Flavorful ribs?

[K-Train]

In the 250 range. Around 4 hrs.

 

[Lake Dogs]

Some marinade ribs overnight, some dont. I do, in a mixture of apple juice, worchestershire sauce, and water (on ice). It seems to help get a little fruity flavor
down deep in the meat.

Some rub and let sit a while, some dont. I take mine out of the marinade about an hour before putting on the smoker and hit the rub at that time.

Some foil, some dont. I do. If I'm doing a Memphis rib (no sauce) I'll spritz and put in a little butter and/or light dusting of the rub with some sugar in it again before wrapping up. If not, I'll just spritz and wrap, and then a VERY light/thin coating of very hot (to the touch) sauce right before closing the lid on the clam shell.

I smoke them on hickory at 275+-. Process is 4.25 hours+-, depending on how long I have the smoker open when foiling and whether I'm doing a KCBS rib or an MBN/GBA rib.

 

[boogiesnap]

I cook them 245, just curious what temp others cook at

i cook @ 275* currently. but have cooked anywhere from 225 to 325 and never noticed a difference in flavor, only cook time.

i did experience early on a couple times the hammy taste from overnighting rubbed ribs. now i just rub and let sweat out to a nice paste. maybe 1/2 an hour.

 

[Jaskew82]

I cook at 255 (or so) for a few hours. Wrap in foil for around an hour. Glaze, cut and box. As for rub, I rub about 30 minutes before putting on the smoker, let it sweat and throw it on. I want to make sure the rub as completely liquified to avoid any potential burning.

 

[JS-TX]

My ribs are "IBCA" tender (tender but not quite falling off the bone) in about 3.5 hours if smoking at 275* in my bubba kegs. Foiling for an hour really accelerates the cook in my experience. I didn't used to foil, but for whatever reason I started noticing a thin but tough bark that made it hard to cut through w/out shredding up the ribs or coming all off when taking a bite. I might try wrapping in butcher paper and see what happens.

Couple more questions: Do you guys let your ribs rest awhile before slicing and turning in? Does anybody rub w/any type of oil before applying your rub? I've done this a few times, not sure if I noticed a difference.

 

[JS-TX]

Sometimes you can overthink things also. They're just ribs. Rub em and smoke em.

I generally agree, but when you keep getting your butt kicked in ribs ... something needs to change. Maybe the judges around here don't like plowboy's yardbird? Hard to believe IMO. When I hand out samples at comps, people like them and if anything they tell me I need more flavor or complexity which I am trying to achieve in a simple type of way.

 

[Untraceable]

dont be afraid to modify yardbird. I use it as a base but notice some things are missing in the final product so I supplement yardbird to hit the profiles I want

 

[OldStyle]

Cooking them between 240-260 you get the best flavor. I was cooking them 225 and it work great for the larger cuts however it dosent develop any internal flavor in ribs.

 

[JS-TX]

dont be afraid to modify yardbird. I use it as a base but notice some things are missing in the final product so I supplement yardbird to hit the profiles I want

So you apply a tweaked version of yardbird later on during your cook? Can you drop a hint of what you add? Onion powder?

 

[tuckerdog99]

What about using either mustard on the ribs before putting on the rub
I have also seen a suggestion for putting Worchestershire on before the rub
Thoughts?

 

[boogiesnap]

home bbq rib rub is excellent...so is williams rib tickler.

leave the worcestshire for beef ribs IMHO.

 

[ITBFQ]

I used to rub overnight, but was told by Tuffy Stone to not do that. The salt in the rub can start to cure the meat and you could end up with a hammy taste.

Every time I have rubbed my ribs overnight, I have experienced the same thing. They begin to take on a ham-like texture and taste. The salt pulls much of the natural juice (and flavor, IMO) out of the ribs. Marinading overnight works, if you do it after your meat is inspected (according to KCBS rules.)

I also make sure I get my ribs from my local meat market - it's amazing what a difference this makes. Just my two cents!

 

[Lake Dogs]

Mind you, I love Plowboy's Yardbird and I really like Head Country. However, have you ever done a sauce tasting on those ribs?

You said: I don't put anything in the foil, it seemed all I was getting out of it was the sweetness from the typical mixture of honey, brown sugar and butter. I will then glaze with a combination of head country and my own glaze.


I use Head Country now only in Brunswick Stew. The reason is that of the 16 base sauces the we tried on our BBQ (using a rub VERY similar to Plowboy's Yardbird), it was one of the 12 sauces that conflicted with the flavors. I dont remember exactly, but I think the smoke flavorings in it really conflicted with the smoke we/I used, which is a mixture of 80% hickory and 20% oak...

When we did the test we were all very surprised. 12 of us bet as to which sauce would win; all 12 of us lost the bet. We now have a sauce that's a combination of 3
of the base sauces that does go well with my Q.

What I'm suggesting is that your rub and other things may be perfect and you may be messing up with the sauce.

Also, some will put the sauce on and then put it back on the smoker. I dare you to try it one time without doing this, and side by side try a rib having been back on the smoker. You'd be surprised how much smoke flavor the sauce will pick up. You could end up with over-smoked tasting ribs.

