I've been using the 3-2-1 method for smoking my ribs for quite a while now and always produced an excellent rack of ribs. Although they always seemed to come out "overdone", as in the meat was actually falling off the bone rather than it being "competition" style BBQ where the meat stays on the bone but there is a slight tug to pull the meat away from the bone. I became tired of eating my ribs with a fork, this was not the proper way to eat them.
Baby back ribs were on sale at a local grocery store for some ridiculous price. I believe I paid around $15 for two racks of ribs, with each weighing around 3.25-3.5 lbs. So I figured if I screwed these ones up I could go back and get more. I prepared the ribs the same way I always do. I washed them off, patted them dry, then removed the membrane on the backside of the ribs. I rubbed the ribs down with a thin layer of yellow mustard then sprinkled on my standard pork rub. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and threw them in the fridge for a couple of hours.
I'm smoking on a UDS so I started prepping my smoker around 10:15-10:30 a.m. At this time I took my ribs out of the fridge to warm up. Filling the charcoal basket with lump charcoal and a mixture of apple and hickory wood, mainly apple. Got my charcoal chimney going, then after that was ready I started the smoker up. Around 11:30 a.m. I was at my proper temperature (225 degrees) and it was holding so I put my ribs on the smoker meat side up. I let the ribs smoke for about 1-1.5 hours, after that I started spritzing them with the Slaughterhouse spritz (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/172799/slaughterhouse-recipes) every 30 minutes on the dot. It was fairly easy to see where there were dry spots on the ribs so I made sure those areas got sprayed first. Around 3:00 p.m. (3.5 hours in) I started to check the ribs with the bend test (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/165426/lightbox/post/1200715/id/163800). Around 4:15 p.m. the ribs were showing signs of being close to done. I took them off the smoker and got the temperature up a little higher, around 275-300 degrees. I spread some BBQ sauce on the ribs, both meat side and bone side so they had a thin layer of BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce). After that I put the ribs back on the smoker, meat side down, for about 30 minutes to help caramelize the BBQ sauce a little then I flipped them to be bone side down for another 30 minutes. After that I removed them, I wrapped them in aluminum foil and let them rest for approximately 30 minutes.
Conclusion.... I'm never going back to the 3-2-1 method again. These ribs were "competition style", you could bite into the meat, see your teeth marks and barely have to pull the meat away from the bone. I was so happy to be eating ribs the way they were supposed to be eaten rather than having to eat the meat with a fork after it fell off the bone. The family absolutely loved them and said these were the best ribs I've done so far. I really wish I would have gotten more photos but was too excited to eat and forgot to take more.
Right before I applied BBQ sauce
![0619161626[2].jpg](/media/0619161626-2-jpg.476376/full?d=1507240812)
Plated and ready to eat
![0619161754[1].jpg](/media/0619161754-1-jpg.476377/full?d=1507240812)
Leftovers to make work colleagues jealous of my lunch
![0619161834[1].jpg](/media/0619161834-1-jpg.476378/full?d=1507240812)
Baby back ribs were on sale at a local grocery store for some ridiculous price. I believe I paid around $15 for two racks of ribs, with each weighing around 3.25-3.5 lbs. So I figured if I screwed these ones up I could go back and get more. I prepared the ribs the same way I always do. I washed them off, patted them dry, then removed the membrane on the backside of the ribs. I rubbed the ribs down with a thin layer of yellow mustard then sprinkled on my standard pork rub. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and threw them in the fridge for a couple of hours.
I'm smoking on a UDS so I started prepping my smoker around 10:15-10:30 a.m. At this time I took my ribs out of the fridge to warm up. Filling the charcoal basket with lump charcoal and a mixture of apple and hickory wood, mainly apple. Got my charcoal chimney going, then after that was ready I started the smoker up. Around 11:30 a.m. I was at my proper temperature (225 degrees) and it was holding so I put my ribs on the smoker meat side up. I let the ribs smoke for about 1-1.5 hours, after that I started spritzing them with the Slaughterhouse spritz (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/172799/slaughterhouse-recipes) every 30 minutes on the dot. It was fairly easy to see where there were dry spots on the ribs so I made sure those areas got sprayed first. Around 3:00 p.m. (3.5 hours in) I started to check the ribs with the bend test (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/165426/lightbox/post/1200715/id/163800). Around 4:15 p.m. the ribs were showing signs of being close to done. I took them off the smoker and got the temperature up a little higher, around 275-300 degrees. I spread some BBQ sauce on the ribs, both meat side and bone side so they had a thin layer of BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce). After that I put the ribs back on the smoker, meat side down, for about 30 minutes to help caramelize the BBQ sauce a little then I flipped them to be bone side down for another 30 minutes. After that I removed them, I wrapped them in aluminum foil and let them rest for approximately 30 minutes.
Conclusion.... I'm never going back to the 3-2-1 method again. These ribs were "competition style", you could bite into the meat, see your teeth marks and barely have to pull the meat away from the bone. I was so happy to be eating ribs the way they were supposed to be eaten rather than having to eat the meat with a fork after it fell off the bone. The family absolutely loved them and said these were the best ribs I've done so far. I really wish I would have gotten more photos but was too excited to eat and forgot to take more.
Right before I applied BBQ sauce
Plated and ready to eat
Leftovers to make work colleagues jealous of my lunch
