I am new to smoking and have tried a couple of times to smoke Ribs and have found that the finished product does not come away from the bone very easy and is a little dry.
I am using a 4 rack BDS and do not yet have a smoker thermometer (although should have one soon)
The first time, I tried a Bradley Recipe - 1 hour in the oven then around 3 in the smoker with hickory pucks. Had the BDS set at 220F. Tried the recipe's bbq sauce on half the rack and also just salt and pepper on the other half. Ribs tasted great but required a very firm tug to get them off the bone and were a little dry.
I did some reading on the forum and changed a few things on the second attempt. This time I did two racks of Ribs and again cut each rack in half so I could experiment a little. I left the BDS temperature at 220F, but this time did not go for the hour in oven first (incase that was the problem). I also removed the membrane from the ribs, spritzed them with apple juice after the first 2 hours (every 45 mins or so) and tried wrapping some of the ribs in foil after I had finished the initial 3 hour smoke.
The ribs that had not been foil wrapped came out after 3-4 hours and were still slightly dry and a little tough. The foil wrapped ribs staayed in a little longer. I took out one of the foil coated racks an extra hour later and they were better but still a little tough, so I left the last of the batch in for another hour or 2 and they came out a little more tender, but still not perfect.
Can anyone give me a few pointers as to where I need to be heading with this to get an improvement, eg. is it the BDS temperature, the amount of vent opening (I was using 1/2 open), the smoking or cooking time, the foil, the spritzing or a mixture of all of these?
The BDS is showing good temperature readings throughout and recovers fine when I open the door, etc.
(Also, FYI, I read about the FTC method on the forums but can't try this yet as I don't currently have a cooler I can use)
Any advice would be much appreciated...
Welcome to the forum eon
Sorry to hear your ribs were kinda dry.
Here is a link that you might try. From our forum member iceman ;D
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=449
The results turn out great. I smoked 3 racks ike this on friday.
(http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/stlthy1/sauced.jpg)
nepas
welcome to the forum Eon.
as for me i smoke with the vent 1/2 open then close it to 1/4 or so and add in the bottom of the smoker a bread pan 1/2 full of orange soda,,, you can use what your favorite is and cook at a lower temp.. i useally cook at 200 to 205 useally.
i just did some ribs on friday and turned out wonderfull.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8212.0
read through the whole link and you will see my ribs from start to a finished product much like nepas
Eon an easy way to tell if your ribs are done or close to being done is if the meat is pulling away from the bone..and after a few more smokes you caan tell just by looking ... just be pacient and you will get there .. there are a lot of knoweldge people here and getting a remote therometer is a great idea...
Welcome Eon,
You could try the 3-1-1 method. Which is simply 220-225* smoke three hours, wrap in foil with a splash of apple juice for an hour, then back on the rack for an hour sauced for the last 1/2 hour. Have done this many time and the ribs always turn out great. Watch when you take them out of the foil they will almost fall apart at that point. They will firm up a little during the last hour. Hope it helps. The Apple juice in the foil will also help a lot with your ribs being dry.
Eon;
Welcome to the forum.
You don't need a cooler to FTC. If you don't have a cooler you can use your microwave oven. Just preheat your micro wave. To preheat a microwave oven, get a microwave proof measuring cup, or some other tall cylinder container. Half fill it with water and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Move the container to the rear of the oven (careful it will be hot), and place your foiled meat (not towel) inside the microwave. You can also use a preheated oven (no water necessary).
W E L C O M E to the Forum eon!
I use a smoke then braise in the oven method. Check out these threads:
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7500.0
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7592.0
Welcome aboard eon. Nothing I can add to your questions. These guys have definitely hooked you up. When I started smoking ribs, I ran into the same trouble with them being a little dry and chewy and these same guys pointed me in the right direction. I smoke mine in the BDS and then move them to my house oven for the next 4 hours or so simply because I feel I can control the heat better.
Try their suggestions and let us know the results. As the Beefmann said, it just takes patience and a few tries to get the hang of it. Have fun, even the less than perfect tries still are good tasting!
KyNola
Thanks for the suggestions links and pics...very usefull (although making me feel kinda hungry right now).
Looks like I may need to buy a new oven for the house, which should cheer my wife up a bit (as our current one is a bit unreliable to say the least).
