Last week "baby backs" with fair results.
This week "St Louis Style" ribs were not as good as last week.
I used
(FARMER JOHNÂ[emoji]174[/emoji] CALIFORNIA NATURALâ„¢ Spareribs
Pkg says: Spareribs are the rib section of the side/belly).
Rips were trimmed and rubbed about 12 hours prior. The MES was preheated to 250 no wood. I set the MES for 220 and 6 hours, loaded the ribs and wood at noon.
I had to go to the store so loaded a bit of extra wood, and was gone almost 3 hours. note (gosh I could never have left my smokin when smoking on my "jerry rigged" weber kettle.) When I returned, I checked the temp it was holding at 220 just fine, add more wood chips, at 3 to 3.5 hours I opened the smoker and the ribs looked fine but needed a mop of apple juice. OPPs no apple juice, ok mixed some lemonade and beer in my squirt bottle. I was a bit concerned usually at 3 hours the bone is showing, and hardly any showed.
I also had the trimmed brisket part of the ribs in the smoker, at 4 hours I took the brisket out and it tasted ok but was starting to dry out. I decided to put the ribs in alum. foil after brushing them with some sauce. Normally I don't put the ribs in foil until at least 1/4" of most the ribs showing, the St Louis ribs still had hardly any rib showing. The ribs cooked in foil for about 1 3/4 hours. Dinner was planned for 6-6:30pm. I pulled the ribs and removed foil, brushed more sauce and put back in the smoker to dry up a bit. Again not enough bare rib bone showing.
The rest of the menu was done:
Menu
St Louis ribs
BBQ chicken
BBQ beans
BBQ corn
Fruit Salad
ABTs for appetizers
Lots of liquid refreshment
At 6:30 I took the ribs out, sauced them again, turned off the smoker and put back in smoker to keep warm and rest a bit.
Results:
Everything tasted good except the ribs were not completely done, the meat was cooked but they were not as tender as usual. Most bones the meat pulled away, some clean and some not. You know it's not right when your family are telling you why aren't we eating baby backs.
I will say I mostly do baby back ribs, in fact out of the last 20 times I cooked ribs only 2 or 3 times has been St Louis, so I know I don't have the timing down.
I am sure the MES held the correct temp. because I also used a Taylor remote probe in the MES to monitor the MES temps.
Next time I will keep an exact time table with notes, so if a problem maybe SMF members can advise.
This week "St Louis Style" ribs were not as good as last week.
I used
(FARMER JOHNÂ[emoji]174[/emoji] CALIFORNIA NATURALâ„¢ Spareribs
Pkg says: Spareribs are the rib section of the side/belly).
Rips were trimmed and rubbed about 12 hours prior. The MES was preheated to 250 no wood. I set the MES for 220 and 6 hours, loaded the ribs and wood at noon.
I had to go to the store so loaded a bit of extra wood, and was gone almost 3 hours. note (gosh I could never have left my smokin when smoking on my "jerry rigged" weber kettle.) When I returned, I checked the temp it was holding at 220 just fine, add more wood chips, at 3 to 3.5 hours I opened the smoker and the ribs looked fine but needed a mop of apple juice. OPPs no apple juice, ok mixed some lemonade and beer in my squirt bottle. I was a bit concerned usually at 3 hours the bone is showing, and hardly any showed.
I also had the trimmed brisket part of the ribs in the smoker, at 4 hours I took the brisket out and it tasted ok but was starting to dry out. I decided to put the ribs in alum. foil after brushing them with some sauce. Normally I don't put the ribs in foil until at least 1/4" of most the ribs showing, the St Louis ribs still had hardly any rib showing. The ribs cooked in foil for about 1 3/4 hours. Dinner was planned for 6-6:30pm. I pulled the ribs and removed foil, brushed more sauce and put back in the smoker to dry up a bit. Again not enough bare rib bone showing.
The rest of the menu was done:
Menu
St Louis ribs
BBQ chicken
BBQ beans
BBQ corn
Fruit Salad
ABTs for appetizers
Lots of liquid refreshment
At 6:30 I took the ribs out, sauced them again, turned off the smoker and put back in smoker to keep warm and rest a bit.
Results:
Everything tasted good except the ribs were not completely done, the meat was cooked but they were not as tender as usual. Most bones the meat pulled away, some clean and some not. You know it's not right when your family are telling you why aren't we eating baby backs.
I will say I mostly do baby back ribs, in fact out of the last 20 times I cooked ribs only 2 or 3 times has been St Louis, so I know I don't have the timing down.
I am sure the MES held the correct temp. because I also used a Taylor remote probe in the MES to monitor the MES temps.
Next time I will keep an exact time table with notes, so if a problem maybe SMF members can advise.
