Foil or No Foil? Ribs

[BitterAztec]

I followed the recipes that call for putting ribs in foil after smoking for 3 hours.

The ribs seemed to be a bit "crumbly" or "mushy" when I bit into them.  When I had sampled ribs at competitions, they don't appear to use foil.  Also, competition ribs have a firmer texture that I can easily bite through and have a slight pull to the bone.

Can someone recommend a technique that I can follow to get this texture?  Maybe I was supposed to do something after the foil step to get a less crumbly result.

Thanks for your help

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi BitterAztec;

Welcome to the forum.

Almost all competition cooks I know and/or talked with will wrap their ribs during a competition, if not for anything else it is because of the time frame they are under. At home they may or may not cook their ribs differently.

If your ribs are coming out "mushy" then they are overcooked, and you have to adjust your cooking times, cooking temperatures or not foil at all; but not foiling when cooking in the Bradley your ribs may develop a dry top layer of meat.

You should explain in more detail how you cooked your ribs, and what type of ribs you cooked. It appears you wrapped the ribs after three hours and left them wrapped until "done". The foiling should be only for about 2 hours if you are cooking spareribs, then you unfoil and continue to cook until they are done; which ideally would be for another hour. What cabinet temperature did you use?

If you used the 3-2-1 method, those times are for spareribs, and it is a guideline. If you were cooking baby backs you will need lower your cooking times to i.e. 2-1.5-1; which would also be a guideline. Even if they were spareribs and you were using the 3-2-1 method, after the foil period check for doneness. I generally check for doneness by using a bamboo skewer. When it slides in and out with very little resistance, the are bite off the bone; competition done. Not all ribs are created equal,  and you may find you either will have to shorten or lengthen the last step.

[Saber 4]

Habs has got you going in the right direction for the foil wrapped method and he is right that you can get a dry top layer of meat, I don't wrap my ribs and combat that dryness with a good spritz of apple juice every couple of hours when I flip the ribs over. I start with the bone side down and let them cook that way for a couple of hours while the smoke is flowing so that the bone will have the most heat from the element when I flip them over to meat side down. When they are getting close to done I flip them back bone side down and spritz again. Depending on how many racks of ribs and how they are cooking determines how long they need to cook and how often I have to flip them. Just remember that if your looking to much your not cooking. Using this method I always get moist, tender ribs that are close to fall off the bone without loosing the firmness of the meat for what we consider a good chew. Just my 2 cents worth, others will have their methods and you will just have to experiment with things until you find the combination that works for you to get the results your family is looking for.

[Dano]

I've done loads of ribs in the Bradley and all my friends continue to rave about them.  They're moist, fall-off-the-bone but still chewy enough to know you're eating ribs.   Here's how I do mine if you want a step-by-step guide.

Must Do's
*always remove membrane regardless of rib choice
*always coat the ribs in a generous amount of dry rub - I use a heavy paprika/brown sugar mix - and let them sit in the fridge over night or for a few hours
*always let the ribs sit out at room temp for an hour so you're not smoking cold meat

3-2-1 (spare ribs, center cut removed)

-In the Bradley for 3 hours of your fav. flavour at 220F (I use either hickory or apple)
-Pull and wrap each half side in double layer of foil with a 1/4 cup of apple juice or a nice English Ale, then place back in smoker(only if you can maintain the temp) or bake in oven at 220F for 2 hours
-Remove from oven, drain juice, fill a pot full of sauce and dunk the ribs completely.  Place back in Bradley for an hour at 220F.  I sometimes put about 20mins of smoke at them but I don't smoke them out the entire time as the sauce becomes too smokey(especially if it already has smoke added like Bullseye)

The 2-2-1 or 2-1.5-1 method is exactly the same with respect to temps and preparation, just a little less smoke so you don't dry out the back ribs.

Now for the smokehouse approach - you can slow smoke them at 220F for 6 hours if you want a bit of a tougher/chewy rib but the secret to this is you have to 'mop' the ribs at least every hour to keep em moist and flip em over..else you'll end up with a rack of smoke flavoured cardboard.  ;)

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[STLstyle]

Almost all comp cooks wrap ribs.  Mostly for color (ribs get too dark for judges preference) and to make sure not too much smoke is applied.   I've done both ways in the bradley.  I prefer wrapping for 1-1.5 hours depending on load for spares.  2 hours often renders the ribs over done for my taste.  I have a dual element mod 225-235 so cook time may be decreased.  On your next set of ribs try both ways and reduce the wrap time on the foiled ribs.  Trial and error and you'll figure it out. 

[BitterAztec]

Thanks for the replies.  Sorry that it took me so long to post again.

I did my fist smoke of the year today.  On my original post, I followed the 3-2-1 method at 225 degrees, but only had 1 rack of St Lois ribs, so maybe that is why it overcooked.  Last summer I cooked without foiling for 6 hours straight, no foil, and the texture was closer to desired.

Today I followed a recipe out of the Slow Fire BBQ book.  St Louis ribs at 325 degrees, 2 hours meat up- 45 minutes meat down - 30 minutes foiled.  This was a little undercooked, but wasn't far off.

I'll keep making adjustments like everyone recommended.

Also, I just ordered the 2-rack for my Dad as a combined Birthday and Father's Day present.  Just learned about that today.

Thanks again :)