First Smoke in New WSM - Ribs... Undercooked or Overcooked???

Ribs will come out great on the WSM.....when done right. You can't go by what the thermometer on the lid says....they are usually off by quite a bit. The best thing to do is to get a know accurate probe thermometer and place it on the grate you are cooking on a see what the actual temp is. But 260 degrees really isn't all that bad.....if in fact that's what the temp was. My 22.5 WSM lid thermometer reads 15-20 degrees higher than the actual grate temp.

Any way.....here's what has worked for me time after time. Rub the ribs down with whatever rub you plan on using. Put them in the smoker when you get it up to temp. Leave the top vent open 100% close 2 of the bottom vents and control your temps with one bottom vent. Leave the lid closed for 4 or 5 hours before even opening it. After that time you can start doing the bend test. Pick the racks up in the middle and if they bend in half then they are done. If not simply place back on the smoker and check them every 30 minutes or so. If you're going to fiddle with mopping them just do it once or twice at the end of the smoke.....But the key here is to leave the lid closed and let the WSM work it's magic.

This technique works every single time for me.....it took me a while to figure it out and to just leave the ribs be while they are smoking. If I can do it anyone can........

P.S. That top rack doesn't appear to be done yet....and the bottom one is probably pretty close. The meat pulling back off of the bone can also help in determining when they are done.

The ribs look pretty good. If you left them in the foil for a full 2.5 hrs. they should be very tender - it may have been due to the extra meat on them, but just keep tweaking your foil time till you get the results you want.

They look and sound Perfect to me! Next time cook them just like that and then send them to me, I like a little tug to them!

Like Johnny said, adjust your foil time and maybe add a little more liquid so they braise better, if you want them to fall off the bone.

Been a while since I posted it but it's worth a repeat- this is when my ribs are done AKA "The Bend Test"-


IMHO your ribs look done to perfection, fall off the bone(or bone falls out as it should be called) is way over done IMHO.

Ok, first I got to say that I just did my first ribs the past weekend, so no expert. But my ribs did come out falling off  of the bones, moist and tasty according to my wife. So this is what I did and what went wrong but came out right. Friday night rubbed down my ribs with some rub in a jar Wrapped in saran and put back in the refrig. Next morning I started the fire at 6 am and filled the charcoal ring with a void on one side for the starter charcoal. Once the charcoal in the stove pipe is going well, dumped in the fire ring. I have no water in the water pan and it is not foiled or with any kind of sand or flower pot pan in the water pan. After about 30 min I am still at 245 degrees. intakes are closed, except one under door, it is about 25% open and exhaust is full open. Was going to let it go for 3 hrs, but due to the higher than 225 degrees, cut it off after 2.5 hours. So I take the rack off and put in foil with about quarter cup of apple juice. I screwed up and left the lid off of the 22.5" WSM. After getting the rack back on the smoker and the lid on. I discover that now I am at 300 degrees. Even closing down the intakes, The temperature would not drop. I think that all of the charcoal lit up. So instead of going for 2 hrs, I cut it short to 1 hr and 15 min. At this time, I pull the rack back out of the foil and brush on some Jack Danial's BBQ sauce with hickory flavoring. Again I am still running about 300 degrees so I cut the 1 hr down to 30 minutes.

When taking the rack out of the foil. I noticed that I had tonged it in the middle and the rib bones were trying to break out, did a little. We ended not eating them Saturday night. But heated them up in the microwave Sunday night and they where great. Had to watch how much meat came with a bite. The meat was just falling off of the bone and one bite could bring it all at once.

Now maybe this was beginners luck. I hope the next time I have just a slight bit of bite where the whole thing does not come off in one bite. Everything I did was based on reading other people experiences. I realized I was running to hot. So, on the fly I reduced my time. I went from 3-2-1 to 2.5-1.25-.5

I got lucky, had no idea what I was doing for sure. Good luck on your next rack and keep your fingers crossed for me this next weekend (labor day weekend)

Paul
 

I forgot to mention two things. First is that I placed the rack bones down and I have a spray bottle with apple juice and I gave the rack a good spritzing at 1 and 2 hrs into the cook.

245° is close to optimum for ribs IMHO, don't get too enamored with 225° temp, if your cooker wants to cook at 245° let it cook.

Most smokes I try to keep it at 250-275. I try not to stress too much over the smoker temp, I just adjust my cook times as needed. When the meat is done it is done. Lately mine have gone fast for the most part. I don't want mine to fall off the bone to where you can't cut or handle them. I do want them to be very tender.

From the pics you posted they looked great. Sounds like you need to "Test" your method again...:biggrin: Oh darn more Q to eat..... Life is rough that way......

jarjarchef said:

 Sounds like you need to "Test" your method again...

Oh darn more Q to eat..... Life is rough that way......

Click to expand...

jarjar,

I like the way you think.

or you can stick a tooth pick inbetween the bones and it should slide out real easy, then u know they are done... falling of the bone are technically over cooked... ur ribs look great in the pics..

They do look kinda dry for some reason. You did say Baby Backs, which normally do not go 3-2-1 but more like 2-2-1. I actually do them 2-1.5-1.

They look beautiful. Great pullback so the only thing I can think is more time in the foil. You also splashed some apple juice on them when you foiled them up, so very strange. Just might have needed more time in that foil.

I have to say they look great, and it sounds like the flavor was on point.  I used to get only Baby Backs from Costco, but found that meat at one end of the rack was much thicker than at the other end which made them very hard to cook.  The brand was swift.  I have since switched to spare ribs from Costco from Smithfield.  My theory is that they grow the pigs bigger so that they get bigger (no better) pieces of meat to sell for more money.  I try to find spares that have a consistent thickness from end to end.  Good luck, like jarjar said the more you try the more you get to eat.