Rib Foiling Question

[gapabral]

I could use some help as it relates to smoking ribs. Yesterday, I smoked 3 slabs on my WSM at 275 for 2.5 hours. I then foiled them using a 1/4 cup of apple juice and put them back on for 1 hour at 275. All 3 slabs just fell apart. I was sure disappointed.

The bark looked really good.

Was a 1/4 cup of the apple juice too much to add to the foil or was foiling for one hour the problem?

1 hour of foiling does not seem like a long time.

Sure appreciate any thoughts?

 

[BruceB]

1 hour at 275º was probably the problem. I do mine (spares) at 250º for 3 hours then foil for 1 hour maybe 1 hour and 15 minutes with the usual suspects added to the foil.

 

[Crash]

What type of ribs were you cooking?

 

[dosvans]

At that temp, you need no more than 2 hours before you wrap.

 

[gapabral]

thank you guys for your input. I cooked spares.

 

[Lake Dogs]

Slightly different angle, because I'm not certain 275 for 3.5 hours is your issue. Shoot, I do BB's at 270 for 4 or 4.25 hours and they're not falling apart, not just yet. Very close, but not.

When you say you're cooking at 275, tell us more there. Where are you measuring your temps? How are you measuring your temperature. To me it's looking like you were probably cooking much closer to 300 than 275.

 

[TRS]

Was the WSM thermometer calibrated? Always good to check the thermometer periodically for accuracy then troubleshoot from there. As Lake Dogs said you may have been cooking at a higher temp.

 

[mobow]

Agree with above. My grate temp is about 20 degrees higher than thermometer reads on the dome of my WSM. keith

 

[Bentley]

There will be many variables when you foil. You can get different results went you mix liquid & temperature & time. Each can make a difference in the outcome. Probably not what you want to hear, but pratice will be about the only true answer...

 

[Lake Dogs]

^^^ That was what I was thinking... Darned if that doesn't put it right at 300+-.

 

[gapabral]

that may be the problem. I was just measuring off the WSM dome thermometer, which I kept between 270 and 280( or tried my hardest to) throughout the cook.

have not had the WSM too long and was looking for a grate thermometer over the weekend and could not find one.

If it is around 20 degrees hotter, that would explain it.

For some reason, I was thinking there was not a huge difference in temp between the dome thermometer and grate but actually I went back and reread some older posts and it was that there was not a huge difference in temp between the top and bottom grate.

thank you

 

[gapabral]

there are some pretty "fart smellers" around here:-D