St. Louis Ribs questions


 
B

Brian O

New member
Yesterday i tried St. Louis Ribs in my 18" WSM for the first time. I tried the Harry Soo St. Louis rib recipe from the Q&A. The final product turned out super tender and a general crowd pleaser but there were a few times during the cook that didn't feel right.

1. I removed the membrane off the st. louis ribs i got from Costco. Are there any good indicators that you didn't remove the entire thing off. The bones weren't clean. However, when i removed the rack out of the foil, the bones literally fell out. I almost had to use two spatulas to put the ribs back on the grill to sauce them they were so tender.

2. When i was rolling the ribs with toothpicks, how important is it for the meat to not touch? I didn't have the rib racks touch but it took almost 20 minutes to load the 2 shelves. The rib racks were pretty big, and i could barely fit 3 racks on one grate. I felt like i had a lot of trouble getting the WSM to 275 because the lid was open for so long.

3. When you foil (in this case with honey, brown sugar and apple juice) do you lose whatever "Bark" you create during the first two hour cook all the time? When i foil i didn't use the 1 c. of brown sugar per rack. Does the bark form due to the sugar and honey in the foil?

Thanks for the help
 
Hi Brian,

I normally do not lose bark on ribs. If you can scrape the bark off with your fingernails, then it is not fully formed and not ready for foiling. The bark is formed when the sugars on the surface of the meat and sugars in the rub basically carmelize. I do not foil until the bark is fully set, no matter what time has elapsed or what temperature the meat.

There is a line in that pdf file from Harry's visit to the forum in which he mentions that he sprays every 15 minutes. ( that line's position in the pdf file make it difficult to determine how, etc ) Kinda think that if one sprays the rib racks every 15 minutes prior to foiling, it might help the bark to form a little earlier.

HTH

Bob
 
Brian O said:
Yesterday i tried St. Louis Ribs in my 18" WSM for the first time. I tried the Harry Soo St. Louis rib recipe from the Q&A. The final product turned out super tender and a general crowd pleaser but there were a few times during the cook that didn't feel right.
Click to expand...

1. I removed the membrane off the st. louis ribs i got from Costco. Are there any good indicators that you didn't remove the entire thing off. The bones weren't clean. However, when i removed the rack out of the foil, the bones literally fell out. I almost had to use two spatulas to put the ribs back on the grill to sauce them they were so tender.
Click to expand...

There are two membranes, one of which you remove and one you don't. The second one holds the meat to the bone and if you remove that, well you (now) know what happens. This second one is a lot thinner than the first one. The first one is really easy to remove, the second one is not. If you're having a real hard time even finding the membrane, it's possible the butcher/store has already removed the first one and you're trying to find/remove the 2nd. It's also possible that it was just cooked longer than needed. Can't really say at this point.

2. When i was rolling the ribs with toothpicks, how important is it for the meat to not touch? I didn't have the rib racks touch but it took almost 20 minutes to load the 2 shelves. The rib racks were pretty big, and i could barely fit 3 racks on one grate. I felt like i had a lot of trouble getting the WSM to 275 because the lid was open for so long.
Click to expand...

If the meat touches, it won't develop bark.

Period.

Toothpicks?? Nah, use those long (8-10") wood skewers (for shiskabobs). A lot easier to work with and won't break. One (or maybe 2) is all you need to keep a full rack rolled (remember, no meat touching within the roll or to other rolls). No need to soak the wooden ones prior to using either. End's might get charred a bit but they'll hold up just fine for the entire smoke.

As far as "the lid was open for so long", take the racks out of the WSM BEFORE lighting coals. Take the racks into the kitchen and load the rolled meat onto the WSM racks that are sitting on the kitchen counter. Once the WSM is up to temp, carry the loaded rack(s) outside and put them in the WSM. The lid will be off no more than a minute or two while loading and the temps should take no more than 5 min or so to come back up to 225 when you put the dome back on.

Make sure you put the loaded racks/on/racks on a cookie sheet for carrying purposes. The rub draws a lot of juice out of the meat and you don't want it dripping on the carpets ;(

3. When you foil (in this case with honey, brown sugar and apple juice) do you lose whatever "Bark" you create during the first two hour cook all the time? When i foil i didn't use the 1 c. of brown sugar per rack. Does the bark form due to the sugar and honey in the foil?
Click to expand...

You don't "lose" the bark, it just softens up (when in the foil). To crisp it up after foiling (I never foil but that's my preference) either put it back in the smoker after foil time for about 30 min or what you can do is fire up the grill and lightly grill them for 4-5 min on high temps so it dries it out a bit.
 
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From what I've read here on the TWVBB and my own VERY LIMITED experience, Costco removes the membrane from their ribs. I have bought spares and baby backs from Costco and both seem to have been membrane-free.

But it's always good to check... just follow what Len Dennis suggested about the ease (or difficulty) of removing the membrane.
 
One somewhat easy way I've determined if the membrane is present or not (up north, ours ALWAYS has the membrane attached--that way, they can charge more :( ) is if you can easily remove any fat from the back side, then the membrane HAS been removed. If it's smooth from one end to the other, then the membrane is still there and needs to be removed.
 
Bones fell out of the meat? Way over cooked, you don't want fall off the bone ribs. That was well past fell off the bones, good ribs don't need foil. Search the forum, there is a ton of knowledge on cooking ribs w/o foil and how to achieve rib success. When you finally get the "right" you will understand. It's part of the process, I've been BBQx 20 years and I'm still learning.
 
JimH I would agree with you for the most part. However, there is something I had to learn is you cook to your crowd. My family happens to prefer a super sweet fall off the bone ribs so that is how I cook them. If I was competing I would never turn them in that way. A great thing about BBQ is there is more then one way to skin a cat. When you are cooking for family and friends cook them the way they want them. You don't have to be worried abount perfect bite marks and bite through chicken skin.
 
JimH said:
Bones fell out of the meat? Way over cooked, you don't want fall off the bone ribs. That was well past fell off the bones, good ribs don't need foil. Search the forum, there is a ton of knowledge on cooking ribs w/o foil and how to achieve rib success. When you finally get the "right" you will understand. It's part of the process, I've been BBQx 20 years and I'm still learning.
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Amen, Jim!
 
I have to agree with Jim, if your meat falls off the bone it is cooked too long. When I switched over from my Brinkman cheapies I used for 20 years to the WSM I found out how much quicker and more efficient this smoker is. Smoked some spares like I did on the brinkmans and could not keep the meat on the bone - kind of defeats the purpose of ribs. Also, never had a need to foil ribs or for that matter anything else but maybe someday I'll give that a try too - I may be missing out. The more you smoke with it the better you will be, I keep a log of all my smokes now which is really helping reflect back on past smokes for meats/temps/times/type of wood/ etc.
 
D Brazil said:
I...never had a need to foil ribs or for that matter anything else but maybe someday I'll give that a try too - I may be missing out...
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D, foiling's a great tool for other cuts, but you're not missing out on anything when it comes to spares or St. Louis ribs. I've tried different methods and without a doubt, my favorite method is to simply cook 'em til tender at about 250* with water in the pan.

Regarding FOTB ribs, you're absolutely right, and I used to be really bad about overcooking spares. Tell you what though, the biggest mistake I see with ribs after checking some out in the "Photo Gallery" section is UNDERcooking. There's no point in checking for tenderness without first seeing a decent amount of pullback to the rack, and I don't mean just on the ends of the slab that were left hanging out in the hot zone. ;)
 
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