Rookie smoker trying out ribs. I have a couple questions.

[Smokey S]

Just got my smoke hollow 38” yesterday and can’t wait to cook some ribs tomorrow! I’ve done some research on here and I found some great advice. I’ll be cooking baby backs, and my wife and I both like FOTB ribs so I’ll be using the 2-2-1 method, shooting for a consistent 225 cooking temp. I have a couple newb questions that i would like some opinions on. First off is the rub. There’s a million recipes, are there any favorites on this site? Also, how long do I let the rub stay on the ribs before I start smoking? I’ve seen everything from overnight, to put on the rub and immidiately smoke. I also want to know the best wrapping technique. Do I leave a small opening on top to let a little steam escape? Or am I trying to keep all that steam in so I can get FOTB like I’m going for? Any advice on these topics, or just advice in general is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[kruizer]

I put the rub on and fridge over night to allow the rub to absorb. Any pork rub works for me but if you want sweet then put on a liberal amount of brown sugar and butter when you wrap and no holes in the wrap. Don't forget to spritz about once an hour to keep moist when smoking in the open.

 

[joedube70]

Welcome from Cleveland..

I dont wrap my ribs very often. but when I do they are wrapped tight to keep in the moisture.
We use a Memphis style rub and apply the night before. no need for mustard or oil as base. The ribs should be plenty wet on their own for the rub to stick. Rub really does not penetrate the meat much..so you can really apply it at any point. I wrap after about 3 hours, mostly looking for color. You will have to keep an eye on the ribs once wrapped and not let them get to far. Some ribs are ready after an hour of wrapping and some after 2 hours. I use the bend test to see how they feel. then unwrap to dry up the surface a bit and add sauce if you want. You can also add more rub at that point in place of sauce. My preference is a dry rib.
Hope this helps and good luck. share some pics

 

[Smokey S]

From what I’ve read so far it seems like most other people also recommend a tight wrap. As far as the bend test, tell me if I have this right. You want to grab them about a quarter of the way in from one side, and you want it to bend anywhere from 45 to 90 degrees downward, but as close to 90 degrees as you can get. Is that accurate?

 

[sauced]

For me....smear some cheap yellow mustard all over the ribs, after removing the membrane, then apply your rub. Cover and into refrigerator overnight. On the smoker bone side is down. When time comes to wrap, I use heavy duty foil, 2 sheets for each slab, add some apple juice, put ribs in, meat side down, then some honey or brown sugar on top and some more rub. Wrap tightly being careful the ribs don't break the foil. Back on smoker for 2 hours or longer if you like. If you have a digital therm, check temp and should be in the 205 range for fall off the bone goodness!!!

 

[troutman]

First off I would dry brine your ribs overnight. That means adding about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt per pound of meat. The salt will penetrate the rib proteins. All other spices added are generally too large from a molecular standpoint and don't really penetrate very far into the meat, it's a common misconception. So bottom line, salt first and season with whatever else you use whenever. If your seasoning has salt in it, then season over night to let the salt do it's thing.

I have done numerous experiments with wrapping, not wrapping, applying different blends of seasoning. Personally I have gotten away from wrapping except when the kids ask for a sweeter rib, then I wrap with honey and butter mix. My wife and I prefer letting them go nekkid with a glazing of Blues Hog at the end. But YMMV.

My suggestion is have fun with it and experiment for yourself. Once you do you will find your sweet spot. Good luck!!

 

[banderson7474]

I use yellow mustard too. Like already mentioned, remember to remove the membrane. I'm sure you saw that on any research you did.

The only thing not mentioned that I like to do is brush bbq sauce on it for the last hour to get a nice shiny glaze on them. if you like sweet, add honey to the bbq sauce, it really makes a pretty shine to them.

 

[gmc2003]

Well Smokey, are you confused yet? As you can see there isn't one perfect way of smoking ribs or anything for that matter.

As for the bend test hold the ribs about a 1/3 of the way down with your thongs. They should bend freely to about 45* plus. The more bend the more FOTB they'll be. Just be careful not to take it to far and have them break.

