Im cooking some spare ribs tomorrow, about 8 - 10 lbs of ribs. I have read that most people pull the ribs at about 3 hours of smoke at 200 degrees, then rap them in foil with apple juice and back in the bradley for 2-3 more hours at 200 degrees.(or could I just FTC them for this amount of time) Is there a certain temp they should get too or just till they are starting to fall off the bone.
Does this seam correct to you?
I have heard this also. I have not done spare ribs yet. Only Baby-backs My favorite.
What I do is smoke it for 5 hours, within the last 45 min to hour I do take them out and baste them / sauce them then I take them out and FTC for 1 to 2 hours with some apple juice. Any more than that and they will get to cold and need to be quickly re-heated. I smoke the entire time, I like the taste of wood.
With the difference with Spare Ribs and Baby-backs I have read that Spares take 1 hour less. So taking them out after 3 hours and put them in foil with apple juice would be OK. With that you might not need to FTC. this method gives you a bit less smoke but that's Ok.
Oh yeah forgot. Best test is rib exposure pull-back as well as twist feel. If you twist and it starts to pull off the bone... Its good.... Add this to feel, color and moisture. And just remember This is NOT EASY. and all ribs are different.
What about your vent? How open is it...
hockeybh,
Sounds like a great meal!!![:p]
The times and temps seem about right. If you were cooking/smoking at 200 degrees the whole time it wouldn't take this long. When you load that amount of ribs and when you remove to wrap in foil, you will lose cabinet temp both times and it will take a while to recover the target temp of 200 degrees.
Also, instead of apple juice, this would be a good time to mop with a bbq sauce as an option and a chance to rotate the ribs.
........before you start, it will help if you take the ribs out of the refrigerator and let them start to come to room temp for an hour or so while you are getting the smoker preheated and everything ready.
Good luck and have fun!!!
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<font size="2"><b>Doug</b></font id="size2">
hockeybh,
I always adjust the vent as I am smoking to help reach my target temp. I usually keep it at least 1/8 open <u>until</u> the temp is reached. Also, be sure to remove the membrane off the back of the ribs!
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<font size="2"><b>Doug</b></font id="size2">
Thanks, I have about half with rub on right now, and the other half ill rub in the morning. I was thinking of using some BBQ sauce. I heard you put that on the last half hr or so. So if I wasnt going to do the foil think, and want to BBQ sauce them how long would i cook them. Or should i bbq sauce them then put in foil?
The 3 hours of smoke is a safe place to start. I like to use pecan on ribs. I like big spare ribs as well as baby backs. Your plan is safe and you will be very happy with the ribs smoked in the Bradley. You want to finish cooking before you FTC.
Personally, I do not care for the foil wrapping of any meats until it is time for FTC. I try my best to keep the box temp at about 200-210 and I belive that if you really dont go over the 210 box temp, then far less water moiture will evaporate. If you do go over the boiling point, you will begin to dry them out. It might take longer to cook, but the fat will really disolve into the meat.
I like ribs moist but not steamed. I think wrapping and cooking for a few hours, although it will make the ribs guaranteed moist, it also gives a "steamed" flavor. I personally like the outside dry and the inside moist. I like to mop ribs with apple juice and vinegar though and that does a very similar thing but in the Bradley, mopping is messy and adds quite a bit of cooking time.
At 185-190 internal meat temp, the meat will fall off the bone. But I do find that measuring meat temp in ribs is tough because you need to find a good meaty section for an accurate temp. This is where I mess up ribs the most.
If you want to smoke them and move them to your oven in the house, you will be able to "mess" around and watch internal meat temps and how "falling apart" the ribs are, without waiting for your bradley to recover after every time you open it up. I do this on occassion with stuff just to see what the difference between 190 and 193 is with a brisket for example.
