Baby back keep drying out ?

[cjmac]

Yes just lay a large kitchen knife flat and trim that meaty section off. The loin is very noticeable by look and feel. IE it has very little to NO marbling in it

The highlighted area shows the very thin remaining loin area on the two ribs.
View attachment 741149

you can season the trimmed loin and smoke till 145-150 and they will be a nice mid cook treat. In general if the package says extra meaty, pass and look for ones with minimal loin on it. It will reduce the trimming ammount.

If you look close at the pics above when I flip the ribs you can see a slight scalloped edge forming with a dark spot at the end of the rib bone. This tells you that you are approaching the doneness time...IE The scalloped edge is caused by the fat and such rendering, since BBs have less of this than spare ribs the pull back is less pronounced and should be or they will be over cooked. The dark spot indicates that the marrow in the bone is hot enough to render out.....so the meat next to the bone is also hot enough.

I cook BBs to color and bark vs INT. I look for the markers as noted above then adjust. This is why I hold them because then they are ready for dinner and no stress. Oh and if you pull them early.... they will still be very tasty and tender.

I also don't spritz BBs because that drops the temp of the rib considerably and increases the potential of making them dry. spritzing is for bark formation and I do that with the glaze, this also helps soften the surface to make it very tender.....

Thank you thats exactly what I needed to know.. and how to trim it !

 

[mr_whipple]

I would agree keeping baby backs simple. The other thing to note is if they have a large amount of loin meat on them which most of the "extra meaty" label ones do, they will be DRY DRY if cooked above INT 150.

I copied this from another post about dry BBs. Here is an example of two different BB size for cooking temp and duration.....

I'm just going to add another perspective on baby backs......

- point - baby backs do not have to be cooked for very long to be out of this world good. Example is cooking a Rack of Pork roast.... The roast below was just under a 2 hour cook at 265 to an INT of 145. you can see the center is still pink, ie perfect loin temp. The next thing is the section of bone is effetely a baby back rib...At an INT of 145 - 150... they are out of the world juicy and tender....Note the loin meat is perfectly cooked in this case

In the case of just ribs....and for a cook "above" 145-150 INT then remove the loin meat. The example below shows it removed. The rack on top comes that way the rack on the bottom I removed the loin. Stay away from the packages that say "extra meaty"... this is just more loin meat that doesn't want to be cooked to a higher INT temp....The exception here is you want to "grill" them and finish them at a lower INT around the 150 then they are tasty!

Next up is Baby Backs usually don't need more than 4 hours unwrapped to be cooked enough to be rendered and tender.... In the case of the two above the top is 3 hours total cook and the bottom is 3.5 hours total cook time. I cook baby backs at 235 chamber temp.

My steps.... I like to section them in portions to get serving size with two edge cuts per plate. I do use mustard to get a dropped in the sand rub coverage, but mustard isn't required.

Next I smoke them rib side down for the 2.5 or 3 hours depending on rack size, this is two hours in

then flip (the 2.5 hour mark for small and 3 hour mark for larger) and mop

Once that is set I flip over and mop the meat side....I plan on a 15 min set time so this takes a total of 30-35 mins.

Next I transfer to the kitchen oven and hold at 140 till dinner time if needed. I usually end up holding them for 30 to 45 mins. and then I glaze and broil finish them (I watch them like a hawk so they don't burn) Usually 5-6 mins of broil time. You can go right to the broil if you don't want to hold. You can also finish them on the grill to glaze them if you want a bit of char on them, you just may loose some glaze...

Perfect baby backs virtually every time

I will note that these are not FOTB ribs as I don't think baby backs are good for that (spares are if you like them that way) These will be 90 pull from the bone with a bite, but tender and juicy.

IE so my advice is to remove the loin meat, reduce the time of cook, mop at the end, and then glaze finish...

Now that is a well executed plan!

 

[cjmac]

Now that is a well executed plan!

I agree and after my experience that I just had doing a 211 method at 300°, they actually turned out a lot better than my previous attempts at 6 hours at 225.
I let them go for 2 hours on 300°, then wrapped them with my normal stuff but I only put them back on for about 45 minutes maybe just under an hour pull them off and back on for another 45 minutes they weren't great when I took them off that day but after they were in a container in the fridge I got home the next day and tried them they're absolutely amazing maybe I should try it again and let them rest for a couple of hours in a cooler?

 

[civilsmoker]

....... let them rest for a couple of hours in a cooler?

Resting them at a holding temp (140-165) for an hour or two is a good thing! It helps "soften" any hard bark and allows them to normalize from a moisture migration stand point. If you notes in my examples I always rest them, 30 minutes is my min, 45-60 mins is GTG.....

 

[Compulsive Smoker]

About how long you think thay take? Roughly...i didnt see where it said but id think there kinda quick

I just heard back from @Rafter H BBQ , he said right around 2 hours, but he goes by look and feel more than time…

 

[1MoreFord]

...................
So how does the the spare ribs come out with 321 ? Like fall apart ......................

They will be severely overcooked, mushy, and fall off the bone done 321 at 225°.

 

[cjmac]

They will be severely overcooked, mushy, and fall off the bone done 321 at 225°.

Maby try 2-1-1 at 300 ?

 

[civilsmoker]

Maby try 2-1-1 at 300 ?

Here is how I do spares.....again I keep the simple!

Spare Ribs - Civilsmokers Way.....

We usually do baby back ribs in our house ever since we found the Salmon Creek Farms......Well was at the local GS and my eyes didn't believe what they saw.....the started stocking the Salmon Creek spares so I grabbed one quick! Trimmed them up into 3 bone portion of St Lewis cut... Some...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[sandyut]

again I keep the simple!

Simple works! Complicated fails

 

[boykjo]

Try another brand or spend a few dollars more and buy quality ribs...... IMO the cheap on sale ribs suck even though they will cook up fine. We have food lion and the "natures promise" brand meats are better than the upscaled food chains meat. My 2 cents

Boykjo

 

[cjmac]

Try another brand or spend a few dollars more and buy quality ribs...... IMO the cheap on sale ribs suck even though they will cook up fine. We have food lion and the "natures promise" brand meats are better than the upscaled food chains meat. My 2 cents

Boykjo

I agree the better the cut the better they turn out unfortunately we only have three local butchers around here where I live and they have stopped carrying some of the stuff that they used to for the price factor and they weren't selling enough don't blame them because they're pretty small butcher shops most of the places you can find baby back ribs that are decent quality is Publix their meats have always been pretty good compared to Walmart