On to the actual smoking process, well let's see. I usually leave the membrane on as I feel it helps keep the ribs moist. The membrane is easily removed when the ribs are done(if I bother at all). I like to sprinkle SPOG on the ribs just before they go on the smoker(bone side down). My family also likes FOTB ribs so I foil, but I use a disposable pan. I usually add some apple juice, butter, and either honey or brown suger to the rib meat. I then place the rib meat side down in the pan and cover with foil. I'll let them cook for about 2hrs(depending on smoker temp) and pull them out of the pan and back on the grate bone side down. If their for me I don't glaze, but if their for the wife and kids I glaze with BBQ sauce in the last 1/2 hr. of the smoke. The reason I use the pan is two fold - 1st it's quicker to use a pan so the ribs stay warmer, and 2nd less mess and less chance of leakage.

Chris

 

[browneyesvictim]

Right. There is no BEST way other than YOUR way.

1. Rub- Any rub will do. Even a simple seasoning of S&P or SPOG is perfectly fine. Most pork rubs will have a lot of brown sugar and Paprika in them. A great starting place is to get Jeff's Recipes from this site for both the rub and the BBQ sauce. You can get many excellent pre-made rubs from the store or online. But I suggest starting with a recipe making your own so you get a sense of proportions you like of salt/brownsugar/paprika and other spices, and go from there. You cant do that with a proprietary store-bought rub. Get a notebook and start a log and take notes of what you do. Its easy to forget.

2. I don't think there is any real consensus on how long to leave the rub on before cooking. But I do like to sprinkle the rub on one side at a time and let it draw some moisture out of the ribs to get the rub wet and stick, then flip and do the other side. No need for mustard or anything else this way.

3. Wrapping- I double foil (Heavy Duty) after the first smoking phase, meat side down with pats of butter or margarine and brown sugar with about 1/4C of liquid of some kind. (additional rub at this point is optional). Wrap tight for the braising effect. Do not leave an opening.

4. FOTB is ultimately going to be achieved by the final internal temperature. Leaving them in the foil longer will help though. The bend test is a guide, but I would recommend using an instant read probe going for 200-205' as a FINAL Temperature. Now here is the thing... You need to ask yourself (and your wife) what level of bark or surface texture you want if at all. You can have FOTB ribs that were never foiled or even sauced for that matter. This will make for crispy ribs and this really let the flavor of the ribs and the rub shine! If you want a more traditional sauced rib, the last hour (give or take) out of the foil is done for setting the glaze of your bbq sauce and finish the cook. I even like a slight char on my sauce, but be careful not to burn. Timing is important as to when to pull the ribs out of the foil -slightly before they are done- to set the glaze on the sauce and finish them. If you cooked them completely to 205' still in the foil, they will be difficult to handle (falling apart) while you attempt to set a glaze. Too soon and your sauce and the edges of your ribs can burn or dry out as you attempt to reach your final temp.

 

[Smokey S]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. Any help at all is appreciated. As gmc2003 pointed out there’s clearly no “correct” way to do them, so a basic understanding of the process and a little
experimenting is the only way to figure out how I like it. Thanks for the advice on the internal temp of 200-205. I bought a thermpro p-20 so I’ll keep a good eye on that.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. Any help at all is appreciated. As gmc2003 pointed out there’s clearly no “correct” way to do them, so a basic understanding of the process and a little
experimenting is the only way to figure out how I like it. Thanks for the advice on the internal temp of 200-205. I bought a thermpro p-20 so I’ll keep a good eye on that.

Hi there and welcome!

Well if you are learning I highly recommend you start very simple.

