My baby back ribs taste like hot dogs. Help!

[Aaron Armstrong]

Help an acolyte to the proper pit. I smoked tyson ribs with a gentle coating of butt rub 4-5 hours, foil wrapped tight 2 hr, slathered with sweet baby ray's classic, and put back to glaze for about 15 minutes. Texture, bite, pull was great. I am using 2 year seasoned white oak, temp was 250+/-20, I bit into them and they tasted exactly like hot dogs. It was not pleasant. I usually kamado "smoke" and its great, this was shocking. I went to food city and purchased a smaller single rack and smoked 3-4 hr, same conditions, and it tasted like hot dogs again but less so. No nitrates/nitrites in butt rub, sweet baby rays is basically just HFCS with brown flavor, but a clue: I smoked shoulder and it appears that the ring showed gas penetration that was enough to completely penetrate the rib meat. Another clue: There is no ring in the ribs, it is bright pink all the way through. I didn't know it was possible, but did I cure my ribs with smoke? What is the solution? Help me BBQ Wizards! Lend me your knowledge and experience please.

UPDATE:
Thank yall for the good suggestions and input. I conducted my "little"experiment (it ended up being a 13 person BBQ haha). I determined that the tyson ribs were the culprit. I smoked 2 racks of spare ribs (sams) each was about 6 lb. The smoke ring was perfect and the flavor was just right. Kept it simple with yellow mustard, garlic/salt/pepper layer, butt rub layer, brown sugar. I tried to time it but it got really busy as people just kept saying they were on their way, so I relied on my experience (when it looked right, you know what that looks like) wrapped, cooked, unwrapped and glazed with sweet baby rays classic. The ribs were divine, as evidenced by my friends' compliments and accolades. The moral of the story: DO NOT BUY TYSON RIBS!

Thanks again everyone for your warm welcome and help troubleshooting. I will be sticking around

[Huskee]

Never heard of ribs slathered in BBQ sauce tasting like hot dogs...but that look on your face says they sure do!

Have you tried not using any BBQ sauce and not wrapping at all? Give Last Meal Ribs a try- no wrapping, no sauce slather, and use Memphis Dust for the rub. Oh, and dry brine (salt only) a few hours before, or the night before, if you use Memphis Dust or any other salt-less rub.

Smoking them unwrapped the whole cook, which could be 4-7hrs, (usually 5 or 6 consistently for me) will build up a nice hardy bark layer and there should be no hot dog flavor there.

One other thing, had you said you were using hickory I would've suggested that could be a partial culprit, every time I use straight hickory I get that deli ham smoke taste. Oak shouldn't' do that, but white oak is more potent. Try one variable at a time, try the recipe as I typed above, if you still get that flavor, switch to apple or another wood. Report back. Eat your experiments along the way, live happy!

[Aaron Armstrong]

Will do. I have 3 racks I will be experimenting with this weekend, I will halve them and do a 1 hr wrap, 2 hr, 3 hr, etc. Let sit in the foil for 2 hr, and then do the glaze. The only variable I will be changing here is the length of time they are exposed to the smoke while cooking. I am trying to track down the culprit and eliminating the smoke as a the perp may be be helpful.

[RonB]

I thiink I bought Tyson ribs one time some years ago and they had been injected. I did not like the taste and haven't bought any since. Did you check the label to see if there was anything added to them ? That could change the taste.

[tbob4]

I think you are on to something. I liked what Huskee said but was still curious about the hot-dog taste. I'm betting you are right on.

[Aaron Armstrong]

I did not! I should have. I have a 3 pack of Sam's club ribs I will be trying this weekend. I have cooked them before on the kamado and they are good enough, so I have a "control" in my mind although it isn't a true control

[jerrybell]

Agree with RonB, check the label to see if they are pre-marinated or something. I don't cook baby backs but my St. Louis style ribs are usually done at the 5 to 6 hour mark. Six to seven hours for bb ribs seems long. That looks like a lot of bbq sauce and not much bark formation. Maybe they were fully cooked when you wrapped and they just braised for 2 hours in the foil. I can't say why your method would give a hot dog taste however.

[Aaron Armstrong]

Agree. Do you wrap yours? I do spare ribs as well for vending at events... I will employ some of the methods to generate actual bark on them, cool before adding, spritzing, I will be foil wrapping at 5 different time points this weekend with an exposed and see if there is a difference in the "hotdoggyness" of the ribs

[jerrybell]

Aaron Armstrong I'm interested to hear the results of your wrap test. I don't wrap ribs. I tried wrapping once. The wrapped ribs were fine but not worth the extra step for me.

[jfmorris]

I had Tyson ribs exactly once, and didn’t care too much for them. Tyson may know chicken - pork not so much I think. Also, when you say butt rub, I wonder if you mean Bad Byron’s butt rub - I use that a lot, but my wife doesn’t like it on my ribs.

One question is - what did you smoke these on, and with what fuel? You imply you didn’t use you kamado, so what did you use this time?