She thinks that I am going a bit mad at the moment, as I have taken over my dog's kennel and used it to put my smoker in !!! ;)
From what I read here the longest time you left the ribs in is around 6 hours My ribs are always in at least 8-10 hours and are never tough i followed the recipe from Iceman http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=449 to the letter the first time and it turned out perfect now I just tweek the rub alittle here and there but still follow his directions and they always turn out great ( Thanks ICE)
Randy
LTS;
Are you smoking/cooking spare ribs. I generally find that it takes 8 plus hours for spare ribs, and a lot less time for baby backs.
My Bad :-[ :-[
I looked back through my smoker notes and yes that was a bach of Spare ribs that I did that long my baby back ribs go around 6-8 hrs at 220 sorry :-[ :-[
LTS
Sorry if this is another dumb question, but what is the difference between baby back and spare ribs? ???
I understand baby back are smaller, but are they different cuts or from the same rack.. or is it from different types of pork..?
We don't use the terms very much in the UK.
you pretty much have it.. baby back ribs are smaller and full ribs are larger.. other then that im not sure
Eon
Spare ribs are side ribs. Back ribs are exactly that, from the back of the animal.
Here is a fairly good writeup on ribs.
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ribselect.html
Mike
PS
Here is another one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_ribs
Thanks Mike (and all) ,
The web site with the diagrams, etc. really helped explain...
Eon,
This is a site dedicated to ribs that has helped me out quite a bit.
http://www.amazingribs.com/index.html (http://www.amazingribs.com/index.html)
Welcome Eon,
I don't do a lot of ribs, but my plan for one slab of spare ribs is the smoker at 220 until the meat hits 180 internal (about 5 hours), then 195 deg smoker to maintain 180 until FTC, which i do for 1.5-2 hours or so.
I use a dry rub, and do not mop/spritz. They are tender, and not dry.
Look for a slab of spare ribs that has more meat and fat on them then the rest in the meat counter.
I also keep a log of every smoke I do. I log start time, smoker and meat temps at 1-2 hour intervals, how many of what flavor pucks, how long FTC'd, how I liked it, and recommendation for the next time (I don't smoke as often as I'd like to, so I have to write down how to do the next batch, or I'll forget).
Getting the meat to 180+ helps break down the meat tissue for tenderness in my opinion.
Keep a log, and experiment 'til you get it right, and keep asking here, because someone will have the answer to your question.
Buck,
Thanks for the link....pretty cool site!
SD
Quote from: Buck36 on November 13, 2008, 05:05:28 PM
Eon,
This is a site dedicated to ribs that has helped me out quite a bit.
http://www.amazingribs.com/index.html (http://www.amazingribs.com/index.html)
Buck: lots of great info on that site. Appreciate the post.
I just tried another batch of ribs tonight. Two racks cut in halves.
Smoked them for two hours and then foil wrapped with them with a selection of ingredients and left them cooking in the BDS at 230F for about 6 hours to see if the foil wrapping improved them (while I went to the pub with a friend).
Came back from the pub (perhaps a little later than planned) to find the ribs were amazingly tender and looked perfect. But unfortunately they tasted awful, it was like the initial smoke taste that was applied had been diluted and steamed throughout the ribs and had made them almost in-edible.
So now I can do ribs two ways - "Dry, but tasty" or "Tender, but awful" :-[
I'll keep working on it - hopefully next batch will be "Tender and Tasty" but this is proving more difficult than I expected ;D
It does take a little practice to get the hang of ribs. You will eventually get the hang of it.
Eon ..
you may wanna try opening the top vent some more and adding a try of orange soda in the bottom under the drip tray
Quote from: love the smoke on November 11, 2008, 10:32:08 AM
From what I read here the longest time you left the ribs in is around 6 hours My ribs are always in at least 8-10 hours and are never tough i followed the recipe from Iceman http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=449 to the letter the first time and it turned out perfect now I just tweek the rub alittle here and there but still follow his directions and they always turn out great ( Thanks ICE)
Randy
Holy cow, 8-10 hours for spare ribs? I just bought 4 slabs from BJ's tonight to cook on Sunday for the Eagles/Vikings game at 4:30. I think last time i did ribs i did maybe 5 hours (1.5 hours smoke). Guess thats why they weren't all that tender.
I'm going to follow Ice's directions to the letter. I know i've read here its hard to get an accurate temp reading from ribs, but with spare ribs is it possible? I mean looking at them it would appear as if there's plenty of room/meat to get the maverick probe into.