1. Rub - I learned a long time ago the best go to for pretty much any meat seasoning is Salt, Pepper, Onion, and Garlic (SPOG). With ribs the addition of Paprika is very very very common. You can try SPOG and then add Paprika at a later date or if you do 2 wraps to one of each. I think you will be amazed at how much flavor comes from a simple seasoning of SPOG
2. Cooking - as has been mentioned you can take the ribs to an Internal Temp (IT) of 200-205 and that should get you Fall Off the Bone (probably around 203). This is simpler than wrapping and unwrapping, etc.
3. Smoker Temp - use 1 probe of the TP20 to measure the heat at smoker rack level, this will give you a much more accurate understanding of what temp your meat is getting. Use the other probe in the middle of the rack in a thick part of the ribs between the bones.
4. Smoke - roll perfect Then Blue Smoke (TBS) the whole time and see what you like. If you can't get perfect smoke then don't allow more than a couple of hours of bad thick white smoke. Smoke management is just part of learning how to smoke. I'm lazy and have an MES so I use the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker which produces perfect smoke that I don't have to baby sit for up to 12-14 hours depending on the type of wood pellet I'm using :)

I think that is the best set of SIMPLE tips I can provide. Learn a lot and enjoy!

 

[SmokinAl]

Here is a very easy & simple tutorial on smoking ribs.
And as said above for FOTB ribs your looking for 205 IT.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/perfect-ribs-every-time-this-really-works.240916/
Al

 

[Smokey S]

Once again thanks everyone for the great advice. I think I have a good game plan in place. One last small question. One of these posts mentioned not to cook the ribs to an internal temp of 205 when they are still wrapped because they will be over cooked as I plan on cooking them for roughly another hour after I take them out of the foil. So the question is, if I want a final temp of 205, what temp do I take them out of the foil. Maybe around 190-195?

 

[banderson7474]

In my opinion, you will gain about 5 degrees when they are resting so if you plan on taking them out of the foil and then putting them on the smoker for another hour then I wouldn't worry about the temp in the foil b/c there are too many variables. Instead, just foil them for an hour and then take the foil off and cook until you get the temp you want.

 

[petehalsted]

Wow if only folks had an opinion on how to smoke ribs, LOL.

I will just highlight a few things from other post, with my own thoughts.

Troutman, mention dry brining. Which is how I do most things now. And that is one of the advantages to Jeff's rub recipes, there isn't much salt in it, so when you apply rub the next day you don't have to worry about over salting. If you are using a commercial rub, most have lots of salt (its the cheapest ingredient) so you probably want to use the rub for dry brine instead of just salt, to avoid over salting. But as Troutman pointed out it really only the salt in the rub that is doing much.

Membrane on or off. Personal experience, when I started smoking, I didn't know what I was doing, and didn't know I was suppose to "pull the membrane". Then I "learned" to pull it. Lately I haven't been as happy with my ribs, then a few post from SmokinAl (and I think a smack on the back of the head) and I finally got to thinking about the difference then and now. Bottom line, I no longer pull it, and in my testing, my ribs are moister. A heck of a lot less prep work. And a few minutes on a piping hot grill pretty much eliminates the membrane at the end anyway.

JoeDube70, why the hell has it never occurred to me to use the bend test while in the foil! For some reason I had it in my head that I could only do bend test when not wrapping.

GMC2003, uses pans instead of foil, definitely would speed up the foiling process. By the time I have my ribs wrapped and back in the smoker, they have cooled off way to much, and I have no fingerprints left from burning the tips on foil, etc. I am guessing no rack, meat right in the liquid (again not much liquid). And not stacking ribs on top of each other in pan, using as many pans as needed to only have 1 layer of ribs in pan?

If you really want FOTB, in my opinoion, the the steaming stage is easiest/fool proof way to achieve, at the lost of some bark. Just don't overdo the liquid or you end of with boiled ribs instead.

And just so I am not completely recycling post and give you yet more information, you will notice everyone that mentioned liquid used Apple juice or cider. A while back I had surplus pineapple juice from doing a pork loin, so I used it. If you like your ribs sweet, give it a try! I now do all my ribs with Pineapple juice, which is also convenient because it is sometimes hard to find apple cider off season.

 

[tallbm]

Once again thanks everyone for the great advice. I think I have a good game plan in place. One last small question. One of these posts mentioned not to cook the ribs to an internal temp of 205 when they are still wrapped because they will be over cooked as I plan on cooking them for roughly another hour after I take them out of the foil. So the question is, if I want a final temp of 205, what temp do I take them out of the foil. Maybe around 190-195?

