Are you using a lot of salt in your rub?
What is your temp and is it accurate?
I have notice a significant difference cooking at 210 - 225 compared to 240 - 250
Here is what has worked great for me, soory so long its a copy/paste from my blog.
[color= rgb(0, 0, 153)]Ribs ready for slicing[/color]
Ribs are prepped by trimming up St. Louis style, removing membrane then coated heavily with rub the night before, no mustard, I have cut back on the black pepper in my Rib Rub because of how much rub I use on the ribs, it was a bit spicy for some of the family.
So far the best luck with the ribs have been a modified 3 - 2 - 1
- -3- Smoking at 225 degrees for a maximum of 3 hours uncovered in a rib rack.
- -2- Place in a steamer pan, bone side down and foil for 1 hour 40 minutes.
- -1- Then remove foil and smoke another 40-45 minutes.
I was getting a bit annoyed at how much juice was lost after removing the foil, so I decided to leave the ribs in the pan for the final part of the cook and as you can see from the above photo, there's no loss of juices.
I just mix the juices and barbecue sauce as its brushed on the ribs.
Next Rib cook I will try glazing after step 2
This gives me ribs that are easy to slice clean without tearing the meat and mangling the rib.
The result is pull of the bone clean just where you bite into it without the whole piece of meat coming off in 1 shot and slapping you upside your chin.
My previous Rib cooks, the ribs were good but slightly dry on the outside, resulting in hard to slice clean and the meat all coming off in one shot.
The ribs are cut down, brushed thoroughly with BBQ Sauce and served in a steamer pan.
The ribs will go a good part of the day without drying out.
Another shot at some ribs...
.... just off the smoker
.... glazed with "Sweet Baby Rays"
... sliced
... sliced
...nice smoke penetration