Rib advice


 
F

Frank S

TVWBB Super Fan
I did four racks of St. Louis cut ribs yesterday. I rolled them and cooked them on the top rack. Used some homemade apple rub, two chunks of apple wood and one chunk of hickory; Kingsford Competition charcoal, full chimney of unlit, topped by 1/2 chimney of lit. WSM took about 30 minutes to reach 235 degrees. It stayed at that temp the entire cook (I love this thing).

Ribs cooked for 5 1/2 hours. I did not foil them. After three hours, I spritzed them with apple juice every 30 minutes. Did the tear test at 5 1/2 hours. The ribs were perfect inside, moist not mushy, and very tender. My concern is that the bark was drier than I would have liked. Is there a way that I can keep the outside moister without wrapping the ribs in foil?
 
It pains me to say this (because i love bark personally), but perhaps you might want to foil for 1 hr or something.
Foiling will keep more moisture inside and protect the outside.

Another thing is to watch the salt in your rub and the time you leave it on. Salt will pull moisture from the meat.

I think i'm going to cry... never thought I'd recommend foiling!! haha
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">
I think i'm going to cry... never thought I'd recommend foiling!! haha </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I know what you mean Scooter. I've been try to avoid foiling, but that may be the way to go.
 
I've done ribs both foiling and not...depending on how they are doing (how the bark is doing), I'll foil for the last hour or so. I've had them turn out great both ways, but I do think the foil keep the bark a little more moist, especially on less meaty ribs.

Those that I don't foil are the "extra meaty" cuts, cause there is usually enough meat to offset the bark. In fact, the last batch of extra meaty I did were for 6.5 hours at 225ish on the top rack with no foil, and they were amazing!

How thick were those you cooked?
 
Think you are bothering the ribs too much. At the max, I would spritz once after 3 HRS and check every 30 mins. thereafter at the max.......
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

How thick were those you cooked? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

They were moderately thick. I would say that there was at least 1/4" of meat on top of the bones.
 
Somewhat recently (this is after a few years of WSM'ing and making ribs semi-regularly), I finally came to a balance I like.

Originally, I had issues with 1-2 hours of foiling mid-cook. But basically, what I do now is once the ribs start "drying out" on the surface (where I would spray them with juice), I foil them with apple juice/butter.

Then, the key here is, is to dry them out again after you remove the foil to get some of that bark-texture back, so they aren't mushy on the outside.

This probably flies right in the face of much of the advice on the forum (and it's hard to describe), but it has been giving me so good results for my preference (light bark, very tender, leaning on what most would refer to as "overcooked").
 
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