1st time spare ribs

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cowboy bbq

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jan 13, 2012
38
10
Laramie, Wyoming
I have a few days off of work and it's over 40 degrees, so had to try a smoke.

Picked up 2 racks of ribs. Trimmed the fat, but didn't trim down to St Louis style. (One good trimming and boning knife each just got put at the top of my list.)

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smeared with mustard and covered with Jeff's Rub, then into the fridge for the night.

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onto the smoker at 225* for 3 hrs

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pulled and wrapped in foil with juice. Did one with Chef JimmyJ's foiling juice. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110881/foiling-juice-chef-jimmyj  and did the other with a mixture of butter, honey, and brown sugar that I saw on another site

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Still have one more hour in the foil. More to come.
 
Looking good so far - let us know how you like the foiling liquid
 
Waiting for the results!

You can get a good boning knife from the restaurant supply house for $20 or less.

Until then, a good chef knife will be the one you use 80% of the time anyway! 
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Good luck and good smoking.
 
Now for the learning part. These ribs would have probably passed the 90* bend test after removing from the foil. So I assume they were already done at that point.

I think I may have cooked them at to high of a temperature because when I unfoiled them much of the foiling juice had turned to a thick black substance and the ribs were burnt on the underside.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
 Those sure look good to me. I see you are using a mechanical therm on your cooking rack. Maybe should check your temp with a good digital.

It looks like it may have been a bit too hot, but then both the foiling juice recipes you use have a high sugar content which could make them

darker. I don't know how much liquid you put in each one. Maybe not enough to get the full effect of the braising.

 You got me wanting spare ribs.

 Chuck

 
 
 Those sure look good to me. I see you are using a mechanical therm on your cooking rack. Maybe should check your temp with a good digital. I was using my Maverick ET72 poked threw a potato before, but the differences in temperature at the center of the grate and the digital readout on the pellet smoker made me question whether a meat probe was the best thing for measuring air temperature. So I switched to the mechanical therm and have gotten similar results. With the convection effect of a pellet smoker I may just need to lower my temps.

It looks like it may have been a bit too hot, but then both the foiling juice recipes you use have a high sugar content which could make them

darker. I don't know how much liquid you put in each one. Maybe not enough to get the full effect of the braising.

 You got me wanting spare ribs.

Chuck

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 In this photo you can see the large chunk of charcoal in the corner of the ribs. I think this was the liquid, and I draw 2 conclusions from that. My temps were too high and I need to level my smoker so the juices don't puddle to one side. A simple detail I never would have considered on a grill. If there's a chance I'm wrong let me know. Drawing the wrong conclusion can take you down the wrong road, and lower my temps and under cooking my food may not be a pleasant road to go down.
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I use a cleaver and a pair of long tongs to slice the ribs.The cleaver is also great to use on my pork shoulders. Looking good enjoy the smoking life.
 
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Now ribs are one of the hardest dishes here to master. So here we eat our mistakes an learn with every dry crusty bite. Let's call it payment to the lesson. Believe me you will try harder next time knowing that you are eating what comes out of your smoker
 
Cowboy, I think you are correct about the temps and the leveling. Ribs are one of the few items that we generally don't go by temperature for several reasons. There are many good indicators of doneness such as flexibility and pull-back to go by, plus if you cook something of that thickness for 6 hours it pretty  much has to be safe to eat. Being whole muscle, it only need to get to 145 anyway. Just about everything else, let your thermometer be the judge. Even over-cooked spare ribs are fantastic eats, I even enjoy the charred spots. Ever notice how everybody wants the black hot-dog. The mistakes are still good, and the next ones will be better.

 Chuck    

 
 
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