First Baby Back Ribs Questions

[mooskoka]

A very easy and always good recipe is to remove the membrane . Cut into 2 or 3 rib sections. add liberal amount of favorite rub and put onto OBS at full heat and smoke of choice . I prefer Apple with ribs . After two hours remove ribs and place around half full beer can on foil. standing up and leaning on can. You may add sauce now if you like prior to arranging them on foil. Put back into OBS full heat no smoke for another two hours. Remove and allow to rest for 15 mins and serve.

[DTAggie]

Hmm beer can ribs

[bob_loblaw]

So, For those who do their research like I do and read others threads here is a summary of my mishaps that turned out ok.

Day Prior - Remove membrane (easy thanks to help from you guys!), Apply heavy rub (simple rub recipe from Competition Ribs on recipe website), Seran wrap and in Fridge.
7:30 am - Wake up, preheat smoker, load 3 hours smoke etc . . .
7:45 am - Remove ribs, re-apply a little extra rub from previous day. Start smoke generator
Mistake #1 - Took out ribs to late for an 8 am start.  They did not have a chance to get to room temp. (I think this played a big role later ok)
8:00 am - ribs in smoker, 3 racks with 2 rib pieces per rack.  Foil drip pan on bottom rack for easy cleaning
Mistake #2 - Thermometer under foil drip pan which is giving a skewed reading of cabinet temp b/c the pan is trapping all heat underneath.  225 on thermometer was only about 150 above by ribs! 
8-9:30 - Smoked a cigar while monitoring the incorrect heat described above.  Rarely a morning smoker so this was pretty fantastic. 
9:30 am - realized mistake, pulled foil pan, cranked up heat as much as possible.
9:30-10:45 - Pace around, growl at girlfriend (often mistake #3 and an automatic out, but she chose to be understanding and fled to the gym), watch thermometer hover around 200 (suspect ribs still cold), generally annoyed with things.  Decide with enough problems a fluctuating or low temp is not something I want to deal with and decide to finish in oven.  Pull ribs, tent with foil/apple juice and stick in 225 oven. 
12 pm - After an hour in the foil tents the meat had not started to pull back yet.  At this point I am super frustrated.  I have no idea if the whole thing is already permanently messed up due to the lack of initial heat.  Time is becoming a factor so I decide to tent back up for another hour then one hour out.  However they end up so be it! 
1 pm - After a second hour in the foil there was def solid bone coming out of each rack!  I quickly pulled them all, sauced half and stuck them back in for one hour. 
2 pm - Its time to leave, there is no choice.  I have already grumpily told the girlfriend that if they have not come out good we are not taking any of them with us.  Cut one rib out to try and was pleasantly surprised.  Rub was not as overpowering as I expected, nice smokey flavor, meat was tender enough to pull cleanly from the bones, but still needed a bit of a pull to get it there.  Not fall of the bone mush, but a satisfying mouth full of flavorful and succulent meat.  Look sheepish and stupid for being all worked up. 

Total Cook time - 6 hours.

Lessons learned - When you mess up, its always better to err on too long rather then not long enough.  Second, when your cabinet temp is sucky and you are done with smoke the oven is a nice easy remedy. 

Oddly enough, I can't wait to try again!  I know next time will run smoother, have as good or better results and be a shorter overall cook time. Thanks again for the help!

[FLBentRider]

Sounds a lot like other lessons learned here.

I tend to not use the foil pans for the reason you stated.

How many racks did you do?

[ArnieM]

FLBR:  "8:00 am - ribs in smoker, 3 racks with 2 rib pieces per rack. "

Six hours sounds about right Bob.  That's what it takes for the 3-2-1 method.

Glad to hear everything worked out in the end.

[FLBentRider]

FLBR:  "8:00 am - ribs in smoker, 3 racks with 2 rib pieces per rack. "

My bad. Not enough coffee.