Why the mustard slather? I thought I would compare and contrast - so here's the results with some astonishingly poor photography.
I took 4 racks of ribs, two 'identical' baby back racks, two 'identical' short rib racks. One rack of each would get a slather with French's, a tight celophane wrap for 24 hours, then some rub (Memphis Dust) prior to cooking. The other rack stays in the packet till go time, then a quick coat of olive oil and some rub.
All racks were put in the PBC and hung till done. No crutch, spritzing or fiddling. 2 chunks of apple were used for smoke. The cook took about 2.5 hours for the beef, 3.5 for the baby backs.
Slathered and wrapped. Beef at back, pork infront

Hooked and ready to go. The yellowish tinge on the inside pair indicates the mustard slathered ribs.

The results:
As the pics are so appalling I'll give the results:
Beef:
Bark: Olive Oil hands down. The mustard had a really dry bark. Just wasn't good.
Smoke Ring: Olive Oil hands down.
Taste: OO again - by a margin. The flavor wasn't that different, but the mouth feel was worlds apart
Look: Olive oil easily. The meat for some reason was darker and just looked right. The MS ribs were pale.
All in all, the mustard slather was a complete failure. Those ribs were bad enough that I would be embarrassed to serve them. The OO ribs were absolutely as expected - good ribs.
Mustard on the left, OO the right. I have no idea what I was doing wrong with the camera.

The Pork:
They were basically identical. Indistinguishable from one another. In taste, texture, smoke ring, etc. The far side were OO, nearside MS.

The ribs were terrific, BTW. The camera work was awful.

In the pic above, the ribs are from different racks.
So in conclusion, MS seemed to make no difference in one case and ruined the ribs in the other. I'll stick with olive oil.
I took 4 racks of ribs, two 'identical' baby back racks, two 'identical' short rib racks. One rack of each would get a slather with French's, a tight celophane wrap for 24 hours, then some rub (Memphis Dust) prior to cooking. The other rack stays in the packet till go time, then a quick coat of olive oil and some rub.
All racks were put in the PBC and hung till done. No crutch, spritzing or fiddling. 2 chunks of apple were used for smoke. The cook took about 2.5 hours for the beef, 3.5 for the baby backs.
Slathered and wrapped. Beef at back, pork infront
Hooked and ready to go. The yellowish tinge on the inside pair indicates the mustard slathered ribs.
The results:
As the pics are so appalling I'll give the results:
Beef:
Bark: Olive Oil hands down. The mustard had a really dry bark. Just wasn't good.
Smoke Ring: Olive Oil hands down.
Taste: OO again - by a margin. The flavor wasn't that different, but the mouth feel was worlds apart
Look: Olive oil easily. The meat for some reason was darker and just looked right. The MS ribs were pale.
All in all, the mustard slather was a complete failure. Those ribs were bad enough that I would be embarrassed to serve them. The OO ribs were absolutely as expected - good ribs.
Mustard on the left, OO the right. I have no idea what I was doing wrong with the camera.
The Pork:
They were basically identical. Indistinguishable from one another. In taste, texture, smoke ring, etc. The far side were OO, nearside MS.
The ribs were terrific, BTW. The camera work was awful.
In the pic above, the ribs are from different racks.
So in conclusion, MS seemed to make no difference in one case and ruined the ribs in the other. I'll stick with olive oil.
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