Spare Ribs Help

[Cobra7]

My first attempt at spare ribs. Going to go with Jan's rub and sprits with apple juice every 30 min. Going to use the 3-2-1 method. What y'all think?

[TedEbear]

Sounds good except I wouldn't do the apple juice every 30 minutes, if at all.  Whenever you open the door you're losing heat and smoke.  There's the old saying, "If you're lookin' you're not cookin'." 

I never spritz mine.  I figure the "2" part of the 3-2-1 takes care of the tenderness when I add about 1/2 cup of apple juice to the foil "boat" and roll the edges together to seal in the steam. 

[beefmann]

id do the 3-2-1 process, 3 he of smoking and  cooking, foil with apple juice back in the  smoker for 2 hours .. and 1 hour  uncovered , your  choice if you   mop  with your favorite bbq  sauce

[Cobra7]

Got a new Maverick yesterday. Had smoker set on 220 and my maverick is saying its 300 in there and says my meat is 142 after only 1 hour. I decreased temp to 200. Any suggestions?

[Habanero Smoker]

Got a new Maverick yesterday. Had smoker set on 220 and my maverick is saying its 300 in there and says my meat is 142 after only 1 hour. I decreased temp to 200. Any suggestions?

Don't rely on the Maverick probe for meat temperature of ribs, more likely than not you are going to get a false high temperature.

[Cobra7]

Thanks for the help.

[KyNola]

In a nutshell, those readings after 1 hour simply can't be right.  Where is your tower probe located?  As for the meat temp I agree with Habs.  Ribs are too thin to get an accurate temp reading using a probe.

[rveal23]

I agree with Habenero & Kynola, if you stick a probe inside the ribs you are to close to the bone and that bone is going to be much hotter than your meat which will then throw off your IT of your ribs.. Go by time and how the Ribs are looking!

[Cobra7]

Came out a little tough. I think 6 hours is way to long. Temp probe was on rack 2 inches from meat.

[TedEbear]

Came out a little tough. I think 6 hours is way to long.

You might switch the first two numbers and try 2-3-1 or even reducing the final hour out of the foil to 30 minutes and see how they turn out.

What temp was the cooking chamber set at?

[rveal23]

The ribs tell you the whole story on how they are cooking.
Once the meat starts to pull back from the bone tips, your ribs are pretty much ready.
So if your ribs are pulling when they are coming out of the foil then ur last hour should be
cut back and you should watch ur ribs before they dry out.

[Cobra7]

The ribs were pulling back after the first 3 hours before the foil.

[pz]

Cobra7; Although this does not directly address your issue, I thought I'd share anyway as a method of producing tender and flavorful ribs.

I don't think the following is exactly an accepted method (because I made it up along the way using trial and error), but it produces fall off the bone ribs that melt in your mouth.  I realize that competition folks frown on fall off the bone, but all my family and guests like them lots.

I've found that ribs can be done with or without smoke, low and slow, or hot and fast and each can still yield mouth watering fall off the bone meat - just depends on your mood for the day.  Because I have just started using my Bradley, I have not had the chance to do ribs on it yet, but I'll be experimenting soon.  Up to this point I've been using a Traeger, and smoke for two hours on the smoke setting - in the Traeger that amounts to approximately 120-160F.  I use a generic rub that consists of spices I have handy, usually brown sugar, smoked paprika, thyme, cumin and cayenne - I put it on heavy.

After smoking, I place the ribs meat side down on a bed of brown sugar and butter, then tightly wrap with foil.  Then into my home oven at 300F for a couple of hours or so.  After pulling the ribs out of the oven I let them rest in the foil for about 10 minutes.  Sometimes I'll return the ribs uncovered to a high heat for a short while to set sauce (if I sauce them), but mostly the ribs will already have plenty of flavor.

I Know this is kind of cheating, and goes against the spirit of "Q" in a smoker, but when I'm in the middle of winter when it is too cold for my smokers and the Traeger is the only one that still does it's job, these sure are a great way to get BBQ flavor

[Habanero Smoker]

Usually if they are tough, you have undercooked them. It is always possible to cook through the doneness to the point they become tough again, but that is generally pretty hard to do with spare ribs and other tough cuts of meat. Especially at the temperature and times you were using. Sorry to ask this, but because this is your first time cooking ribs, did you remove the membrane on the back side of the ribs? If you didn't that will make the meat appear to be tough. If you still have ribs left, place them in a pan with a little liquid, cover with foil and cook at 250°F in a preheated oven until they are at the doneness you like.

When I cook spares in my Bradley it will generally take 7 hours, at 215°F. Though you have bone exposure from the meat pulling back, I don't use that as a guide. I use a wooden bamboo skewer to test the meat. When the skewer goes in with a little resistance they are about "bite off" the bone tender. If it slides in easily without any resistance then are "fall off" the bone tender. I tend to use a bamboo skewer over a stainless steel probe, because I am use to the bamboo and how it feels. A stainless steel probe, is just too smooth for me to determine the proper doneness. There are other tests you can use; here is a good article on the Amazing Ribs Site.

Members use the oven often as another step in their cooking method, so ribs are also fair game to this. Technically, any temperature up to 300°F (some sources say 325°F) is considered barbequing temperatures. Today, many competitors are using barbeque temperature of 250°F to 275°F the entire cook for their ribs, not using the 3-2-1 method, but a variation of it, but generally will only wrap for 1 hour, at those temperatures. In competition you are aiming for "bite off" the bone tender, but at those temperatures you can go from "bite off" to "fall off" in minutes.

[Cobra7]

I removed the membrane before the Jan's rub went on. When I tented i put a good bit of apple juice it. After the two hours in foil there must of been 8 oz. of fluid in each foil pack. The ribs were tuff at that point. My neighbor cooks with a stick burner and his are falling apart and mushy but that's the way his family likes them. I even put in a larger water pan to replace the bowel for added humidity.