Brisket & Ribs

Brisket- I'm with ya. I haven't done a lot myself and most of what I have done is just flats. Got a whole packer for today and this is what I did. On the rack till about halfway done, then into the foil. After a couple hours in foil I pulled it out, cut off the point to make burnt ends, and the flat back into the smoker to get a nice bark on it (and saved all the jus in the foil). Once up to temp I re-wrapped flat in foil and a blanket and into the cooler to rest. I skimmed the fat off the jus and added some back in with the flat when i re-wrapped to rest. I also mixed some jus with sauce, apple juice, and some water to make a glaze for the burnt ends and some to serve. I still have some jus/ apple juice mixture set aside that I might reheat to dip leftovers in so they are still nice and juicy and hot when I serve them. The flat is still resting and I smoked the burnt ends for a couple more hours. Sauced the last 30-40 minutes. Getting ready to pull them off. Will post some pr0n when it's all done and let you know how it turned out. As far as temps and times I'm cookin at about 250-265ish for about 6-7 hours on the flat to 195 internal temp, then 2-3 hour rest.

Ribs - The spares (st louis) just do them a little lower and a little slower than the baby backs and for a bit longer. Look up the "bend test"

Ribs are not supposed to fall off the bone. If they do, they are over done.

Here's how it turned out. Nice smoke on the flat, pulls apart very easily, but could have been slightly more tender on the chew. Maybe a little hotter and faster? Any thoughts on this? The burnt ends got too much smoke, should have covered the pan halfway through the second phase of cooking. Still tasted great. Needed to render a little more fat, but very very tender. I will keep practicing but I'm hoping these notes will help others who are learning as well. Sorry if it seems like I hijacked your thread, I just thought my experience might help yours! Good luck!

A lot of people use the 3-2-1 method (search and you will find a ton of info on that) for spareribs. I've tried so many different ways I haven't really decided on what works best for me. I'm actually going to buy a case at sam's club and just try doing several cooks in a row until I get it perfect.

If you are still subscribed to your threads you can find them in your user control panel. An easy way to find all your posts is just to do a search for your username. Hope that helps.

Try doing your ribs at 275° or so, and just leave them directly on the rack until they pass the bend test:



St. Louis trimmed spares usually run around 4-5 hours at that temp

Brisket - I inject. It takes longer through the stall but it is more moist. So off the top of my head I think I used apple juice, a touch of corse sea salt dissolved and wostashire sauce. Think 12-16 oz juice to 2 tbsp wost sauce and 1 tbst corse seal salt. It is not a compatition injection because of the wost sauce but it brings the beef flavor out a bit.

Ribs - Bend test, spares take a bit longer. There is less fat than back type ribs so it takes longer for the connective tissue to break down and give nice tender & moist ribs. Hence the call for slow and low or "real" BBQ.