 

[JS-TX]

Wow interesting info Lake Dogs, thanks! My ribs are quite smoky, it's especially noticable with left overs, they are not bitter or anything but smoky indeed. The one thing I don't care for with HC is the liquid smoke taste. I found that adding lemon juice to it before I glaze helps tone it down a little.. IMO anyway. I never thought finding a rub/sauce combo would be so tricky. Looks like I got a lot work to do.

 

[Lake Dogs]

Good luck. I'd hate to see you go all over the place with the ribs when it might be that final step...

I cannot stress enough how surprised all 12 of us (judging the Q; I wanted to know everyones opinion, not just mine) were at what did work, but mostly what DIDN'T work. Some great tasting sauces just clashed like words dont describe. Head Country, while a great KC style sauce, clashed too. For that matter, we had probably 9 or 10 of the 16 sauce had some smoke flavorings in them, all of them didnt make the final cut. Mind you, this was on my BBQ, your results may be different.

I was just sure Sweet Baby Ray's, or Head Country, or a few others would shine through. They didn't.

With something like Plowboy's to start with, you've got a pretty good rib right there without sauce. That's what has me thinking you're heading the wrong way...


Oh, side note: IF you do decide to have a sauce tasting party (on your BBQ), a few of the things I/we did really right was to first look at a normal judging pool and then assemble friends that way. Most of our folks were over 50, some men, some women, some smokers, some not. We all sampled this stone cold sober (as a judge does) after having coffee, orange juice, some sausage biscuits, etc. that morning. It makes a difference. I'm afraid that most newer teams figure out that they can make decent BBQ after more than a few beers, usually late in an evening after a BBQ cook took longer than expected. They're very hungry, 1/2 drunk, and nothing to compare to. While this makes a great recipe for marriage, it doesn't necessarily make for award winning BBQ.

 

[Fat Woody]

...They're very hungry, 1/2 drunk, and nothing to compare to. While this makes a great recipe for marriage, it doesn't necessarily make for award winning BBQ.

That there is funny! And true...:wink:

Some random thoughts (like all free advice, take it for what it's worth):

Are we talking spares or BB's? I personally prefer BB's but we don't compete often enough to give any qualified results head-to-head; I know a lot of folks say spares are more flavorful but, our last couple rib scores with BB's were better than with spares.

I have also gotten away from rubbing overnight or using overly flavorful marinades on ribs, both in competition and at home. I couldn't taste the pork in our comp ribs anymore. Then I borrowed a page from Pitmaster Donny T's book and did a couple racks at home with just salt, pepper and smoke - some of the best ribs I've ever made - and I started re-thinking the process (thanks brother Donny!).

I think brining can be useful, but a couple of hours is all it takes or you'll end up with those salty, hammy ribs perfect for flavoring bean soup. It will carry flavor into the meat and can help in getting layered flavors and added moisture. Just mind the salt in your rub if brining.

And lastly, if you're specifically cooking for a non-Texas (KCBS) crowd, you might want to ease up on the oak and try either pecan or an apple/hickory mix.

 

[Lake Dogs]

TY TY, I'm here all night!

Seriously though, judging MIM and MBN on-site can be very enlightening in many ways, this above being one. If I had $100 for every first time team that I judged on-site that got involved this way (1/2 drunk, starving to death, eat a rib that isn't completely gross, and have that epiphany "Hey, LETS COMPETE") I'd be rather wealthy right now...
A few actually do ok. The rest, well, I've never seen them compete again. Sad, but true.

 

[Jason TQ]

I used to rub overnight, but was told by Tuffy Stone to not do that. The salt in the rub can start to cure the meat and you could end up with a hammy taste.

I haven't experienced this yet. Ribs are normally one of my better categories.

 

[Untraceable]

I haven't experienced this yet. Ribs are normally one of my better categories.

I can understand it with salt heavy rubs. I went from a sugar based rub that seemed to excel under long rub conditions to a yardbird based rub which is much heavier on the salt and I find that rubbing 30min-1hr before they go on to be the best. I just think whatever your using needs to be a balance of the simple senses of taste

salt-sweet-spice-savory need to balance. If your sauce is super sweet, (cough cough blues hog based), you can get away with a much saltier and spicy rub to create that balance. I find that your product becomes very subjective when that balance leans in a certain direction. Havent met a judge that cant enjoy a balanced rib, but there are more than a far share that hate spicy, or too sweet, or too salty.

 

[Q-Dat]

I used to rub overnight, but was told by Tuffy Stone to not do that. The salt in the rub can start to cure the meat and you could end up with a hammy taste.

By any chance would you happen to know if the rub that you let sit overnight, and resulted in the hammy tasting ribs contained celery? Celery is high in sodium nitrate, and I have often wondered if the hammy taste that people get from rubbing way in advance is to blame for this and not the salt.

A pork loin cured with sodium nitrate will taste like ham when smoked, but a pork loin brined overnight in a solution that is high in regular salt, and then smoked will not.