Cooking temperatures for smoking meats is a topic of great discussion, debate and (good-natured) disagreement for my friends and I. When I began seriously digging into smoking, I almost always sought out that sweet spot at 225 for true low and slow cooking for ribs, pork butt and brisket. Most, if not all, of the recipes I find on this wonderful site and others typically abide by this tried and true methodology. I have had what I consider very good results with pork butt and brisket, but ribs had always been something I wanted to improve on. With this in mind, I recently started exploring other methods and found that some of the greats like Tuffy Stone and Aaron Franklin were advocates of cooking at higher temps (275-300) for ribs, butts and brisket. Tuffy's competition pork butt recipe calls for 300 degrees! Mind blown!
Yesterday, I experimented with 2 3lbs racks of nicely marbled St. Louis spareribs. I smoked them at 275 for 2 hours until nice and mahogany, then wrapped meat side down with a little liquid (I used melted butter, honey, and a little of my sauce) for approximately 2 more hours. Absolutely the best bark and the most tender ribs I've ever done. I've done this exact same technique multiple times for longer cooks at 225 and could never get this degree of tenderness or bark development. Now I'm questioning everything I thought I knew!
Curious to hear everyone's preferences.
Yesterday, I experimented with 2 3lbs racks of nicely marbled St. Louis spareribs. I smoked them at 275 for 2 hours until nice and mahogany, then wrapped meat side down with a little liquid (I used melted butter, honey, and a little of my sauce) for approximately 2 more hours. Absolutely the best bark and the most tender ribs I've ever done. I've done this exact same technique multiple times for longer cooks at 225 and could never get this degree of tenderness or bark development. Now I'm questioning everything I thought I knew!
Curious to hear everyone's preferences.
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