Mother's Day ribs

[Dumprdog]

Recently bought a Masterbuilt digital smoker and have smoked some sausage that I thoroughly enjoyed and thought I would do some ribs for Mother's Day. I prepared my rub and sauce and started at 10 AM using the 3-2-1 method. After the 3 hour smoke (@200) they looked just like the pictures I'd seen on this site (sorry I didn't take any). So I put the brown sugar, some butter and about a cup of Apple juice in my foil boat, wrapped those rascals up and put them back on for 2 more hours. Here is where I started having problems and I am wondering what I did or didn't do that caused them to not pull away from the bone end. I opened the foil and the ribs hadn't pulled up from the end as I had anticipated. In fact, the ribs looked exactly as they did before I foiled them, and I don't know why they didn't pull away. (2 hrs @240). Sauced them and put back for the final hour. They tasted great but I wanted the meat falling off the bone. I know purists don't prefer them that way and I surely won't win any competitions, but then I'm not cooking for them, I like them sloppy with sauce and falling apart. The meat didn't come cleanly off the bone and wasn't as moist as I would have liked but they weren't tough or chewy, and they had excellent flavor. Any ideas on what happened or what I could have done? This method is pretty much foolproof but somehow I missed something and I'd like to fix it before I try again. Any help?

 

[noboundaries]

Welcome, and the ribs needed a little more time at the end. If you like FOTB ribs, insert a probe when you believe they should be done. It should ship in easily.

I did spare ribs today, too. My wife likes them FOTB. I don't wrap, no sauce or spritz. I probe for doneness. One rack finished an hour before the other one. When you probe for doneness, even when following a process like 3-2-1, you know when each rack is ready.

Spare ribs are just about impossible to overcook to dryness. They stay moist and get mushy and fall apart when you try to take them off the smoker. Underdone ribs will taste a little dry.

But that's spares. BB's are a bit more finicky.

 

[D.W.]

If you want them fall off the bone with smoke it pretty straight forward. I don't follow time upfront. Don't run at a super low temp. Smoke around 250 until you you start to get some pull back on the bones (usually 2.5 -3hrs). Once you see that wrap in foil meat side down with whatever your preference is on the meat ( i do brown sugar and butter pats lined on top the sugar). Wrap tightly because you don't want to braise and make mushy. Contine for another 1-1.5hrs at 250-275. Check and see if the first few ribs pull away lightly, not fall off. If so, drain rendirngs into a pan and put the ribs back on for 30 minutes. They won't be firm by any means, bite through tender, and some will fall off or pull away.



But if you want fall off then smoke as I said, and then braise the heck out of them wrapped. No need to put back on after unwrapping.

 

[Dumprdog]

I used baby back ribs from some I had frozen. From what you guys have said, I may not have smoked them at a high enough temp. And I couldn't be positive that when I braised that I had the foil tight enough to prevent steam from escaping, something I will not do again. My smoker does have a meat thermometer, which I failed to use, probably should have. Next time, I will. Thanks for the tips, I will use them on my following attempt, which should be sooner than later. This is more enjoyable than I would have expected, my guess is that when you finally get it right ,even more so. It's great to have a place to go for help when things don't go as you like, and I am appreciative of the help I have received from everyone. Thanks

 

[Dumprdog]

Welcome, and the ribs needed a little more time at the end. If you like FOTB ribs, insert a probe when you believe they should be done. It should ship in easily.

I did spare ribs today, too. My wife likes them FOTB. I don't wrap, no sauce or spritz. I probe for doneness. One rack finished an hour before the other one. When you probe for doneness, even when following a process like 3-2-1, you know when each rack is ready.

Spare ribs are just about impossible to overcook to dryness. They stay moist and get mushy and fall apart when you try to take them off the smoker. Underdone ribs will taste a little dry.

But that's spares. BB's are a bit more finicky.

I did baby back ribs. I have never had spare ribs that I enjoyed, they always seemed dry, I'm sure it was how they were prepared. I, personally have not smoked or baked them in the oven because of that, might rethink my assessment on them. So what is the finicky aspect of baby backs? I used to use Emerril's cellophane wrapped oven method with good luck and grilled them with sauce to finish them and they came out fine but not smoked. With the smoker I am looking for more, I want to know that food will come out as expected, not guess about it. Experience will help, as will the advice I get here.

 

[noboundaries]

I have never had spare ribs that I enjoyed, they always seemed dry,

It may sound counterintuitive, but a dry tasting spare rib was not smoked/cooked/braised long enough. Collagen in the meat has to melt for them to get juicy. Plus, spares are fattier than BB's.

Finicky BB's? BB's are leaner than spares. Leaner meat finishing at a higher internal temp is what causes the finicky. I could always get consistently juicy and tasty results with spares, but BB's were more expensive and took more effort (wrapping, unwrapping, etc). I could throw the spares in the smoker unwrapped and walk away for 5-6 hours (depending on chamber temp), check for tenderness, and smoke until I got the butter tender feel I wanted.

Yesterday I smoked 6.3 and 5.4 lb racks of spares. 250F for 4 hours, then opened my vents to control the finishing time. Temp settled around 300F. The smaller rack was butter tender when probed an hour later. Took it off, covered and rested. I let the chamber temp spike to 340F and the second probed butter tender 45 minutes later. Both were FOTB, juicy and delicious.

Take note though, the above is not a process to follow. It was adaptive based on my smoking and cooking instincts, plus my wife skipping lunch and getting hungry for dinner two hours before we usually eat.

Finally, my wife was a BB fan, but I've found that even when cooked to probe tender, the leaner meat can taste dry. I switched to spares, converted my wife, and haven't smoked a BB since.

 

[phatbac]

I cook BB's a lot...here is what i do i smoke about 2-2.5 hours unwrapped @ 250-275 with a rub on them. i occasionally use mustard as a binder but more often use a cooking spray. neither bring flavor to the party.

So after the initial 2.5 hours i wrap with some apple juice vinegar spray and/or some margarine. no sugar. cook @250-275 for 45 minutes. this braises a little and if you really want them FOTB go an hour but no more. Sometimes i do 30 minutes only play it by feel. ( probing with a tooth pick and pull back gives you a judge on these things.)

then once you are done with that you should be about where you want them but i add an extra step. if i didn't get them as done as i want them or if i am going to serve them to folks who like them over done or such i will cook in the smoker or oven at 275 with a thin layer of sweet sauce usually my candy apple red and slice when done.

if i am going to serve them the next day or something later i will skip step three until before i serve. i will go 275 degrees 30 minutes to an hour with that thin layer of sauce to reheat the ribs and baked the sauce on it. The reheat brings out the smoke really well and sauce before heat makes it sticky not gloppy.

Come out about like this..

Happy Smoking,
phatbac (Aaron)