There's been a lot of discussion lately about how ribs should be cooked, should you foil, should you cook 3-2-1 or 2-2-1 based on spares or babyback, should you flip or rotate, bone side down or up, membrane removed or not. I offer the following as a primer, especially helpful for the many new faces that have been coming on the site lately with questions.
Here's nothing more than a suggestion. Take it as such. Membrane removal is assumed.
Assuming you have time, an extra rack of baby back ribs, and the patience, fire your smoker and bring it up to 210 and put your rack of ribs on bone side down. Leave them on for 5.5 hours, no wood, no rub, no spritzing, no flipping, no rotating, no foiling, nothing. Pull at 5.5 hours, temp between the bones should be 185-190, lifting the rack in the middle will have a nice bend to it, the meat will literally want to break away and cause the rack to split, the meat won't be fall off the bone, but will have a slight tug but will pull away clean from the bone. Use that as your starting baseline standard and improvise, change and improve from there.
SOME, not all, people like off the bone ribs. Some think it's overcooked at that point. SOME people like it. What's the point to this? Education. Not to toot my own horn, but i've spoken with someone who based on his knowledge, his accomplishments and success, knows something about ribs or he wouldn't be where he is today. What the above does is gives the average everyday joe, the weekend smoker, and possibly the elite perfectionist smoker, all a level playing field in which to start from and develop their own techniques, thus becoming better. Having a great rub or a great finishing sauce doesn't mean a thing if you don't know what the meat's suppose to taste like as a standard without the additives, remember those things are suppose to compliment the flavor of the meat, not hide or cover it.
What can you expect from the above exercise? Taste, unhidden, pure meat, what the meat is suppose to taste like when it's cooked to a certain temperature. Texture, this is important. During the course of your smoke depending on what type of rig you're smoking on, if you're able to glance (yes, forget the parable if you're looking you ain't cooking for now) periodically at the ribs, for the most part, they'll look dried out. However, AT LEAST two times and possibly a third depending if you take them to 6 hours, you'll find that ribs will actually sweat. It's during this sweat period the muscle opens up and temporarily pushes moisture OUT of the meat. At the end of the sweat period, the moisture is drawn back in. See this, recognize this, then capitalize on this. It is during this period that flavor can be improved upon dramatically by additional dusting of your rub or spritzing of your juice of choice as it will be drawn back in to an extent. Multiple sweat periods improve your chance of dramatically changing the flavor of the meat as long as you take advantage of the sweats. Do this, establish a baseline standard to know what it is you're improving on, then improve on it.
I hope this helps everyone, new or veteran. And I want to point out that this isn't the ONLY way to cook ribs, but merely to establish a baseline standard to know what you're cooking. Honestly ask yourself, when was the last time you cooked/smoked a piece of meat naked to actually know what it was suppose to taste like at a certain level of being done?
Here's nothing more than a suggestion. Take it as such. Membrane removal is assumed.
Assuming you have time, an extra rack of baby back ribs, and the patience, fire your smoker and bring it up to 210 and put your rack of ribs on bone side down. Leave them on for 5.5 hours, no wood, no rub, no spritzing, no flipping, no rotating, no foiling, nothing. Pull at 5.5 hours, temp between the bones should be 185-190, lifting the rack in the middle will have a nice bend to it, the meat will literally want to break away and cause the rack to split, the meat won't be fall off the bone, but will have a slight tug but will pull away clean from the bone. Use that as your starting baseline standard and improvise, change and improve from there.
SOME, not all, people like off the bone ribs. Some think it's overcooked at that point. SOME people like it. What's the point to this? Education. Not to toot my own horn, but i've spoken with someone who based on his knowledge, his accomplishments and success, knows something about ribs or he wouldn't be where he is today. What the above does is gives the average everyday joe, the weekend smoker, and possibly the elite perfectionist smoker, all a level playing field in which to start from and develop their own techniques, thus becoming better. Having a great rub or a great finishing sauce doesn't mean a thing if you don't know what the meat's suppose to taste like as a standard without the additives, remember those things are suppose to compliment the flavor of the meat, not hide or cover it.
What can you expect from the above exercise? Taste, unhidden, pure meat, what the meat is suppose to taste like when it's cooked to a certain temperature. Texture, this is important. During the course of your smoke depending on what type of rig you're smoking on, if you're able to glance (yes, forget the parable if you're looking you ain't cooking for now) periodically at the ribs, for the most part, they'll look dried out. However, AT LEAST two times and possibly a third depending if you take them to 6 hours, you'll find that ribs will actually sweat. It's during this sweat period the muscle opens up and temporarily pushes moisture OUT of the meat. At the end of the sweat period, the moisture is drawn back in. See this, recognize this, then capitalize on this. It is during this period that flavor can be improved upon dramatically by additional dusting of your rub or spritzing of your juice of choice as it will be drawn back in to an extent. Multiple sweat periods improve your chance of dramatically changing the flavor of the meat as long as you take advantage of the sweats. Do this, establish a baseline standard to know what it is you're improving on, then improve on it.
I hope this helps everyone, new or veteran. And I want to point out that this isn't the ONLY way to cook ribs, but merely to establish a baseline standard to know what you're cooking. Honestly ask yourself, when was the last time you cooked/smoked a piece of meat naked to actually know what it was suppose to taste like at a certain level of being done?
