My 3-2-1 Success!

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pyre

Meat Mopper
Original poster
OTBS Member
Apr 19, 2006
156
11
Moberly, MO
Last Friday after work I stopped by the butcher shop to see about getting a pork shoulder. With the help of the great folks here, I had figured out what I had done wrong and I was confident that my next pork shoulder would be perfect.

As soon as I walked in the shop, my eyes immediately fell upon 6 big slabs of pork spare ribs. After glancing around the store briefly, I picked up the two smallest slabs I could find, and a bottle of "Sweet Heat" BBQ sauce that had been recommended to me. I was going to use the sweet heat on my pulled pork. I figured I'd try it on the ribs as well.

I don't know what everyone else gets, but these slabs were huge. Probably at least 14" wide and at least 24" long. Are they usually that big?

So I got them home and trimmed them down. I didn't do that the first time I did ribs, and they didn't seem to cook right. I don't think I trimmed them down far enough this time either, but they were still great.

After trimming and removing the membrane:
001.jpg


I rubbed them down and into the smoker they go:
Cooking001.jpg


From what I have read, they should be shrinking on the bone by the time you put them into foil. Mine didn't seem to want to shrink. So I just kept cooking and cooking them. After 6 hours, I lost patience and threw them into foil. I think I should maybe raise my temps up. I kept my temp from 200-220 degrees, most of the time it was around 205. My smoker has a lot of variance in temperature from the pit to the exhause, even with the baffle and exhaust extension.

The ribs go into the foil:
IntoFoil001.jpg


After two hours in the foil, I slathered them with BBQ sauce and put them back in.

Slathered:
Slathered001.jpg


Thirty minutes later, they were done!
Done001.jpg


Done003.jpg


These were so good, I had to call my father to come over and try them!
Thanks to all the great information here! Without this site, I don't think I could have figured out how to get such good results from my smoker.

I think I'm ready for a bigger model :D
 
Damn good looking ribs! Sometimes ribs won't pull, or don't pull evenly, but they look good none the less. I ususally cook at 225 degrees, but I have worked my pit down to a science. I am glad for you, and now I bet you are hooked! :)
 
Pyre, looks kinda like the ribs I had last Sunday!
I run my smoker around 235-240 deg. and my ribs will pull back from the bone. You might want to try bringing your temps up to 225-235 deg. next time.
 
Thanks for the replies! Yes, I agree I should probably try raising the temperature up a little. Hopefully that should cut down on my cooking time.
 
The ribs look great. It's amazing how much that little temp difference makes. You'll definitely need that last kick of heat to do the pork butt, cause that's got to get to nearly 200F (if you're pulling) and you'll never do it cooking at 205F. I pretty new to smoking to and you must be braver than I cause I started with pork butt, it's quite forgiving, but a huge mess of ribs is definitely next on the list. Keep on smoking!
 
Nice Ribs! As the others said bring the heat up and you'll do fine. With larger cuts of meat if you take to long it will start to dry up on you and that is not what you want. However, unless you know what you are doing never (repeat never) smoke above the 245 to 260 range. This will make a very good meat bad very quickly.
 
The ribs look good, the advice given to you is very solid. I cook above the 220 mark and they are right. The meat will never get where you want it to get if you keep the temps too low. Looks like some good smoked meat in the pictures where you cut the ribs.
 
I think the only thing would change about those ribs is their location.
wink.gif
Lookin' GOOD! :D
 
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