Ribs - how to smoke them?

Try it the simple way of just putting them on the smoker and cooking till done using the bend test. Depending on temp will obviously determine your time. Go 250'ish and they should take around 5hrs give or take. Then try foil after that and see what flavors and cooking technique you like more. Half the fun is trying different stuff :-D.

What are you doing Spares or baby backs I like baby backs at 235 for 2 hrs, then wrapped with honey and brown sugar for an hour then unwrapped for an hour

I suggest starting simple, just an indirect cook and low temps (225*-250*) with a good simple rub (just S&P with a dash of paprika and/or garlic is pretty dang good). Cook time will vary with style of ribs (baby back, spares or St Louis cut), but plan on 5 hours plus or minus 2 hours. Just cook them until they pass the bend test, no sauce or glaze (let folks add what they want at the table). If you are worried about them drying out spritz or mop with a little apple juice. Once you get this down you can start playing with stuff like foil or BP, sauces, glazes, more complex rubs, etc.

I found Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue a useful tool, it has some helpful time and temp tables and a pretty good narrative on cooking technique.

Good luck.

I tried the 2-2-1 method and concurrently, I just left a rack uncovered the entire time (indirect), but did squirt w/some apple juice every now and then. When done, both were the same, at least to me, so I won't fool w/the foil again.

hokiebob said:

I tried the 2-2-1 method and concurrently, I just left a rack uncovered the entire time (indirect), but did squirt w/some apple juice every now and then. When done, both were the same, at least to me, so I won't fool w/the foil again.

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dwfisk said:

I suggest starting simple, just an indirect cook and low temps (225*-250*) with a good simple rub (just S&P with a dash of paprika and/or garlic is pretty dang good). Cook time will vary with style of ribs (baby back, spares or St Louis cut), but plan on 5 hours plus or minus 2 hours. Just cook them until they pass the bend test, no sauce or glaze (let folks add what they want at the table). If you are worried about them drying out spritz or mop with a little apple juice. Once you get this down you can start playing with stuff like foil or BP, sauces, glazes, more complex rubs, etc.
.

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^ Good Advice from both.

I agree, learn the basics before you foil if you feel the need to do so.
.

I cook around 250 for 6 hours or so. I dry rub with a texas rub 24 hours prior. I also cook up my homemade sauce and refrigerate it the same night. 1 1/2-2 hours before the ribs are done I ladle my sauce all over them and put the lid back on. This is done with direct heat and no foil. Ribs naked on the rack.

The last ribs I did I tried to remove the membrane from the backside. I didn't have much luck so I said screw it lol.

Prep ribs-remove skin from bone side and season

Hang baby backs 3:45 minutes in Pit Barrel Cooker

Remove ribs apply layer of Stubbs Sweet & Spicey

Re-hang ribs for 30 minutes

Remove let rest for 15-30 minutes

Enjoy



If you don't have a Pit Barrel Cooker or an Ugly Drum Smoker.
Buy or make a barrel cooker. The sooner you do the sooner you will enjoy "the best you've ever made" ribs.


Sauce step is optional.
YouTube has videos on easy membrane removal
Cooking Ribs, like golf, is an individual sport. Just because a method is different it doesn't make it wrong. Find your game. You've got it, or you wouldn't be on this website.

16Adams said:

Prep ribs-remove skin from bone side and season

Hang baby backs 3:45 minutes in Pit Barrel Cooker

Remove ribs apply layer of Stubbs Sweet & Spicey

Re-hang ribs for 30 minutes

Remove let rest for 15-30 minutes

Enjoy





If you don't have a Pit Barrel Cooker or an Ugly Drum Smoker.
Buy or make a barrel cooker. The sooner you do the sooner you will enjoy "the best you've ever made" ribs.


Sauce step is optional.
YouTube has videos on easy membrane removal

Click to expand...

I tried to cut and remove the membrane last batch I did with pliers and a sharp knife. It wasn't as easy as it looked like it would be. I never accomplished it. The membrane didn't just peel off like catfish skin like I had hoped. It peeled off in little strings leaving 99.9% behind. I just couldn't get it done. Since I had never removed it before, I decided it wasn't worth it so I gave up. I wish I could have got it done though just to try it.

I agree with the slower indirect cook.

Add salt, pepper and whatever if you want.
Remove the membrane from the back/bone side, simple to do. Just take a paring knife and get it under the skin on a bone and then get your finger under it and pull it off.

Get your pit/grill upto temp 250/275 and put them on indirect. Not over the heat.
as was said give em 5 +/- hours and you're good to go.
the bend test will tell you wheb they're done.

Also keep your top vents open and control heat/smoke from the bottom/intake vent.
Good luck :thumb:

Dull butter knife and paper towel. You can remove membrane safely and easily from three racks of ribs in under one minute. Again-check YouTube.

Or don't remove it. They are your ribs.

Some don't. Enjoy

16Adams said:

Dull butter knife and paper towel. You can remove membrane safely and easily from three racks of ribs in under one minute. Again-check YouTube.

Or don't remove it. They are your ribs.

Some don't. Enjoy

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Sorry I didn't see your last sentence about you tube. I actually did watch you tube videos before I tried it last time. I will research it more.

10 posts, 10 different ways and all very good. I've done them every way possible and still have good cooks and bad.
Take these guys advise, then as time goes on, you'll add your own twist and share it with us.
Just my thought.

This is the best way IMO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbBFZstQRUY

Just experiment...i started out as a 3-2-1 and now i'm a olive oil, rub and go nekkid for 3-4 hours until they're tooth pick tender.

There is a lot of good advice here for you to pick through, however if I were to throw in some advice I would tell you that the only way to learn how to smoke up a batch of ribs would be to start. You can't do what everyone say to do the first time. Pick out a simple method and do it! Then and only then after you have cooked them will you know how it went. From that point on you will start to have some experience and you can start to build your own method. Good luck and welcome to the Brethen

The bend test is best for doneness. How you get there is up to you, your preference for taste (yes, different methods produce different tasting results), and how your smoker performs. Some if left on smoke will produce VERY smokey ribs; mine for example. I do foil, but that's to limit the amount of smoke. Some like it completely smokey; others dont. Again, all preference.

One thing to KNOW, when people are talking about the temperature, that is NOT the temperature reading/showing on your external mounted thermometer. Rarely if ever these temperatures are those on your cooking surface. THAT's where we're talking about measuring cooking temperatures.

As ribs can get very leathery if cooked too low, I suggest cooking in that 250 - 280 range. This way if it dips a little here or there, no big deal. A small spike or two, no biggie. BUT if you're cooking in that 225 range and later find out that your cooking grate temperature is more like 20 to 30 degrees below your thermometer (as was mine on one of my original smokers, you'll end up with leather....

KISS. Indirect. 250-280. Sweet blue smoke the whole way. YOu'll be ok. If you like less smoke, foil. If you're higher in that range on average, you're looking at 4 hours. Lower in the range; more like 5 hours. Total.

So how do you cook ribs on a uds if direct heat isn't an option. Just curious.

What is the bend test? I have heard of people looking at the bones showing?

Gettinit said:

What is the bend test? I have heard of people looking at the bones showing?

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Bend test is when you pick up the slab with tongs in the middle. They should bend 90*. Also pullback of meat on bones should be about a half inch average.