry and not at all smokey and a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT
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Everything was looking great, really everything. The temps were great and super stable and everything was going swimmingly but the 2.5 which should have been a 2 killed me. It was so disappointing, especially as it was going so well, but live and learn.

Nevertheless, the maverick is insanely good, went through two cups of coffee and two beers (and this is not why the 2 ended up being 2.5). Next time I'm gonna short the two hours in foil and pull them when ready.

Sorry about the busted links I'm trying to fix them, I don't know what I'm doing I will try to fix it, really. I think everything is fixed. I had hoped to have an exel graph showing the temps ( that I did record) but the final product did not deserve it.

To the people saying the photos dont work I think I fixed it, but the deficiency was ALL mine, sorry. but those overcooked ribs dont deserve any good working links.
 
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Your photos are not showing up, but I did find your photobucket site to see the pics there.

I'll wait for the experts to chime in (I have only done about three baby back cooks on a OTG and they all came out great) but for the life of me I cannot possibly see what went wrong; it certainly looks like you did everything right. When you say "after the 2" or "after the 3", do you mean hours or beers? :)

Can you confirm the total time on the WSM, before and after the foil?

Again, I am no expert by a longshot, but no-one else has responded yet...
 
Well I do know the temps run about 15 degrees higher in the lower rack compared to the upper rack. Baby backs do cook a little quicker than say spares. That being said, I run about 275 on my ribs and they should not have been way over done. And I run 2.5 smoked spritzing them every 15 minutes after the first hour, then 1.5 foiled. The spares turn out fantastic like that. I like mine a little fall off the bone tender, but know just have to shorten the cook a hair on time if want them to be BBQ pitmaster quality. It all about quality of meat. Maybe just a bad batch from the store. Wouldn't worry.
 
Well everything looks great. I like to lay my spares flat. I think it helps with moisture. I also go by look more than time. If I foil I wait until I am happy with the bark. I actually leave mine unfoiled until i add a small coat of sauce in the last hour. My sides are usually done on the gasser with exception of pit beans. I will have to try this now. God luck on your next cook and thanks for all the pics.
 
Frank,
Three hours on the smoke ( I did not mention it but those chunks were apple), 2 and a half hours in foil ( which should have been less than 2) at no higher than 250.
One thing is that I have not calibrated my maverick as I just got it but I think that the over doneness is definitely user error that had nothing to do with beer. That or the temps went up super high when I was not looking at the maverick receiver and then went down prior to me looking at it.

The smoke gods were against me today, coupled with a little overconfidence from how well things started off. as I said in my horrifically embarassing first post, live and learn.
 
Sorry your cook didn't yield the results you were hoping for. I'm sure the next one with turn out more to your liking and I'm looking forward to the post.
 
Sorry to hear the cook didn't turn the way you wanted. Keep smoking until you get the results your looking for.
 
Bill - Bigbill said:
Sorry for your disappointment. The ribs look good in the pictures.
Click to expand...

Hey no problem, a bad day on the smoker is better than a good day at work. If things had gone south from the get go I would have adjusted my expectations, but it looked great till the foil.
 
Sorry your disappointed your outcome but practice makes perfect and you still get to eat the results!!!
 
Ribs do look good in your photos! Some BBQ sauce can take care of the dryness. As long as
you had fun and they were edible, I'd sit back and enjoy! BBQ is all about having fun and learning and
you are on the right track! Keep on firing that smoker up! The more you cook the better you will become!
 
Mike Coffman said:
Ribs do look good in your photos! Some BBQ sauce can take care of the dryness. As long as
you had fun and they were edible, I'd sit back and enjoy! BBQ is all about having fun and learning and
you are on the right track! Keep on firing that smoker up! The more you cook the better you will become!
Click to expand...

The ribs problem was not that they were dry, they were pretty moist, they had a good bark and the rub was really good tasting. The problem was they were way overcooked, just cutting them the bones slid out. Thinking about them and the bones slid out.

The Mac and cheese, however, was extremely dry which was quite a shocker. It also did not have much smoke taste, it tasted look like it could have come out of the oven.

The only good thing was I got to try out the maverick and I really like it and my neighbors angle grinder made the slot mod really easy, so its two three steps forward two and a half back.
 
I'm sure they are much better than you are letting on. They look great. Plus, regardless of what they say on tv, it is ok if your ribs fall off the bone. In fact, most normal people (those who do not obsess over all things bbq) prefer them that way.

But, if you want them less done, like you said, 2.5 hours is a long time in the foil. I would also recommend as mentioned elsewhere in the thread that you use the time as a guide but use your eyes to tell you when to make a move. I also like to cook them until I am happy with how the bark looks. Then I will wrap but I might check them at 45 minutes or an hour. Once I see them pulling back from the bone, but not too much, foil time is over. I'll put them back on with some sauce and let that set. If possible, I'll finish for a few minutes on direct heat. For some reason that really makes a difference.
 
Ditto what Darryl said, minus the sauce for me most of the time. For me what has produced the most consistent ribs is about two hours on the smoke, usually at least two very light spritzes with a little apple juice and as soon as that bark starts firming up on the foil, usually with a little brown sugar on top. I peek in after an hour and look at the bone draw back of the meat, if its started to come back I go to the all purpose pit master final arbiter of all that is meat.
The toothpick.
When it slides right in between the bones it is done. Period.
I also found 275 seems better for me.
Good luck on your next set, and above all else enjoy doing it.
 
Ribs look great. You have to play with the times just like flavors. Seems like each cook is a little different.
 
I will add that I typically never go more than an hour in the foil but the last time I cooked ribs, they just werent ready to come out so they ended up staying in foil for nearly 2 hours. You just cant go by time.
 
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