Spares and foiling?


 
T

Tom Raveret

TVWBB Pro
yesterday I did 10 lbs of spares 2 slabs did the chine and breastbown and tips on the bottom shelf of the WSM and the two nice sets of st louis style on top. they were a bit bigger than I wanted so I cooked them to 6 hours and wrapped them for one. When taking them out of the foil they were reallly greassy. I'm trying to figure out why or what I could have done differently? Here are some potential conclusions I drew but I would like to ask your insights?

Now the ribs didnt look too fatty coming from the butcher.

I seasoned them the night before but did not remove the membrane. Perhaps that prevented the rendering I would have liked.

The rub I used was a dry rub from the new smoke and spice that is light in salt. Could the low salt have not drawn out enough moisture.

I wrapped them afer 5 hours and they turned out perfect in the doneness category. Tender but not mushy but there still was a fair amount of grease dripping.

Looking back I wish I had left one half of a slab without wrappping it to see the diference. Has any one else had a similar experience with greasy spares?

Thanks
 
Tom, the lack of salt in the rub should not have had any effect on the amount of "grease" you found at the end of the cook. The salt will only draw water based moisture from the meat, not the fat. The only way to remove the fat (grease) from the ribs during cooking is to cook longer. Myself I don't like to foil but when you do I would suggest after cooking in foil to return the ribs to the grill and let them "dry out", that is let the rest of the fat that has rendered out of the meat cook off before consuming. My 2 cents and you know what you get no-a-days for 2 cents.
 
Every rib-foiling regimen I've ever read includes an initial period sans foil, then a period in foil, followed by finishing out-of-foil again-- the popular method being the 3-2-1. 3-2-1 is a ratio, mind you, so if you want to cook longer or shorter than six hours, you'll have to do some math or just wing it. The acceleration that the foiled period provides needs to be figured into your overall cooking time, so if you cook spares for say 6-7 hours without foil, you can cut the time back somewhat when you do use it. In any case, most cooks would want the ribs unfoiled towards the end to apply a finishing sauce. And either way, remove that membrane!
 
We had never foiled spareribs until last summer, when I decided to try it on the trailer offset to speed up cooking a little. I also was shocked when I opened up the foil and found all the rendered fat. Made a mistake, got in a hurry, and DIDN'T put the slabs back on the smoker OUT of foil before serving. I've never made that mistake again. Now I'll still foil sometimes, if I'm shorter on time than I'd like, but I will ALWAYS build in time for at least 30 minutes back on the smoker out of the foil. Makes a world of difference in whether the ribs are perceived as "greasy" or not.

I did a side-by-side test one time, removing the membrane from some slabs of spares and leaving it on others. All other conditions remained the same. There was a definite difference, to OUR tastes, in the two. Rendering, tenderness, and seasoning were all better in the slabs from which the membranes were removed. Again, just our own experience...

Keri C
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Keri Cathey:
[qb] I also was shocked when I opened up the foil and found all the rendered fat. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I always look at it and think WWED? /infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif
 
Flavor was great on the ribs but I will pull the membrane in the future. She was already ticked at me as I was running late when I was Prepping em. I foiled Baby backs and didn't have this problem but think spares have much more fat in them to get out. I will gently heat them up in the oven tonight at 225 and put them on a roasting rack in the bottom of the pan to let them drip down to see if that helps.

My two key learnings always remove the membrane for both flavor and rendering of fat and make sure to put them back on the grill after foiling em for a while at least!!.

At least it was a cheap mistake it was 10 lbs of spares were .99/lb


Thanks and Happy New Year
 
Doug,

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> WWED <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Let me guess... What Would EMERIL Do???????????
 
All good advice. I'd add that if you are going to sauce, then sauce post foiling and post a short dry out period. My normal method for winning spares only involvces foil for holding after they are cooked the whole way without foil.

There is a method to sweeten with foil but it's hit and miss. One week a perfect 180 the next 223rd place /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif Many use it and Dr. BBQ teaches it in his class.
 
Some people foil for tenderness some for saving time in a cook i gather. In this case I'm not looking for a shortcut I was just trying to see how it impacted flavor. I don't mind waiting for a good finished product. So I may try and experiment next time and do 3-2-1 on some and not foil at all on others and see how they turn out.

Without foiling can one obtain that tenderness of "not quite falling off the bone but well done and tender" without overcooking the smaller sections of the slab?

Also I moped on the hour with the mop in Smoke and spice for lone star ribs. I dont know if it helped much. It made temprature control a part time job for the afternoon though!!
 
Yes you can get the perfect not quite falling off the bone rib without ever using foil. It's called low and slow /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif When talking about a whole slab you'll have variations because of the thickness. The solution is to St. Louis trim it. Pictures on how to do thatb are here and on my website. I spray with apple juice quick and easy.

What foil can be used for in terms of flavor is to drive flavor/sweetness into the ribs at the end or post cooking. You can do it without foil it's just another tool. But then you get into a whole debate of dry rubbed ribs with sauce on the side versus sauced on the pit. There is no right answer it's personal taste.
 
I learned in Dr. BBQ's class to use foil. It has produced some very good results. I usually don't use the honey any more when I do them for myself but in competition I sweeten things up and turn down the heat. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
For the backyard making the ribs like candy with honey or other sweetners is a personal thing. For competition you better know the local taste. The method Ray teaches is widelly used. I first saw it being used by Bad to the Bone Too who were cooking next to me. It can hit big or miss big depending on the location and which table you land on. It's done both for me.

Being on Atkins right now we are just doing a low carb rub on ribs and they work fine without sauce or sweetner. Pork is a sweet meat.
 
Got any tips on a rib technique that doesn't "hit or miss"? Preferably one that hits all the time.
 
Ray don't take it personally you not an old has been. Johnny Trig can't hit every hit every time nobody I know can /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Then again if there was a method no matter how secret that was a sure fire winner it would take the fun out of it.

James and Lola made the point that there are 7 winning flavor profiles for 7 parts not of the country but just one state, Texas.

Just for the record the Perfect 180 pin (all 6 judges scoring 36) that I believe is in the mail was cooked using the Rib technique that Ray teaches.

Then again at the American Royal Open two weeks later our ribs finished 226 out of 399. Although our 4th place chicken helped us up to 16th overall /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
No I was just pointing out that most cookoff recipes are hit or miss. Especially at the big cookoffs like the American Royal. It's pretty common to have a good day and a bad day there. Same locale, many of the same judges.

I don't agree with changing up in different regions. I know many do but I also know that Trigg does not.
 
In my opinion if you foil and no not go overboard and do it too long you can get very good results. I like to do them without foiling most of the time as I do not like that super soft texture when they are foiled too long. When timed right though they can be extremely good and not too soft. I think the 3-2-1 ratio is too long for me. I have used a 3-1-1 ratio with better results. The last spares I did were about 6 hours unfoiled 1 hour 15 minutes foiled and then 2 hours unfoiled. Texture was very good.
 
Jeff,
You are correct. In fact I can not recall winning ribs that did not see foil. Although often I would sauce, foil and hold. Then Finish unwrapped in the smoker. The only heat applied in foil was frequently just residual heat in a cooler, not in the smoker. Although the magic rack in Omaha was foiled in the smoker.

On the same theme I've never taken top Brisket honors without foil.
 
Konrad

Are you still saucing, foiling and holding and what is your ratio if you dont mind? I am still going back and forth between foiling in the smoker or holding in the cooler or a combination of the two.

Thanks.
 
The best ribs I have made have always been in foil for a period of time! Works for me and I am a big fan of any fat...rendered, solid, opaque...all tastes good to me!!
 
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