Well overcooked is a little subjective with ribs. I believe the standard is Bite off the Bone texture not Fall off the Bone texture. So if you cooked to 205F you will have overcooked for Bite off the Bone, BUT you will have achieved Fall off the Bone.
Now 205F may also be so Fall off the bone that you will actually pick up a rib by the bone and only end up with the bone because they are SO fall off the bone lol. Lets call this "Off the Bone". Once you get too overcooked the meat will pretty much be Off the Bone and will be dry and stringy.

I like to ride the edge between bite off the bone and fall off the bone so I take my ribs to about 200-202F. Now like with many cuts based on tenderness, each set of ribs I day may behave a little different so 1 rack is on the borderline of bite off and fall off at 203F the other is at 200F.

I think that each rack has it's own slight variation in behavior AND due to the slim margine of error with the probe placement you will be good around 200-203F for fall off the bone without completely being Off the Bone.

I hope all this info helps :)

 

[Smokey S]

Thanks tallbm. That certainly did help. I put the ribs on at 2:30 (eastern) and surprisingly my smoker is holding right at 225-228 degrees and the smoke looks like a perfect thin blue. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself!

 

[tallbm]

Thanks tallbm. That certainly did help. I put the ribs on at 2:30 (eastern) and surprisingly my smoker is holding right at 225-228 degrees and the smoke looks like a perfect thin blue. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself!

So how did they turn out?

 

[Smokey S]

Terrible lol. But I think I know why. So these ribs were gigantic. By far the thickest I’ve ever seen. I went to a good butcher so didn’t think anything of it. Even when wrapping 45 extra minutes I couldn’t get the IT over 180. Got fed up and took them off. The top inch was the color of a pork chop and was dry and tough. I couldn’t even eat it I just threw mine away. My wife at a little.

Everyone please weigh in on what you think happened. Temperature was between 215-240 the whole time and everything went great. So After doing some research it seems like I got way too much loin meat on my rack of ribs than I should have. The loin meat isn’t nearly as fatty so it dried out. Plus it was just way too thick to get up to the proper temp in the 5 hours I planned on cooking it. I am going to try again this week and ask my butcher to trim off more of the loin this time. Crossing my fingers.

 

[tallbm]

Terrible lol. But I think I know why. So these ribs were gigantic. By far the thickest I’ve ever seen. I went to a good butcher so didn’t think anything of it. Even when wrapping 45 extra minutes I couldn’t get the IT over 180. Got fed up and took them off. The top inch was the color of a pork chop and was dry and tough. I couldn’t even eat it I just threw mine away. My wife at a little.

Everyone please weigh in on what you think happened. Temperature was between 215-240 the whole time and everything went great. So After doing some research it seems like I got way too much loin meat on my rack of ribs than I should have. The loin meat isn’t nearly as fatty so it dried out. Plus it was just way too thick to get up to the proper temp in the 5 hours I planned on cooking it. I am going to try again this week and ask my butcher to trim off more of the loin this time. Crossing my fingers.

if you get ribs like that again definitely cut off the loin and save that amazing meat for something else. Pork loin is very very lean and will dry out on you but if you cook it right or certain ways it is amazing!

Yeah it sounds like you ran into a case of being ready but needing like 2+ hours worth of time to finish the cook. It happens. If you are going for spare ribs ask your butcher to cut you some St. Louis style ribs. You won't have the loin problem whatsoever and the ribs will be a nice rectangular shape.
You will have smaller racks of ribs but it should be a very uniform cut and therefore easier to work with.

You can work up to a Kansas City cut of spare ribs next and then finally just buy a rack of spares and cut it either Kansas City style or St. Louis style.

I think my next rack of spare ribs will be first cut Kansas City style and then cut St. Loius style where I keep the pice from the Kansas City cut and smoke it as a separate piece. The ol lady likes the rib bone portion better than the portion that is north of the bones. I eat it all so this approach would give the best of both worlds :)