Spareribs, how to make them tender and delicious?


 
D

DavidD

TVWBB Super Fan
Winn dixie had a special on spares, $1.28 per lb so i picked up a few cryovacs. I have never had a ton of luck w/ spares coming out tender and delicious, though i have tried some of the recipes found here. I remember seeing something about foiling, but don't recall how to get the proper balance between tender, but not too mushy.

also, what do you recommend in terms of trimming and preparing? any other tips are appreciated. I never seem to use enough smoke wood, which i have mesquite and hickory. worry about oversmoking but seem to get one hour of good smoke and then afraid to refresh with more wood. How much more should i use?
 
David,

I have found the trick to foiling is trial and error. For me about 45 minutes is usually enough for my tastes. I also depends on your temps and how much liquid you add in the foil. I add about a half cup of apple juice.

How much wood are you adding to start? I add about 3 good sized chunks to start and about half a handful of smaller pieces in the beginning (Apple and hickory). Sometimes I add another Small hand full of smaller chunks after couple hours, you just need to experiment to find what you like.

I trim them the way Chris shows us on this site. Take notes and before you know it you get just what your looking for.

Tom
 
David,
You should be loving your spares on the WSM! Try a few of these suggestions and you wont be dissapointed.
First Throw your Mesquite in the fire place and burn it up. Use your hickory but not alot of it. Try and cook your spares at 250-275 I would cook them meat side down for about an hour then flip them back over for an hour. As for foiling the key is to wrap them very tight in two layers of a high quality HD foil with some type of liquid. Apple is prefered. During the foiling start checking your tenderness at about 30 minutes I would plan on 1 hour in the foil for really tender ribs. You dont want the bones to start pulling out so keep checking when you get to the 45min -1hour mark. Take them out of the foil sauce them and throw them back on the somoker. Ribs are trial and error but for good eating ribs keep them in the foil longer.

Rick
 
David,

Be careful in the grocery store. I loaded up the freezer with ribs last year when Piggly Wiggly had them for $1.34. They turned out to be the worst ribs I've bought. Took forever to eat them all. They were supposedly St. Louis cuts, but they were poorly-cut, skinny, bony and gristly messes. They weren't the regular Pig ribs, which are fine and sold in the plastic-wrapped styrofoam trays. These were a special sale item, no-name cryovac packs with a Pig sticky label on them.

Remember, it's just as much work to cook bad ribs, but they're harder to eat than good ribs.

David
 
Paul K, i could not get your link to work for some reason.

anyway, here is the result. I cooked two slabs, plus the flaps (are the large flaps good to eat, how do i serve them?). The ribs cooked at 225 for 5.5 hours total, of which 1.5 was in foil and the last 30 min back on the smoker. Other than I got the spices a bit too hot w/ red pepper (does smoking enhance the spices and make them a little hotter?). I didn't think i over spiced, but apparently so. They were ok, but a little too spicey. The tenderness, flavor, smoke and juicieness was excellent. Thanks for the tips.

The spice i used was Tony Chachere's Original Creole along with brown sugar. This is my favorite spice for Chicken and a great seasoning for ribs, though i admitedly over did it. I also pulled the membrane off the back and trimmed the slabs to look like a normal rack of ribs vs. a giant honken slab of pork.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Davidd:
I cooked two slabs, plus the flaps (are the large flaps good to eat, how do i serve them?). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
IME they make great scraps to chop or shred and put in barbecue baked beans, brunswick stew, etc.
 
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