- Jan 19, 2013
- 20
- 11
Hey folks. Tonight I smoked some pork spare ribs for the second time. First time I used Jeff's rub. While the flavor was great, it was a little spicy and a little fancy for me. The ribs I cooked for about 5 hours. 3 hours on the smoker, little over one hour in foil on the smoker, and about 45 minutes in the oven. Towards the end of the smoke the inside temperature was around 155, which is why I stuck it in the oven at 250. Needed them to finish as it was already a late dinner. Got it up to 175 inside temp for a while then let them rest and then ate them.
Results; Rub was a little spicy and fancy, hardly tender, and dry on the outside.
I will tell you that I was pretty steady at close to 250 for the first 2-3 hours. Then it kept going up to 275, even 300 for a few minutes, and then down to 200. This got quite frustrating as I was worried that something was going wrong, so I did all I could to keep it between 225-250. (Opened the lid temporarily, cook large coals out, etc.. Quite the newbie I know) This is why I used the oven to finish them off. So given all this, I wanted to try again this weekend and try to be a little more consistent with the temp and such.
Now, between that smoke last weekend and this evenings smoke I went to eat at my favorite bbq place to closer observe their meat and ask some questions. There is no spice to their meat, it is EXTREMELY TENDER and tasty even with no sauce. The rub they use is ONLY coke and brown sugar mixed, they use no foil, and they smoke for 4 hours at 250. Pork spare ribs. I will also say their ribs are very big, I can only eat 3 of them and I can definitely put away some food. They don't apply the rub (mop) until the third hour of the 4 hour cook. I love that their ribs are so tender, sweet, and simple.
So this weekend I did things a tad bit differently. I decided not to rub the meat initially. I was able to keep the smoker at 250 MUCH better than last weeks. I mopped the ribs with ginger ale every 30 minutes to keep the outside from drying out for the first hour. Then I applied the coke/brown sugar concoction twice before wrapping with foil. Cooked for another two hours in foil at 250, they were at temp.
The ribs had a flavor more to my liking this time. Probably could have used quite a bit more brown sugar, but that's not what this is about. The ribs weren't dried out on the outside, but not as tender as I would have liked. They were a bit more tender on the inside, but not even close to what they were like from the BBQ joint I like so much. So they were smoked for 4 hours.
My questions;
1) How do they get their ribs so tender in only 4 hous?
2) Even though the ribs were at temp (actually at 175 when I pulled them off), should I have kept smoking them for much longer? I believe that this is why I'm not getting the tenderness I want. However the first smoke was longer and LESS tender. Just more temp fluctuations.
3) Should I try a different butcher? I'd like to find a rack of ribs that are a little bigger. The place I like has ribs that are about 6 -7inches long. The ones I've been buying are only about 4-5.
4) Any other input or suggestions?
Results; Rub was a little spicy and fancy, hardly tender, and dry on the outside.
I will tell you that I was pretty steady at close to 250 for the first 2-3 hours. Then it kept going up to 275, even 300 for a few minutes, and then down to 200. This got quite frustrating as I was worried that something was going wrong, so I did all I could to keep it between 225-250. (Opened the lid temporarily, cook large coals out, etc.. Quite the newbie I know) This is why I used the oven to finish them off. So given all this, I wanted to try again this weekend and try to be a little more consistent with the temp and such.
Now, between that smoke last weekend and this evenings smoke I went to eat at my favorite bbq place to closer observe their meat and ask some questions. There is no spice to their meat, it is EXTREMELY TENDER and tasty even with no sauce. The rub they use is ONLY coke and brown sugar mixed, they use no foil, and they smoke for 4 hours at 250. Pork spare ribs. I will also say their ribs are very big, I can only eat 3 of them and I can definitely put away some food. They don't apply the rub (mop) until the third hour of the 4 hour cook. I love that their ribs are so tender, sweet, and simple.
So this weekend I did things a tad bit differently. I decided not to rub the meat initially. I was able to keep the smoker at 250 MUCH better than last weeks. I mopped the ribs with ginger ale every 30 minutes to keep the outside from drying out for the first hour. Then I applied the coke/brown sugar concoction twice before wrapping with foil. Cooked for another two hours in foil at 250, they were at temp.
The ribs had a flavor more to my liking this time. Probably could have used quite a bit more brown sugar, but that's not what this is about. The ribs weren't dried out on the outside, but not as tender as I would have liked. They were a bit more tender on the inside, but not even close to what they were like from the BBQ joint I like so much. So they were smoked for 4 hours.
My questions;
1) How do they get their ribs so tender in only 4 hous?
2) Even though the ribs were at temp (actually at 175 when I pulled them off), should I have kept smoking them for much longer? I believe that this is why I'm not getting the tenderness I want. However the first smoke was longer and LESS tender. Just more temp fluctuations.
3) Should I try a different butcher? I'd like to find a rack of ribs that are a little bigger. The place I like has ribs that are about 6 -7inches long. The ones I've been buying are only about 4-5.
4) Any other input or suggestions?