Experiment: BB ribs wrap vs no wrap

[fzxdoc]

I wonder if the texture of the wrapped vs. unwrapped might be even more different had you added something to the wrapped ribs before you enclose them in that HDfoil sarcophagus. Many people add butter/margarine, brown sugar, more rub, etc. at the wrapping step which I would guess might encourage more of a braise and more fall off the bone results.

I've never done side by side as you have, but followingHenrik 's modification of the traditional Johnnie Trigg's post, I walked his way, and my ribs looked way different from your wrapped ones. They would barely stay on the bone. Just saying that the 3-2-1 or 2-2-1 method for babybacks leads to something a little different. You might want to give that a try sometime, just for the fun of it.

Kathryn

[Texas Larry]

And just to pile on, you might take a look at this guys test for a comparison.

https://youtu.be/KYC9FDQhbM4

[fzxdoc]

I'm a real Babyback Maniac fan. Nice video.

The video's finding of "almost too much smoke flavor" from the stickburner "error" effect on the naked rack of ribs might not have been a problem for DaveD who used a pellet cooker with its reputed lower smoke profile. Not surprising then that his unwrapped ribs were preferred by the two taste testers in his house.

Kathryn

[DaveD]

The secret weapon for many pellet rigs is the low-temp "smoke" setting. I posted a couple of cooks where for unrelated reasons I could compare two racks of spares, one that had the hour-plus at the smoke setting and one that did not, both compared with a rack done on the kettle. No question the kettle's smoke was strongest, but the pellet-smoked one that had that step was verrrrrry close, and way better than the one that lacked that step. A must-have feature in any pellet rig IMO.

[DaveD]

(cont'd) But, that was serendipitous, not intentional, and one of the racks was leftover vac-sealed and frozen, then reheated in sous vide for the comparison. Clearly what's needed is a three-fer, one rack done each way simultaneously

[Redwng]

I've done it both ways and the wife like them close to "fall off the bone" so wrapping is the way around here.

[Rob Johnston]

I enjoyed this. Thanks!

[DaveD]

Very fair point that nothing was added to the wrap, but that was exactly the stated goal: isolate the effect of just the foil. The pic I posted doesn't show it that well, but there was a lot of liquid in the foil, just the juices of the ribs themselves. Granted, didn't have the honey, sugar, or what have you, but they were definitely awash in juices.

Looks like the conclusions were pretty similar in the vid that Texas Larry posted...

[DaveD]

Hey! Revisiting this thread because tonight we had the leftovers from this cook, and our conclusions were 180 degrees the opposite of what they were on the night.

I reheated the frozen, vac-sealed half-racks of each of these two baby backs with the sous vide set at 150F/65C. When I pulled them out, there was so much liquid in the wrapped leftover bag that I immediately thought its seal must have lost integrity during the soak. But no, the water in the SV tub was crystal clear, no way that happened. Just a bit of juice in the unwrapped piece's bag. Hmmm.

Served with some roasted cauliflower (EVOO, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes) and some Marie Callender's frozen mac & cheese with some parmesan breadcrumb topping, not bad at all.

The wrapped ribs were absolutely superior on the reheat to the unwrapped. Juicy and tender, whereas the unwrapped were just a wee bit chewy. On the night, the exact opposite, the unwrapped right out of the pit brought all the goodness that the wrapped rack had subtly masked. On the reheat, those subtleties are mostly in the rearview anyway, right?

Going to have to do another experiment to explicitly test this possible correlation, but it sure does seem feasible that the wrapping process allowed that rack to hold more moisture than did the unwrapped rack, and that it came right back out on the reheat in a way that wasn't possible with the unwrapped. If there's a finite amount of "juice" any given rack can have, then once it's dripped away, you can't get it back, eh?

If this holds up, then the general conclusion would be, for ribs you are going to eat right away, don't wrap. For those you intend to save for later, wrap those puppies. More Data Are Needed!

The three ribs to the left are from the unwrapped rack, the two on the right wrapped.


This cauliflower was really great! Chunked it up, tossed it with EVOO, salt, pepper, and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes. Roasted at 400F/205C for 50 min total, turning after 30 - very important to cut it so there are flat surfaces you can turn to.

[barelfly]

Mmmm! Roasted CF! We made some tonight as well, added some cheddar at the end. Amazing how much better CF is Cooked this way!

Great cook!