[jfmorris]

Ok - I hadn’t seen that thread. Awesome smoker. I am sure he will figure this out. I suspect the ribs first. The rub and sauce and wrap could also contribute. I rarely see ribs that saucy, and if they were braised in a foil wrap for 2 hours of the cook, it might be affecting consistency and taste.

[Aaron Armstrong]

I will make my own rib rub this time, very basic, brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder. And yes. No more tyson ribs. I have a 3 pack of Sam's that I will experiment with this weekend, and yea the new pit is definitely more complex than the kamado.

[jfmorris]

Aaron Armstrong I think you will be happier with the Sam's ribs. Note that I cooked a 3 pack of those last week, and found that the membrane had already been removed from the back of 1 of the 3 slabs. I was confused and trying to find the edge to pull it off, and realized it was already gone!

[Red Man]

I’m with the Tyson ribs being the problem. Try a different brand.

[mountainsmoker]

4+ on the Tyson. Also stay away from baby backs. Your eating loin meat which if pickled are more likely to change than St. Louis or plain spare ribs which can be the best deal if you learn to cut them to St. Louis's. They are less likely to be brined.

It sounds like you have made your ribs this way before. What have you changed for this rib cook. The grill someone mentioned, the wood, the rub, the sauce, the type of ribs. Eliminate each item until you have eliminated the problem

[Aaron Armstrong]

I do spare ribs a lot when vending, and this method (wood fire pit) is new to me, I have always used a kamado with wood chunks/small logs. I am doing a big experiment this weekend we will see. Thanks for the input. Also they are different ribs, Sam's

[Steve R.]

Buying Tyson ribs is where you went wrong. I have tried the ribs and butts, and they are consistently way too salty. Tyson needs to stick ta chicken. I think you did everything else just fine.

[Huskee]

I guess I've never bought any injected ribs, Tyson or otherwise, never experienced that but I still struggle thinking extra salt would give a hotdog taste though, especially covered in BBQ sauce. Does Tyson ever inject with any nitrite? I gotta think no on that.

[Steve R.]

Huskee, I have never had them taste like hot dogs, but they are always far too salty. I suppose you could use a salt-free rub, but then you have to wait until they are done to find out if you should have added a little bit of salt.

[Polarbear777]

If it's not a brand problem, you can try another brand (smithfield is usually available in many places) and see if that works with your current process.

OR, you could buy the Tysons again, dry brine with just salt and rub with just pepper and smoke all the way with no sauce at the end...if it still tastes like hot dogs, then it's definitely whatever tysons is doing to them.

[Aaron Armstrong]

I like Smithfield ribs, they are my usual brand but this time Walmart only had the Tyson. I am staying away from Tyson for the time being

[mnavarre]

Stay away from Tyson forever. Their pork is garbage. I've had good luck with Swift Premium, Smithfield, and Farmer John(which is what the grocery stores around here usually have).

[Troutman]

Just caught up with this post. The idea of tasting like hot dogs really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. According to Tysons website, their ribs are made with pork, water and salt. In other words they are "minimally" processed whole cuts of meat. Hot dogs, as most of us know, are a crazy concoction of ground up meat products (mostly beef) with a ton of additives and preservatives, salt, MSG, the list is as long as my arm. They are also cured products. Grinding up meat could easily introduce bacteria to the blend so the use of nitrites (from what I read) are introduced through ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and other ingredients like celery.

How the two could ever taste the same is beyond me. Like others have stated, ditch the Tysons brand. Try to source products that have little or no salt curing either. Cook them simply and try them without sauce, that may also be your culprit.

[surfdog]

My first thought was, yeah I’ve had that problem with hickory... Then I read the post.

I’d try as Huskee suggested...which is also how I do mine. FWIW I generally use apple for my ribs.

I think I would also check the packaging on those ribs. Never used Tyson so I can’t offer any insight there. That said, I HAVE seen other brands that were injected and/or brined or had some other additives included. I always pass on those.

[HouseHomey]

+1 on hickory and Tyson.

too much salt and smoke for those ribs = ðŸŒ

ya dun killed the wibs twice.
Great looking cook though. Carry on fine sir.

That look though. That’ll be a Classic.

[Aaron Armstrong]

Haha yea, my wife loves that face

[Huskee]

By chance, was it Sweet Baby Ray's new "I can't believe it's not a frankfurter" BBQ sauce? I kid, I kid.

[Aaron Armstrong]

Just classic

[Jon Liebers]

me thinks the problem is the source of the Ribs. Get yourself some fresh Berkshire heritage ribs and compare. Also , maybe just me but at 250 degrees seems like an exceptionally long cook for "babybacks" I just smoked some this weekend in the BGE and total at 230 degrees was aprox 2 1/2 hours. That was 1 1/4 hours smoked, 1 hour wrapped (Johnny Trigg style) and about 15-20 min glazed unwrapped. came out terrific.

[Aaron Armstrong]

Will be testing shorter duration this weekend with Sam's ribs

[Steve R.]

If all else fails, maybe someone can tell me how to make my hot dogs taste like ribs. TIA

[Mudkat]

Buy Tyson hot dogs

[Murdy]

Nevermind