First Smoke! Spare Ribs

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matt zad

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 16, 2013
60
14
Newark, DE
Figured I'll start a new thread from my "Gearing Up" thread. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/141461/gearing-up#post_991087

Here's my first attempt smoking anything and I decided to give Spare Ribs with a Memphis Dust rub a go. I started them late at 2:20pm but I'm usually not sitting down to eat until 8-9pm anyway. Here's some q-pics of what I have going on in 92 degree Delaware today.

Question: Does it normally take awhile for the temp to climb back up to 225 after placing the ribs into the smoker? I tried to be quick.

Trimmed and Rinsed


Rubbed


Into the smoker with ya

 
Looking great so far.  In my gasser (Camp Chef) it doesn't take but a few minutes to go back up to temp.  Keep up the q-views!  In with ya!  
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Kat
 
Looking good so far, Matt!  Keep that Qview coming!

Your temp recovery time depends on you smoker.  In my old MES, it would take maybe 5 minutes to recover.  In the GOSM gasser, much faster, just a minute or 2.  My pellet pit takes the longest to recover, maybe 10-15 minutes, so I don't open the door very much if I don't have to.

Good luck!

Red
 
Sorry fellas, I got too excited to eat the ribs then my hands were too messy to get on the keyboard... 
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Total cook time took about 5 hours instead of the 7 hours I was planning for. I used my ET732 thermometer and the smoker stayed between 125, 128, and 130 degrees through out the cook. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how the ribs came out. I kept them dry with the rub only and cooked then straight through without foiling. Everything was tender and pretty juicy. Of course there is room for improvement and they can be more moist and the rub needs more flavor. I wanted to keep everything as simply as possible for my first time. I thoroughly enjoyed dinner tonight!

Here's the Q-views




 
Ribs look great Matt.  I'm guessing that you typo'ed on the chamber temps and meant 225, 228 and 230 ?

WRT smoker losing temp and taking a while to come back up, X2 for what the others said.  In addition, it also depends on how long you left the door open.  IF you just opened it, threw the ribs in and closed it back real quick, it should only take a few minutes.

However, IF you opened it, and then casually put the ribs on.  Then decided that you didnt like the placement on the rack, so you moved them.  Then you remembered that you needed to get your probe in place...  And oh yeah, had to dig out the phone, fire up the camera app, change some settings to get just the right picture, yada, yada, yada, then finally closed the door 5 minutes later, then yes, it will take some time to get back up to temp  :)  (BTW, I've done EVERY one of those things numerous times   :)
 
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Great looking ribs and WAY better looking than my first ribs. I'm sure you are going to be making many more great smoked meals and I hoping you will post more pictures.

Disco
 
Ding ding...round 2. I currently have a rack of SLC and Baby Back in the smomer for about 2 hrs now. Im trying to decide if uh want to go 3-2-1 method on one of the racks. But I do want to sauce at least one rack.
When should I start applying my sauce? Should I be spraying it with apple juice throughout the cooking if left unfoiled?
 
Looks awesome! The one time I did ribs I glazed with sauce every 15 minutes for the last hour of the 3-2-1 method. Also I didn't spray with apple juice. I just let them smoke as is with mustard and rub and then foiled them. Hope that helps!
 
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I liked my first attempt better.

I did a few things different this time and used a 2.5-1.5-1 method on both racks.

I forgot to coat the ribs with oil before rubbing them (IDK if that made a difference on the bark) then I let them sit in the fridge for about 20 hours opposed to only 3 hours during the first attempt.

I had a little bit more trouble controlling the grill temperature this time and it kept climbing into the 140's. The flavor of the ribs were pretty good and I used apple juice in on a then a apple juice/cider mix in the other when wrapped.

I wasn't loving the texture of the meat that wrapping it gave and thought they came out too soft "spongy". more so on the baby backs. I'll probably try a different meat the next smoke but when I come back around to ribs I'll be playing with the rub flavor (I want more salt) and will be leaving them unwrapped. It was a lot more work wrapping them and then unwrapping them than I thought it was worth.
 
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