Newbie Smoking RIbs

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jerod

Newbie
Original poster
May 11, 2013
11
10
Los Angeles CA
Smoked some baby back ribs yesterday, was my second attempt at it.  They came out kinda dry.  Was wondering how to remedy this.  I did 3 racks, 1 was using no foil just sprayed with apple juice a few times. 1 rack using ChefJimmy';s foiling sauce, and 1 rack using foil with brown sugar honey and parkay with some pineapple juice.  I did the 2-2-1 method, so they smoked for about 5 hours at about 225.

I was thinking maybe just put the rub on before i put them on the smoker instead of overnight, bump the temp up to 250? I made them dry, maybe ill throw on some sauce in the last hour.

Any other suggestions?





 
Hmmm... Looks like you should be right on the money. Set-up looks good, process sounds about right. Let me ask you this, when you had them rubbed down in the fridge overnight, what were they placed in? Were they individually wrapped? In a bag all together? Also, how salty is that rub?
 
Yea I was thinking it may be too salty so maybe just applying it before putting in the smoker.  The rub is a Phils BBQ rub they sell in SD.  After I use it up I will be making my own rub from the receipes posted on here or maybe buy the one from Jeff.

The ribs were wrapped separately in saran wrap overnight.

I was thinking maybe over cooked and dried out, but most of the ribs didnt have much pull back from the bone and since I cut them in half to fit my WSM 18 better they didnt bend that much when I picked them up.  

They had a lot of good flavor and smoke but just a bit dry.  

Any other advice? Seems weird since i followed the advice given on here.  Must be the rub then?
 
I think that is your answer. If you have a salty rub, you do not want to let that pull all the moisture out of the meat. Individually wrapping them will INCREASE how much the rub goes to work. If you plan on individually wrapping, I would only marinate for a few hours before they go onto the smoker. However, this does not mean you can't continue to marinate overnight... you just have to store differently. I tend to prep my ribs the night before just because it fits my schedule better. Once I rub them down, I throw them in a big garbage bag all together... I have found no negative effects to the overall moisture in the ribs this way and I definitely make a salty rub. I'm sure mine would dry out if I individually wrapped, but thrown into a big garbage bag works good.
 
Hey Jerod,Since you used three different methods for the same cook, did you notice a difference in dryness for any of the racks? Or were they all dry the same?
 
Hmm, makes sense I guess.....maybe just give it another go with less time in the fridge. Let us know how it goes. That's the good thing about this little hobby, if you screw it up, the punishment is you get to do it again!
 
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