Back ribs from last night

[cdhickey]

To celebrate finally being able to fire up the WSM without having to wear mittens, I threw a rack of back ribs on the smoker. I used BRITU rub over a little mustard and smoked them at around 230 with some apple wood. It was a fairly uneventful cook and I kept it fairly simple- no spritzing, no foiling, no witchcraft, just relax and wait. Normally I find backs are ready for me around 4 hours, but they weren't quite there at that point. By the 4.5 hour mark they weren't passing the bend test but I had some pullback on the bones and the meat was feeling pretty tender when probed, so I sauced and pulled them off. The results? Great taste and nice texture, although the meat wasn't pulling fully off the bones- there were a few spots where it was still sticking on a bit. I often crutch for a bit with ribs, but this cook proved to me that I can still make a decent rack without having to do that. Here are a few pictures from the cook:

[Jerod Broussard]

Nice!!!

[bep35]

Nice smoke ring.

[Huskee]

Good job cdhickey

[_John_]

Looks good, nice to have decent weather back.

[Spinaker]

Great Pics. How did they turn out compared to the ribs you wrap? I never wrap my ribs. But I know a lot of guys do. I was just wondering is you noticed any difference in taste, texture. Plus I usually do ribs on my PBC and wrapping is not really a good option.

[cdhickey]

The wrapped ribs pulled from the bones a little easier and gave a bit softer meat, but I didn't find much difference in flavor. In the future, I'll probably stick to not foiling- the difference wasn't enough to justify the extra effort.

[Dewesq55]

They look really pretty and yummy. FWIW, I never foil/crutch ribs. They get done quickly enough without and never get dried out if I keep a gentle eye on them.

[Henrik]

Nice, those are some good looking ribs!

[Nukes]

Really nice looking ribs! I like them when they are meaty and take a slight effort to get off the bone. Those look fantastic