First try at smoking ribs

[Ratherder]

Some of you may recall my first attempt at smoking a pork butt here: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...mpt-at-smoking


I'm happy to say my next attempt was another tri-tip, and that attempt went smooth as silk. I was a *lot* smarter with the coals (and my thanks to mnavarre for suggesting using a fireplace poker to arrange the coals & lift the basket into the PBC--great, GREAT idea!). That bad boy was done in about 90 minutes. The GF loved it, the dog loved it, the rats loved it.

Sunday past, full of enough confidence to go three rounds with Mike Tyson, I decided to try smoking two ribs. Off to Wegmans!

I found their family pack of ribs was two full racks of spare ribs, with a pretty good amount of brisket meat still attached. Awesome.

Got the membrane off, no problem. Decide to leave the brisket meat there, and my gf came up with the idea of putting on two rubs on each half of a rack, to try four different rubs. Good ol' yellow mustard as a binder, and the rubs were GSP (garlic powder, kosher salt, and table grind black pepper), PB Beef & Game rub, and two spice mixes from the Savory Spice Company: Siesta Key and Hudson Bay Steak rub (my gf is sensitive to nightshades and these mixes leave out paprika, which is pretty common in damn near every rub out there). Hooks in the ribs and it's time to start the coals!

Got the coals going smoothly (I'm tellin' ya: Get a fireplace poker!). Gave the coals 15 minutes to settle and I saw how the spice mixes were already soaking into the mustard and the meat. Threw three blocks of cherry on the coals, put the first rack in the smoker and it was so long THE BOTTOM RIBS WERE LAYING ON THE COALS.

Hoo boy. More learning from mistakes time!

I tried taking it out and cutting off the bottom couple of bones, but no go (I was taking off all of the spice rub) so I just went with it. After all, I can always order pizza. And, yeah, both racks were touching the coals.

*sigh*

My plan was to leave the ribs alone for three hours, but curiosity got the best of me at the 90 minute mark. I opened the PBC and there was so much smoke I couldn't see anything, and I'm expecting a fine from the EPA any day now. I did manage to fan enough away to see there was a real, real nice deep brown color to the ribs, but not a lot of pull back from the bone, nor were there flames crawling up the racks. There was NO WAY I was going to see the bottom so the lid went on for another 90 minutes.

At the 3-hour mark, there was a lot less smoke coming out and I opened the PBC. The ribs still had a nice color and bark, with some good pull back; further, they were no longer touching the coals!

They were definitely charred on the bottom, though. I let them rest a bit and I realized I wasn't sure where one rub stopped and the other started. No matter; I took a SWAG, cut off the charred part, estimated where the rubs met and cut away one bone on each side of the dividing line, then served me and the GF one rib from each of the sections. I'm a gentleman, so I ate the rib closest to the charred end.

(One thing I should point out: That was a *massive* amount of shrinkage. Honest, there was at least a bone on each rack laying on the coals at the start, and when I finished, they seemed to be about two inches away from the coals. Of course, some of that was due to the coals breaking down. When I dump out these ashes I'm thinking of bringing in a forensics team
to see if there are any bone fragments on there.)

Both the GF and I prefer dry ribs. We agreed three of the four rubs tasted about the same--they were rubs/mixes that are heavy on the salt. The Siesta Key rub, however, had a pretty nice, delicate flavor, which probably came from the saffron powder that was listed as the last ingredient. I should point out this end was on the coals, so it might be even better next time, and I'm eager to try this mix again on something else.

As far as texture was concerned, they were all pretty tender. The ends in the coals were on the dry side, but not so dry they couldn't be eaten. The meat was *not* fall-off-the-bone tender and I've got to work on that. Real nice color where it wasn't charred, and the ribs with brisket on them were awesome. We liked them, honestly. The dog wasn't thrilled her bits were mostly burned. The rat (we're down to one, now, sadly) loved her rib bones.

LESSONS LEARNED: I think I have the coal thing down now. I forgot to have a temperature probe monitoring temps, so don't forget that next time. And the next time the ribs are hanging off the ends of the half sheet-pan during prep....cut off a couple of bones.

As always, any comments, thoughts, and ideas are welcome!

[shify]

I prefer to cut my spare ribs in half to cook them. I used to cook them whole and put the hook in 3-4 bones and then them hang over the hook to get them out of the coal but cutting them in half. haven't cooked more than 3 full racks at a time, so cutting them in half hasn't been an issue.

Everything else sounds good. My ribs generally take 3:30-4:30 hours in the PBC but my last set came in just at just over 3 hours, so your timing seems right. I like them to have a little chew, so I can bite cleanly through it without ripping all the meat off but if you prefer more tender, just cook a bit longer or even wrap at the end.

[jfmorris]

Good write up!

And about halfway through, I realized you were not doing what I anticipated. When you said you had two racks of ribs, and were trying 4 rubs, I assumed you cut the racks in half, hanging 4 half-racks. Next time do that, and there will be no confusion over the rubs, and no ribs in the coals...

[RonB]

If ya di this again, cut the slabs in half before adding rubs That will you will not have to guess where the rub changes. You can put 1 toothpick in one piece, 2 in another and 3 in another. J lay the same number of t'picks next to each bottle of rub so ya don't forget.

[HotSun]

Thanks for the great details write-up of your rib smoking and learned a lot. PBC is on my wish list, but my DW has veto power, so we'll see.

[WayneT]

Well documented cook and humorous narrative. We gotta laugh at ourselves, right?

[Sid P]

Great write up, but you forgot the pics . PBC’s can run hot, so I’d start checking them at 2.5 hours and then every half hour after that. I’ve found that "pull back" isn’t a very reliable test for doneness, so I use the toothpick test. If a toothpick slides in with very little resistance, they’re done.

Great work!

[Mosca]

Interesting!

I am very familiar with Wegman’s ribs, you could do a lot worse! In fact, they’re pretty good. I also like the cut with the tips and flap meat, I prefer it to St Louis cut.

I don’t use a PBC, but the LBGE has a similar problem with that specific product: two racks don’t fit on an 18” diameter surface! Even one rack gets pretty close to the edges.

Trim that flap at the end of the small ribs. It’s just going to dry out anyhow, if you trim it you can use it for something else. That’s usually about 2”, and should solve your issue.

[Ratherder]

Holy carp. Cut 'em in half. Yeah, THAT WOULD BE TOO EASY.

Honestly, I didn't expect that. The ol' eyeball test suggested they should fit, and I was wearing my glasses.

I'm definitely going to cut them next time.

[Ratherder]

Raw ribs. You can see the different colored rubs. Clockwise from top left: GSP, PB Beef & Game, Siesta Key, and Hudson Bay in the lower left.

[Mosca]

The problem then becomes that you forget which rack has which rub. Trust me on this one.

[Ratherder]

Mosca, it was actually pretty easy. The hooks go in one end, and I wrote down notes on positioning of the racks in the smoker in relation to the house.

[Mosca]

Hehe. I get distracted easily. On the BGE, I cut the racks in half and "jigsaw puzzle" them to fit; halfway through, when I rearrange to change all the ends, is when I lose track.

[Ratherder]

Same positioning as above. You can really see the char on the bottom rack, to the right. But, as I said in my original post, that was the best-tasting of the four.

[Ratherder]

We gotta laugh at ourselves, right?

Lord knows it keeps me from crying.

[Soonerpop]

Yes, cutting the slabs in half is sop for me with a PBJ. It is too short for full racks for sure. It works well, same cooking time as most of the folks have said. Good luck.