St Louis Ribs ?!?

[John Sully]

I love making St Louis ribs, I have been doing them on WSM 22 and the results are good, come out the way the I hoped. The last few times I used the Smokefire and they were not the same, my family agreed. The flavor was ok but they seemed tough, we are not fans of fall off the bone, like them more competition style. I know its me not the Smokefire, looking for any help I can get.
I set the Smokefire at 250, apple and cherry mix, put a water pan on top of the flavorizer bars, ribs on the bottom grate. Run that way for about 4 hours until the bark and color look right. I wrap them with brown sugar, honey and butter for about an hour, then back on unwrapped until the bark sets up. These are always with a dry rub, no sauce.
Thanks !!

 

[Bob Bailey]

I've done St. Louis style ribs on my pellet grill (not a SmokeFire) for several years with great results. Your process appears to be sound, but you need to probe the meat for tenderness before unwrapping. A skewer or temperature probe should penetrate the meat between ribs with no resistance. Do this after your normal 1 hour wrapped and repeat every 15 to 20 minutes until they probe tender. Keep in mind that the timing can be different from slab to slab, so always probe for tenderness instead of assuming a set time.

Just in case you'd like to try a faster method that produces great results for me, I've attached my favorite rib recipe below. You can add what you want when you wrap and don't need to use sauce at the end. You'll notice I don't use a water pan. Unless there's a specific reason you need one when using the SmokeFire, I 'd eliminate it from your process.

 

[BFletcher]

Here's one thought: the actual pit temp in my SmokeFire is lower than what I set, so I place my Fireboard thermometer on the grate and adjust the SF controller until the Fireboard reads my desired pit temp. You might want to verify your actual pit temp.

 

[C Lewis]

Your method sounds great, except I don't use water, ever, in any of my smokers. Never found that it made a difference. If they are tough, it would tell me that they need more cook time. Oh, and I usually run ribs at 275F. What I am doing more recently is probing the ribs with my Thermapen, to check the temp is around 200 or so. Gets me more consistent results over just feeling them or probing with a toothpick as I used to do. I just did a hot and fast SL ribs in my Smokefire, there's a write up on it in the Smokefire forum, check it out. It is how I will be doing them that way from here on out. 2 hours and done perfect.

 

[Lew Newby]

Here's one thought: the actual pit temp in my SmokeFire is lower than what I set, so I place my Fireboard thermometer on the grate and adjust the SF controller until the Fireboard reads my desired pit temp. You might want to verify your actual pit temp.

I'm finding the same with my Smokefire. Last July I did some and the ribs on the right side were fall off the bone and the left side ribs had a tug to the bite.. My temp was set at 250 but averaged about 230. I cooked for 4 hours, wrapped for an hour and the cook still took 6 hrs..

 

[C Lewis]

Right side is always hotter. I kind of like the two zones, but I've gotten into the habit of rotating everything during the cook. I also will put the thicker part of the rack towards the right when cooking in the center.

 

[Chuck-roaniecowpony]

I don't use time as the guide for my ribs nor a meat thermometer. Regardless of the chosen pit temp, I go until the bark sets the way I like it. Then I wrap and go until the tendness I want or just shy of it, then remove the wrap and cook another 15 mins or so to tighten the bark again, sauce and go another 15 or so to set the sauce, depending on temperature. Every animal and rack is different. I try to roll with it.

 

[John Sully]

Thanks for all the info, I'm doing two racks on Sunday. See if I can get it right !!

 

[John Sully]

Thank you for the collective experience and genius !! I did (2) racks of St Louis ribs on the Smokefire and they were great ! My wife wanted Asian style ribs so she made a marinade we found online and the ribs got to marinate for 16 hours. I set he Smokefire at 275 using cherry and also hooked up my Thermoworks Smoke to monitor the air temp. They took 5 1/2 hours until they were probe tender.

 

[John Sully]

I was surprised that the air temp from the Smoke unit and the Smokefire were pretty consistent. There would be swings +/_ 15 from the set temp but it would level out for long stretches of time. The air probe was in the middle of the top rack, the ribs were on the top rack also.