Ran three racks of baby backs through the #3 last week for my wife's birthday. A nice healthy dose of
Meathead's Memphis Dust, held on with some yellow mustard, went on before the ribs took a 5.5 hour trip in the smoker with about 2.25 oz. of hickory, plus a little water pan.
The result was pretty tasty. I'm still fairly certain that I prefer a well-smoked rack of St. Louis cut ribs. I think that the extra fat and connective tissue that gets rendered down during a nice, slow smoking actually makes them a little bit more tender. Not that the baby backs aren't tasty, but if you get a decent rack of SLC ribs, there's more meat, and if you smoke them nice a slow at about 225 or so for 5.5-6 hours, they come out pretty tasty. And they're usually cheaper (though not by a whole lot sometimes).
But I've only done one round of each so far, and clearly many more trials will be necessary before a responsible conclusion can be made. I'm sure my wife, as a scientist and a rib lover, will approve.
I got a before picture, but hunger got the better of me and I forgot an after pic. But there's still a rack leftover, so I'll try and snap one of it.