The Grillin Fool
This is making me so stinking hungry. Im at work right now and didnt bring anything to eat :(
Yes I did take off the membrane allready, thanks.
thanks for helping me, ill let you know how it works out
If you do sauce them while still smoking, then do so within the last hour, twice but make sure the last time you do it you will leave them in the heat for at least 30 minutes. This helps the Sauce do its think. But do not put on to much, it will just fall off and may a huge mess.
But once your happy with them in the smoker, take them out and foil them. Try not to sauce them as this reduces the magic of FTC (passive cooking , as per sage Olds says). When they come out of the FTC and you are at this time dying to get at them. You may just find they are sauced enough.
And Vent is no more than 1/4 open, less but not closed is good.
And yes, you need to move the ribs from lower and higher racks if you are using more than one rack in the Bradley.
I don't do the process of pulling and wrapping in foil and then putting them back in the Bradley - I just let them smoke and cook undisturbed until done. I start checking them at about 186-187 degrees.
However, if you plan to pull and wrap in foil, then I would agree with GrillinFool - there is no reason to keep them in the Bradley after they're wrapped in foil, so you would be far better off by moving them to a conventional oven where you won't have to worry about temperature consistency or refresh after you open the door to inspect.
The ribs have been in the smoker for almost 1 1/2 hrs. Cooked with apple wood. So in another 1/2 hour should I start putting on the bbq sauce? or at about what temp.
I've always put a rub on about an hour before smoking. Preheat smoker to about 200. load ribs, smoke for 4 hours. I wrap in foil with sauce (some would not sauce, but it's what I prefer). Put back in the smoker untill tender, and the bones pull away from the meat. FTC for an hour or so and DIG IN!
Grab me another Stout
meat temp is at 145-150ish, still have another 45 min for 3 hrs. Might need to go longer, smells good though
The ribs will get to 145-150 ish pretty quick but getting to 185 will take much longer then you think if you are keeping the Bradley at 210 or less.
The Grillin Fool
Grill is at 200-210, meat is still around the 145. Its been there for about 4 hrs now, I looked at it and they kinda look dry to me, or is that just the dry rub making it look like that. The meat is starting to pull away from the bones, i rotated the ribs again. Should i just keep an eye on it, i have my prob stuck into one of them. I know I want to FTC it in hopes that if it is dry some moisture will come back into it... any ideas?
They should look dry, none of the fat has started to melt yet. Later on the fat will melt and come out and make the ribs wetter.
You have a couple of choices now; one would be to let them get a little hotter say 165 ish and then do the foil apple juice wrap thing (I use beer and vinegar instead ). By the way, I always sprinkle white vinegar all over the ribs if I am wrapping them.
If you foil wrap and keep cooking, they will finish faster and you will have very moist ribs.
The other choice is to go until 185 ish then FTC. I would mop every hour after the meat temp hits 165. You can mix a little beer and white vinegar and just brush that on the meat, it makes a great mop in my opinion. It's important to not be messy with the mop and to expect every time you open the door to add about 20 minutes to the cooking time if you get the box temp back up very quickly.
Then FTC with juice or sauce or vinegar or beer (or all of these) and let that bring more moisture into a dry rib (just a big spash per foil wrap).My only concern with this is that I cant see how thin the ribs are and I would hate to have you make dry ribs because of my advice.
The Grillin Fool
The ribs are pretty meatty, Last temp it was 163... I can hear stuff starting to drip now. If i mop it with bbq sauce do i put apple juice in with them when I ftc them? speaking of ftc, do i put the juice on the ribs then rap, or put in bottom of ribs?
Ribs are tricky to FTC because the bones want to tear the foil and let all the juice out. If you splash juice or beer on the ribs it will quickly run off into the foil. Either is fine.
Sounds like youre getting close!
The Grillin Fool
Thanks, Im getting excited... Of course my Pregnant wife wants them out sooner. Good thing this wasnt our planned dinner, else I'd be in big trouble...lol
Im FTC'ing as we speak yum
Well, not sure if I didnt cook it long enough, or too long. The meat was kinda moist and tuff. I ftc'd it for 2 hrs. Wish it would have been better. Well chalk this one up for practice.
