Recent Ribs... Need Help

[Dan Krause]

I did a recent cook of 12 racks of St. Louis spares. The flavor profile was good but the ribs didn't wow me with their texture. I got a lot of compliments on the ribs and they were gone in less than an hour, but I still think there is room for improvement. They were bite through tender but not fall off the bone. They were just lacking in "succulence".

Here is my cook method:

Lit the 22" WSM with Kingsford using the Minion Method. Got it up to temp of 275 using the DigiQ. No water in the pan... using a terra cotta saucer and sand. Put the ribs in and put a probe in the meat. The WSM temp dropped to about 250 for a bit then came up and held between 260 and 270. Cooked to an internal temp of 190 and tear tested good. Total cook time about 5 hours. Pulled the ribs. Lightly sauced and seared off over the hot coals for about 15 secs. a side. Put in a warmer and taken to serve site. Warmer temp set at 180. The ribs were in the warmer for about 1 hour till served. I set up a carving station and cut individual bones to order.

What can I do to take my ribs to next level? Should I be foiling? I tried it once and I wasn't a huge fan of the exterior texture (no bark). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[K Kruger]

Should you be foiling? It isn't required for tenderness or succulence. I foil to add a flavor layer when I foil, nothing more. (I foil maybe 75% of the time.) Good bark is easy to achieve if foiling if you choose to foil.

I'm sensing ribs that were possibly a bit underdone. But just a bit. Possibly a bit over. Hard to say. I'd go with the former - or I'd say the problem was in the holding.

Forgo temping ribs (but keep the therm handy) and nix the tear test. The tear test will tell you how well the meat tears - so what? When the meat is tender enough to tear it will tear, but that does not tell you if the meat or that the meat is tender enough. Too, if on the overcooked side the tear test won't tell you that either.

Use your probe near the time when you expect tenderness and insert it between the bones. If it inserts effortlessly the ribs are tender, nicely tender and juicy.

180 is too high for holding. If you hit the right spot when the ribs were cooking you could have overshot it with an hour at 180. Hold at ~140, 150 tops.

 

[MKEvenson]

Dan, If you want fall off the bone tender, foiling is a way to get there. I might suggest 3 things. During your cook you can baste/spray with a liquid of your choice and perhaps a fat (butter?) You can also sprinkle with turbinado sugar (raw) or brown. Also you might try setting your glaze over a lower temp. I find using the same temp that I smoked with and still indirect works perdy good. You do have a few choices here both with doneness and the method to get there. The only clue I got from your picture was a little burn of sugar on the ribs, I assume from the final heat stage.

Mark

 

[K Kruger]

Yes. If you are looking for FOTB (not something I do) foiling a period of time will get you there (you have to kind of go overboard on the foiling, restore bark afterwards).

Spraying with this and that will not add moisture to the meat nor succulence. It can add flavor. It can slow cooking (if the spray or mop/baste is water-based) or it can speed it up some (if the spray or mop/baste is fat-based), but tenderness, moistness/succulence is all about cooking to that point. A spray, baste or mop is immaterial in this regard.

 

[Noe]

Dan sounds like the holding was ur problem and a little overcooked, holding any kind of meat or any food will never taste as gd as it should if eaten when done.

 

[j biesinger]

I'm curious about the DigiQ. You mention a significant drop in temps when you put the meat in and it held +/- 10* during the cook. Do you find that's normal with a Guru? I don't own one, but I could easily hold better temps without one, just using the vents. I'm debating getting one (mostly for insurance during comps) but I usually talk myself out of buying one when I remind myself of how steady a wsm can be.

as far as your ribs go, my guess is that they were overdone.

 

[Dan Krause]

I am still getting used to the DigiQ DX. So far I love it cause it is easy to use and was in my price range for the level of cooking I do. I am not sure if this has any real basis, but from what I have observed, the DigiQ had an easier time controlling temp with an excess of lit charcoal to start off with. When I did my over night cook of the Boston Butts, I had a very full charcoal ring with a full chimney of lit charcoal to start off with and it held rock steady at it set temp all night. With the ribs I did, I only did about a one third of a chimney full of lit charcoal. This time it struggled a little to get temp up and hold it compared to the last time where I had to shutdown on the damper. I think once I learn exactly how much charcoal, lit and unlit, to load, it won't be an issue at all.