SOS! HELP!

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I have cooked baby backs 4 times now and get the same results every time. The meat always tastes great but seems to get a little dry on the outside. It's like the meat has a drier shell over a moist interior. Is this the way it's supposed to be?

All 4 times I have used the BRITU method: Removed the membrane, applied the rub, let them set over night, fired up using menion method, put the ribs on at 250, kept the temp between 225 - 235 for the first 4 hours, raised temp to 275 for the rest of the cook. All four cooks took between 4 3/4 hours to 6 hours.

It seems like I am over cooking them but the limited pull down of the meat from the tips of bones would indicate that this is not the case.

Can anyone offer any advice? I really love good ribs and I am going to keep cooking them until I get them tight, I don't cave how many shoe leather-like racks of ribs I have to go through to get it right!
 
I'm no expert Mike but from what I have read here so far, foiling may be the answer you are looking for..find a thread titled "advice for next cook", started by me..its almost exactly what you posted, and read Kevin Taylor's response. Hope this helps/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
 
I also have not been entirely satisfied with the tougher outer layer of my ribs and am on a quest for a softer outer layer. Your procedure sounds right, however, you did not mention whether you baste during cooking. I use apple juice in a spray bottle pretty liberally during half times to keep the meat moist. Someone recommended (Dennis Solin, I think) a 50-50 mixture of apple juice and cooking oil in the spray bottle to keep the meat moist. I have not tried that yet. Foiling should also work. I am going to experiment more with foil in the coming months to see how that works.

Your times sound about right. I've been letting them cook between 5-6 hours at the same temps. Play around and try different things. Thats the fun of bbq! I can tell you that using the same procedure you described along with apple juice spray bottle basting, my babyback ribs have placed 5th and 10th in the only two competitions I have done even though I though they could have been softer. Let me know how your experiments work out.
 
That sounds about how my spare ribs came out. They were moist on the inside but did have a sort of layer over the meat. I just assumed that's the way they were.
I cooked mine at 245f for the first 3 hours. Basted, foiled, back on. Temp got up to 275f. Took about 45 minutes to get temp back down to steady 250f. Then after being foiled for 2 hours I unfoilded, basted again and left on for an hour(3:2:1 method). I basted with apple juice.
 
Mike,

I've done ribs several times now and I've never gotten that result. I don't use the BRITU method. I remove the membrane and apply rub while the smoker is firing up. Then when I get a temp of about 270 at the lid I put the meat in a rib rack and get it in the smoker. The temp will drop right into the 235 to 240 range. I do use the minion method to fire it up. I just keep the temp steady from that point on and when the ribs have pulled away from the bone 1/4 to 1/2 inch and they pull apart farely easily then I take them off, wrap them in foil and let them rest for about 45 minutes. They've always been perfect using this method. Oh yeah, I also apply a mop sauce that I came up with myself. Could that be the difference? Are you mopping them or spraying them with apple juice?
 
not to open up a can of worms for debate here, but the BRITU recipe calls for the rub to sit on the meat for 2 hours at room temp, doesn't it? i don't know whether it is sugar or salt that takes moisture out of the meat (probably a little of both) but i imagine that letting the rub sit on the meat overnight could tend to dry out said meat? especially the outer layer? although, i'm sure the extra time the rub stays on the meat would make for some tasty ribs....just a little dry.

what do you guys think?
 
Just my thought. BTW, it's the salt that draws the moisture out of meat. I don't like the idea of keeping rub on a piece of meat more then 45 minutes much less over night. Although, ribs are pretty fatty and it may not be a problem. It just doesn't seem right to me to put a salty rub on a piece of meat and let it sit for more then 30 or 45 minutes. I would think that letting them sit over night in a salty rub would dry them out pretty good.
 
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