Spare Ribs Bones up or down?

smokeyvols · Sep 6, 2012

I'm about to do my first spare rib smoke on Saturday using the 3-2-1 method. I have read a couple places that say to put them in bone side up...which I assume means the bones are curving upwards. Is this true in how to smoke them, or did I miss interpret something? Also on the extra meat you remove when trimming spares how long do you usually smoke it for it to be done?

whtplainssmoker · Sep 6, 2012

Welcome to the Forum SmokeyVols! I asked a similar question when I first joined. If I recall, the general consensus was bone side down, meat facing upwards. The smoke will get in either way, and if you have them meat side down, you will be getting cooking grate imprints on your meat. If you foil, I have heard people say meat side down while in the foil so they stay moist with any juice or liquid you have in the foil. But I usually leave them meat up in the foil too.

red dog · Sep 6, 2012

Pig is good. But I do bones down. Never tried it any other way. Do 2 racks, one up and one down and see if there is a dif.

chef jimmyj · Sep 7, 2012

It really don't matter. I frequently use Rib Racks and that stands them up. As far as the trim, I cut the meat away from the Cartilage so all the meat is pretty thin. The Skirt meat, the small Flank meat and the thin meat I trimmed took 2 hours at 240*F to cook. Some was a snack and the rest went into Beans...JJ

scarbelly · Sep 7, 2012

Chef JimmyJ said:
It really don't matter. I frequently use Rib Racks and that stands them up. As far as the trim, I cut the meat away from the Cartilage so all the meat is pretty thin. The Skirt meat, the small Flank meat and the thin meat I trimmed took 2 hours at 240*F to cook. Some was a snack and the rest went into Beans...JJ

X2 I also use the racks

ptcruiserguy · Sep 7, 2012

First and foremost I would like to welcome you "neighbor" to SMF.

I always smoke ribs meat up. When I foil I put meat down.

Haven't had a fail rib smoke as of yet.

Make sure you take some snapshots and post them when you are finished.

We all like pics.

Mike

smokedreb · Sep 7, 2012

I never really thought about it until I did one rack that did not turn out, from now on when I do ribs I will split the time in half when they are on the grill: bone side down first then I flip them over and foil meat side down.

P.s. I have not noticed any grill marks on the ribs that I have done. (or I am too busy eating them to care/notice)

sqwib · Sep 7, 2012

Ditto Jimmy on the trimmings and also for chili,

Fast and Hot, Bone Side Down

20120721063.JPG

sqwib
Sep 7, 2012

20120721105.JPG

sqwib
Sep 7, 2012

Low and Slow with rack bone side facing the reverse flow opening

20110521223.JPG

sqwib
Sep 7, 2012

Low and Slow no rack bone side down

sorry no pic

Closing notes.

I think I would much rather have the heat blast the bone side if I had a choice.

I believe the weep method suggests bone up so when the ribs bleed their pig gold, and you turn off the heat, the pig gold redistributes back into the ribs, but then again this is a topic for another day.

Smoke on brother!

baja traveler · Sep 7, 2012

I also do the bone side down method, though it never occurred to me to put meat side down in the foil - I'll have to try that some time to see if there is a difference.

Also - I did 3-2-1 the first time I did ribs (St Louis cut) and they were fall off the bone over-done, but still tasted good.

The next time I did 3 - 1 1/2 - 1/2 and they come out perfectly.

Last weekend I tried my first whole rack - trimmed the skirt, but left everything else. I figured it would take the 3-2-1, but after I unfoiled they were done, so it seems that no matter what I do it takes 5 hours instead of 6 in my smoker @ 250*

red dog · Sep 7, 2012

Baja Traveler said:
I also do the bone side down method, though it never occurred to me to put meat side down in the foil - I'll have to try that some time to see if there is a difference.

Also - I did 3-2-1 the first time I did ribs (St Louis cut) and they were fall off the bone over-done, but still tasted good.

The next time I did 3 - 1 1/2 - 1/2 and they come out perfectly.

Last weekend I tried my first whole rack - trimmed the skirt, but left everything else. I figured it would take the 3-2-1, but after I unfoiled they were done, so it seems that no matter what I do it takes 5 hours instead of 6 in my smoker @ 250*

X2 on this. Tried the 3-2-1 on my MES 40 at 250-260 temp and the ribs were too tender after 3-2 and had to eat them as is. They were still good but fall off the bone. Think I might try 3-1.5 and then a quick hot sear on the gas grill tomorow.

sqwib · Sep 7, 2012

Baja and Red, same here

Max 5 hours @ 250°

I shave 20 minutes off each step.for trimmed ribs

Next rib cook gonna try 3 - 1 - .5 also

I think they get overdone in the foil stage for 2 hours

3 -2 - 1 is the way to go if you can keep the pit at 225, that is if you prefer fall off the bone.

smokeyvols · Sep 8, 2012

Thanks for all the advice. I ended up getting spare ribs on sale that were already trimmed to St. Louis style. The ribs are now in the smoker in the smoking stage and I'm about to baste them in an hour. So far so good ran into a couple hiccups though. The membrane took a little longer for me to remove so that set my timeline back a bit. I'm am running low on rub so I didn't get the bottom covered as much as I wanted to. Luckily I loved the rub recipe that I made last night. Now I'm just sitting waiting... hoping the rain holds off...watching football and drinking a nice Yuengling. I'll try and post pictures soon.

smokeyvols · Sep 10, 2012

Results from Saturday's smoking. Everybody loved the ribs. I ended up doing one rack of wet ribs and one rack of dry ribs. Like I said everybody loved them, however I'm my own worse critic. I think they could have tenderized in the foil a little longer, and the dry rub was a little heavy on the final dusting. I went 3 - 1.5 - and 45 mins on my smoking method. Here is the final product.

IMG_0399.JPG

smokeyvols
Sep 10, 2012

Spare Ribs Bones up or down?

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