Hi ive have done ribs 4 times in this bs and each time a different kind of rib.I have done country brisket both.They both came out ok i did not take off the membrane either time and they were ok eveyone liked them.TOMORROW i am doing sams clubs spare ribs.All 3 racks with bacon on the top shelf and then rotate them in between time.I do a little mop at the 3rd hour and then ftc them for a while like and hour.I am sure with the membrane off they will be alot more fall off the bone.Here is my thoughts on a newbie doing ribs.The motto here is slow and low so who cares if it takes a little longer when you open up the bs to check the ribs.NOT me better to know then to guess id say. And if it take a few more hours thats just a few more beers to enjoy while waiting for fantatic ribs.Dont get me wrong i only check a few times just enough to see the progress very fast in and out time.So i will let you guys know how my spare ribs do tomorrow with the rats method.O yea i only smoke for 4 hours then just cook. The smoke taste at that point seems to be enough with out the over powering taste.So til tomorrow later.
Good luck, let me know how it works for ya, I smoked mine for 3+ hrs then cooked the rest of the time, I bet if let it cook longer it would turn out better, but it was 1am, and had to work at 7.... GOOOD LUCK
WELL GUYS.The ribbie came out awesome.Very nice .Its about 30 degrees out side with no wind because my bs is in my shed With the bs temp slide all the way to the right it held a 190 temp awesome with just a little play with the vent.I did open it up four times to mop and change racks with bacon drizzilng above.The sams clubs baby backs are real nice .Done with hickory chips.Another bs weekend happy ending..[:D][8D]
Glad to hear you had success Icerat! Hockeybh, if your ribs were moist and tough, I would guess you just didnt cook em long enough to a high enough internal meat temp. Always shoot for around 185-190. I also set aside about 8-10 hours to make ribs before they need to hit the table. Even though if everything goes right with bradley temp, they can be done in 6-8 hours, I find that with all the messing around, they take much longer. Also, if they finish early, you can always FTC for quite a few hours, 3-4 hour FTC isnt unusual. If you do pull the ribs and they are tough, you can cheat by putting them in the oven at 350, in foil or not, until they hit 190 temp. That shouldnt take too long, and it will make a big difference if you need to get them on the table.
Keep trying and have fun!
The Grillin Fool
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by icerat4</i>
<br />With the bs temp slide all the way to the right it held a 190 temp awesome with just a little play with the vent.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Hey icerat, out of curiosity did you have your slide all the way to the right the whole time, or did you have to back it off as the ribs cooked. From my experience with my smoker, with that temp and no wind having the slide all the way to the right the whole time should have put your temp well over 200 eventually.
Bubbagump
Yes it was all the way to the right the whole time.When the vent was completely open the temps stayed at 190-195ish.With the vent closed it went to 205-207ish.remember about 25-30 outside.I did these ribs and ftc them when i deliver them to the friends that were going to try them.I called them this morning and they said they were to die for awesome job.Here is more of my thoughts on these ribs being smoked.The biggest thing is the cut of ribs you get and how much ya pay as all the old timers know.I did theses sams clubs ribs baby back and man there was plenty of meat and tender So if ya live by a sams club check them out eveyone one swears by them and now so do I .The emrils rubs was good but now i am looking for some thing different .Whats the word on differnt rubs dizzy rub venom rubs etc.Any suggestions on rubs i like to buy not make by scratch.I like it simple make more time to have another beer.
I guess if i would have kept the vent closed it would have been higher on the temps but i am a good watcher OF THE TEMPS and from what i seen around here 190 205 temps seem to to justice on the ribs.I did buy the dizzy rub and the venom rub from bbq shopping i like to keep things in the family.THE BIGGEST problem i think people have is with the meat buying deal.Maybe im wrong but better meat better results and taste.This is just a rookies opinion.O one question my ribs have come out very nice moist.With this being said would apple juice do any more for me .Or if i have achived moist ribs just leave it be and skip the apple juice part.