I am in the middle of smoking baby back ribs. My ribs usually come out dry and hard. I suspect that today will be similar. Here are some picture of the smoking
Ribs before they went into the OBS:
http://picasaweb.google.com/csakis/BabyBackRibs?feat=directlink#5323918047277638066 (http://picasaweb.google.com/csakis/BabyBackRibs?feat=directlink#5323918047277638066)
After 1 hour 30 minutes:
http://picasaweb.google.com/csakis/BabyBackRibs?feat=directlink#5323918047602364770 (http://picasaweb.google.com/csakis/BabyBackRibs?feat=directlink#5323918047602364770)
Here is how they look after 3h:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0pcNZS0JOZb-S4p9Q4yWxg?feat=directlink (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0pcNZS0JOZb-S4p9Q4yWxg?feat=directlink)
Notice that the meat has not even pulled back a little from the bone. It smells great but it is far from over. Other people are ready to foil the ribs after 3 hours. I also noticed that the temperature rises very slowly. By the end of the third hour the temp had risen to 215 F, but not even close to the set 225F.
What do you suggest that I should do? I am getting close to 3 hours 30 minutes by now. The temperature is finally 220 F in the smoker.
After 4 hours:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/znlrhW9cjXaO1PQqkUk3dg?feat=directlink (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/znlrhW9cjXaO1PQqkUk3dg?feat=directlink)
Here is another update. I pulled the ribs after 5 hours. Here is how they looked like:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qzolFaMyto3cOkeu5WWMmQ?feat=directlink (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qzolFaMyto3cOkeu5WWMmQ?feat=directlink)
They are still a bit chewy, but I am afraid I will dry them out if I leave them longer. I am FTCing them for another 2 hours.
Have you checked the recipe site: You can link to it at the bottom of my post. After the smoke have you tried wrapping in foil with a good spritz of apple juice, or boating with apple juice, and continue to cook?
I go 2 hours at 225 or so, then wrap in foil with a shot of apple juice. Let that go for about 1 hour, unwrap and back on the rack for 30min. Take out of the smoker and on a hot grill, sauce both sides once and they turn out great. When I first tried this I left in the foil to long and they fell apart on the transfer back to the rack because of steaming to long. You might want to try not rolling next time, they tend to keep that shape throughout the cook. Try this next time and hopefully you'll be loving them!
I've gotten my Baby Back ribs down pat. I smoke at 250F for 2-3 hours. Then take out and double wrap in heavy duty foil. Before closing up the foil, I baste the meat with a mixture of BBQ sauce and some type of juice....can be apple juice, or white grape juice....it doesn't matter because you won't taste it in the end. Once wrapped up, you can freeze and finish the cooking later. To finish the cooking start with thawed meat and put in the oven for 3.5 to 4 hours at 200F. In my oven 3.5 hours gives a rib where you can pick up the bone and the meat comes with it...but there is little to no knawing required. If it goes 4 hours then when you pick up the bone the meat stays in the foil. This makes it easy to cook 4-6 racks of baby backs and then give some away with these final cooking instructions.