I suppose you could pull a reading, just be careful that your not hitting the bone! With ribs I just eyeball them, when that meat starts pulling back your getting darn close to being done! Good Luck!
C
Quote from: eon on November 16, 2008, 06:00:27 AM
I just tried another batch of ribs tonight. Two racks cut in halves.
Smoked them for two hours and then foil wrapped with them with a selection of ingredients and left them cooking in the BDS at 230F for about 6 hours to see if the foil wrapping improved them (while I went to the pub with a friend).
Came back from the pub (perhaps a little later than planned) to find the ribs were amazingly tender and looked perfect. But unfortunately they tasted awful, it was like the initial smoke taste that was applied had been diluted and steamed throughout the ribs and had made them almost in-edible.
So now I can do ribs two ways - "Dry, but tasty" or "Tender, but awful" :-[
I'll keep working on it - hopefully next batch will be "Tender and Tasty" but this is proving more difficult than I expected ;D
EON you was almost there. If you put them back on a the rack for about an hour to "Firm" up with a little splash of your sauce you will get the tender and tasty your looking for. Just be careful picking them up they really want to fall apart.
Quote from: westexasmoker on January 01, 2009, 03:15:14 PM
I suppose you could pull a reading, just be careful that your not hitting the bone! With ribs I just eyeball them, when that meat starts pulling back your getting darn close to being done! Good Luck!
C
So i should be looking at 7-9 hours for spare ribs?
Quote from: DrunkenMick on January 01, 2009, 04:48:01 PM
Quote from: westexasmoker on January 01, 2009, 03:15:14 PM
I suppose you could pull a reading, just be careful that your not hitting the bone! With ribs I just eyeball them, when that meat starts pulling back your getting darn close to being done! Good Luck!
C
So i should be looking at 7-9 hours for spare ribs?
DM,
I'm really not much help with times, Smoking is kinda when its done its done. Sometimes ya nail it and go and do the same routine weather it be ribs, brisket, pork and I guess for that matter anything its always a different road! :D
But with ribs, yep about 7-9 (unless you get the monsters Dex got) but start eyeballing them at about the 5 hour mark....Ribs are one of the cooler meats that will start to tell ya when there done!
C
Quote from: DrunkenMick on January 01, 2009, 04:48:01 PM
Quote from: westexasmoker on January 01, 2009, 03:15:14 PM
I suppose you could pull a reading, just be careful that your not hitting the bone! With ribs I just eyeball them, when that meat starts pulling back your getting darn close to being done! Good Luck!
C
So i should be looking at 7-9 hours for spare ribs?
I did a rack of spares last week and had them on the top rack rack for 6 hours - wasn't long enough and finished them off in the oven. Use some liquids in the foil wrapping if you do the oven thing.
Lol what a night. Bought a full rack of spare ribs (first time not from the butcher) and was confused as all heck when i took them outta the cryovac pack. Figured out to take the skirt off but didn't know what to do with all the rest of it. Found some youtube vid's on how to trim to a St. Louis cut. Will do that when i pull them out tomorrow as they're resting with some rub on them now.
I noticed in Ice's competition ribs writeup that he says ever 1/2 hour to 3/4 hour to open a spritz/mop. Since the high tomorrow will only get up to the 20's won't i be taking too much heat out of the cabinet everytime i open up to spritz?
I'll try to take some pics tomorrow while everything is going and we'll see if we can't get some tasty non-dry ribs.
How much smoke are you going to use?
I would not spritz or mop them at all during the smoke, only after. At that temp, and I do this anyway, I would pull them out of the Bradley after the smoke and then finish them in the oven either on a cookie sheet or in a foil tray. You can mop them there as often as you want. Most of the time I don't as I put foil over the top to keep the moisture in. Yesterday's Ribs I actually mopped, first time in a long time, and was very pleased with the results.
I'm going with 1.6 hours of smoke. The bradley is having a tough time coming up to temp. Its been in there close to 45 minutes now and i'm only back up to 145 degrees.
Since this is the "danger" zone how long before i get concerned?
DrunkenMick;
If the meat was handled properly prior to placing it in the smoke I wouldn't be too concerned; salt and smoke provide and extra buffer of time.
The slow temperature rise is puzzling. Are you just doing one rack of ribs, or do you have more food in the smoker? Did you let the ribs set at room temperature for 1 - 2 hours prior to placing them in the smoker?
Mick, start your Bradley with a pan of very hot water.gets the temp up.
I like spriting with Apple juice often also.