Foodsaver vacuum marinading

[Nonnymus]

When cooking ribs, I generally do three racks at a time.  The ribs are first skinned by removing the inside membrane, using a paper towel to get a grip, then cut into thirds.  I have a Foodsaver vacuum sealer and also two of their biggest vacuum cannisters.  I've found that the two cannisters hold the three racks of ribs (9 pieces) very well and use less marinade than their horizontal food marinading dish.

I have a dry rub that I mix up in bulk, vacuum store in small quantities and use over the course of 6 months or so.  For my ribs, I merely place a heaping tablespoon of the dry rub on top of the ribs in the two cannisters, add a similar amount of French's yellow prepared mustard and fill the cannisters with unsweetened apple juice.  I then pull a vacuum on them, shake them vigorously to distribute the rub, mustard and apple juice and then refrigererate overnight.  I've found that about 12 hours works best.

The ribs are then removed and placed on 3 Bradley racks.  I prefer to place the thickest pieces on the upper rack, working downward to the thinnest at the lowest level.  The ribs are then VERY gently given a sprinkle of black pepper and cooked in the smoker for 6 hours, but using only 8 pucks of Apple or Hickory.  More pucks tend to overpower the meat, I've found.  I also have learned to keep the damper fully open.

In my case, I use the Pitboss differential thermostat, so I have the hood temperature set to begin at 200f and the internal meat temperature set for 160f.  On a 70+f day, I've found that the tapering begins at about 90 minutes and the meat reaches its resting temperature at about 2-3 hours.  The rest of the time is just letting the meat relax.  Unlike most folk, I don't foil the ribs after removing them, since they've been at temperature for quite a while already.

Our friends and neighbors come from different parts of the country, so I serve the ribs "dry" out of the smoker, and let them choose whether to use Rudy's Sause, KC Masterpiece or eat them as presented.  The only thing I do is heat up the sauces a tad before placing them on the table. 

I've also had darned good results serving them Memphis style, by sprinkling on more of my dry rub after removing the ribs from the marinade.  I've also found that if I skip more dry rub, but crack on a bit more black pepper before smoking the ribs, they are a darned close approximation of the ones we get from Rudy's, down in Austin. 

In no case, have I tried smoking the ribs with any kind of mop,  but might give it a try.  I used to use a mop all the time when doing the ribs on my grill or in my wood smoker, but somehow I've not done the Bradley ribs that way.

Nonny

[West Coast Kansan]

 8) Thanks for the down load. Just a couple of thoughts. Give the Iceman's sauce a try on your ribs. Found it to be great for ribs 2nd thought if you would like to mop do it as you pull the ribs from the smoker and flash finish them on the grill.   :) Hope you like it, have not heard of anyone who has not... Enjoy

[iceman]

The Reveo "Eastman Outdoors" Vac Tumbler Marinader works real nice on ribs also. It only takes 20 minutes and your ready to go. You can do about 3 racks of baby backs if you cut the rack in half. It does a whole large chicken or half a dozen rib eyes in the same amount of time too. Great little machine. I don't throw anything on the grill or in the smoker unless it goes through it first. (Well almost anything)! ;D

[Wildcat]

As WCK said, try Iceman's sauce.  It is absolutely perfect for ribs!