Rib Internal Temp

rlic80

rlic80

Knows what a fatty is.
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I am working on my second cook (ever!!!) currently. Last week, I had some issues with a rack of spare ribs. My UDS wouldn't stay up to temp. I adjusted my charcoal basket and coal amounts this week.

Currently, I have two racks of loin back ribs going. I started them almost 2 hours ago and my probe thermometer says they're both at an internal temp of 170. This is normally where I'd pull them off, but at only 2 hours for racks that weigh 2 3/4 lbs, I thought that was too short.

Any thoughts from you seasoned smokers? My drum temps have been holding steady at 200 for the entire cook now. Should I pull them? I was going to take them to a friends party in a few hours, I don't want them to be overcooked.

Thanks,
Rob
 
If they pull cleanly from the bone, you are good to go. Ribs are a FEEL think, not temp.
 
If you've truly be cooking them at 200 degrees and that thermomter on the pit is accurate, you need close to 2 more hours, more like two hours to go if you want tender ribs.

Hold up the rack with a pair of tongs, see if the meat starts folding over at the top end and starts to break away where the tip of the tongs are.

Or twist the two rib bones toward the middle and see if the meat begins to break away.
 
Yeah, I just flipped them over and they certainly didn't FEEL or LOOK ready. I was just wondering if that internal temp matters at this point. Will it hold that temp for some time? Or is that not an accurate representation of they're "doneness"?

I do think that its possible my pit thermometer is off. Is there a way to accurately test this?

Next weekend is my official labor day 'que, so I wanna get all the kinks worked out this weekend
 
I've never used a thermometer on ribs. Like PB says ribs is a looky feely thing, the tests others have given for doneness are valid just use them.
 
make sure your prob is not touching a bone. That happened to me once or twice..
 
I've never used a probe on ribs so I have no idea of what the temps should be like. On BBs though I usually go until the color is like I want them... usually about 2 1/2 hours. Then I foil for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Then I open up the foil and start giving them the "feel" test. When you can pick them up in the middle and they bend a good bit and the bark cracks I pull them off.

I certainly don't know how they could be any where near done in two hours at anything close to those kinds of temps.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I kept them on and haven't looked at them since flipping. I'm taking them off now (at 3 1/2 hours) and foiling them for an hour while I head off to the party. I'll let ya know how they come out later tonight.
 
I got my new thermopen the other day and the only thing I have cooked since I got it were some spares.

I cook ribs to feel but I did test the temps trying out the thermopen. After 3 hours, they were at 150.

I would imagine IF you were going to try to gauge doneness/tenderness by temp, you would go with roughly the same temps as butts. Loin ribs would probably not need to go as long as spares.
 
On my drum I measure temp with a typical dial thermometer installed in the side. I also have a electronic probe that extends @ 8" into drum. When the elect. probe is @230 the dial is selling @200. Usually I quick reference the dial and let it cruise @200.
 
Well, they came out well. After 3 1/2 hours of my UDS temp reading 200 & my probe temp reading 230 (same exact issue here Norco!), I took them off and wrapped them in foil.
1246212144_f39196b135.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1399/1246212144_f39196b135.jpg

After a 30minute drive to the party and another 30min of sitting pretty in the foil, I unwrapped them and threw them on the top rack of a Char-Broil 3 burner they had at the party for 30min or so.

Unfortunately, while wrapping and packing the ribs I left the camera at home. So I couldn't grab a pic of them once they were falling off the bone.

They went over well with everyone and I must say they were damn tasty. So, while the past two weeks have been good learning experiences and I haven't quite gotten down the fire control/temp regulation like I would've hoped, I've produced two mighty tasty batches of ribs (spare & loin).

Next week is the first big cook for a party at my place. I'll be posting throughout the week for suggestions and tips on how to make it go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks guys.

Rob
 
If that's the "skirtmeat" sitting on top in the photo, you can trim that off "St. Louis" style and give that out as tidbits before the ribs are done. It will finish in half the time and extremely tasty..
 
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