smoking ribs

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prodano

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From time to time I have taken my ribs off of the smoker prematurely and turned a could be great rack of ribs into a ehhh so-so rack. I just started smoking st louis cut ribs as opposed to bb's and regular spares. My question for the fellow smokers is how long and at what temp does everybody smoke theirs at. Also, what internal temp. The majority of the time I do dr. bbq's method of smoking the ribs then wrapping them in aluminum foil with honey, brown sugar, and apple juice and cooking them some more. Are their any other tips, techniques, or anything I should change? Thanks for the help!
 
The temp range I use is between 225-250 and I use a modified 3-2-1 method for St Louie cut ribs, that is 3 hrs smoked 2 hrs wrapped in foil w/apple juice/cider and 1 hr unwrapped to firm them up and put your favorite sauce on. This is not necessarily what you would do for a competition but it is what I do for the family. There are no absolutes, experiment what works best on your particular cooker and see what turns out the way you want them. Good Luck and please report back to us.
 
I cook my ribs at 225 - 250 also. For BBs they usually cook for 4 1/2 hours and for St. Louis trimmed spares around 5 1/2 hours, depending on the size of the rack (This is Q-Talk boys... :-D). I cook using either a WSM or a Good One 42 and both have a vertical airflow (close enough to vertical on the Good One) so I rarely foil my ribs unless I have to take them somewhere. Then i foil them with some sauce and put them into a cooler to hold for travel. Also, I don't cook ribs by internal temp. I go by pull-back and feel.
 
How do you go by pull back and feel. I tried gauging mine by picking up the rack with tongs and looking at the bend, but I am not too good at doing this.
 
At the top of this forum there is a thread called KC's Roadmap with links to the collected experience of the Brethren. There is alot of great information there including rib prep.
 
prodano said:
How do you go by pull back and feel. I tried gauging mine by picking up the rack with tongs and looking at the bend, but I am not too good at doing this.
Click to expand...

It comes with experience. Pullback is the distance the meat has "pulled back" from the edge of the bone during cooking. Usually you are looking for at least 1/4" for done ribs.
 
prodano said:
How do you go by pull back and feel. I tried gauging mine by picking up the rack with tongs and looking at the bend, but I am not too good at doing this.
Click to expand...

This just takes practice, it will come to you. It is really the only way to test ribs for doneness, which makes ribs somewhat tricky to cook. When the ribs are bending you want to look for the meat to almost be breaking but not quite.

Like BigMista says you also want to look for the meat to pull back from the end of the bone 1/8" to 1/4".
 
Another good way to check for doneness is to pick them up in the middle with tongs. If they bend almost in 2 or look like they are going to fall apart, they're done.:wink:
 
I smoke 'em at 225-250 as well on a rib rack...turn after 2 hours...do my first pull test at 3 hours...and check them every 30 min or so after first pull.

JD
 
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