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3-2-1 method for cooking ribs just plain works. It is a great guide, and not a hard and fast rule and it works.
The underlying method is smoke first, braise wrapped, and finish with sauce or glaze.
I confess, I use these three steps as a guide for ribs and no longer boil in PBR first.
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
Here's a useful technique for tenderizing, moisturizing, and speeding cooking by wrapping meat in aluminum foil for an hour or two. The Texas crutch beats the stall, in which meat stops cooking during barbecuing, sometimes for hours. This simple trick works for brisket, pork shoulder and ribs on any smoker or grill.
I went through a wrapping phase and had some good results but have since abandoned the method for no wrap, spritzing, and saucing at the end. No guarantee, however, that I'm now set in my ways.
I used to do the three step method. But my ever present laziness took over and now I just toss them on and glaze with sauce at the end. They always seem to turn out great.
For the "-2-", I have tried no wrap, 30 minutes wrap, 1 hour wrap and the full 2 hour wrap.
With the 2 hour wrap I had shredded pork, not pork spareribs. 1 hour seemed popular with "the audience". The 30 minutes did seem better to me than no wrap.
4 hour smoke
1 hour wrapped in butcher paper
1/2 hour rest wrapped while the Grilla OG gets to 400
1/4 hour setting the sauce and or charring the surface up.
With baby back ribs, I wrap to keep moist. A little TLC cause they are lean.
If St. Louis style, I let-em-rip, we like them smoky and no sauce. Lots of sweet and spicy rub. 👍
I only wrap my butts. I generally don’t wrap ribs. I remember the first time I made ribs from a recipe I pulled up on this website and I think I started them at like 8 o’clock thinking they would take all day on my gasser with some wood chips in a smoke box. Ah to be young again. I believe they were done by about noon and they were supposed to be our dinner. I have done the 3-2-1 method a couple of times and I didn’t notice much of a difference. Well, I’m also a little lazy. The ribs I did last week I did on my WSM, unwrapped the family pounded them.
Y'all are too fancy for me. I take the ribs out of the package. I put rub on them. I put them on the smoker. I take them off the smoker and I eat them.
With the "3" being done at 180°, and the "2" at just 225°, I can see where it would work and not end up mushy. Bottom line is, if you like how they turn out, then you're doing it the "right way".
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