First Attempt at BB Ribs

[baran3]

I bought a 3-pack of BB Ribs at Sam's -- they were awfully big and meaty. Rinsed, patted dry, and removed membrane (paper towel for added grip is essential). Then slathered with mustard, covered in Famous Dave's Rub, wrapped in plastic and into the fridge for 16 hours.

I know there are 2 schools of thought on ribs -- no peak and 3-2-1. From all the reading I've done here most folks prefer the no peak method -- it certainly seems to be the easier approach and you guys seem to like the results best. I intend to try both but decided on the 3-2-1 for my first go at it. I had 3 large racks and had to cut them in half. I was able to get the 3 smaller halves on the top shelf of the smoker, but could only fit 2 of the larger halves on the second shelf, so had the last half rack on the third shelf down from the top (all racks bone side down). I tried to stagger them to allow for better air/smoke flow.

Used 1.95 ounces of cherry and 1.1 ounces of hickory, put apple juice in the pan on the floor next to wood box, and set smoker at 235 degrees.

After 3 hours I removed them and double-wrapped them in foil. I put them into the foil bones up/meat down, and had drizzled brown sugar and honey in the foil for the meat side. I then added more brown sugar and honey to the bone side and wrapped them. Then back into the smoker, meat side down, for another 2 hours.

After the 2 hours I removed them once again, removed the ribs from the foil and placed back on the cooking racks, again bone side down. I basted the meat side, some getting Famous Dave's BBQ Sauce and the rest getting Bone Suckin' Sauce. Then closed the smoker for the last time and cooked for another 30 minutes. (All the other food was ready so I had to remove them for dinner at this time)

After the final 30 minute cook I tried the toothpick test. Since I've never done this before I had no experience to pull from. The meat did pull away from the bone without the toothpick breaking so I thought they were good enough to serve at that point.

The ribs were very good and my family and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I've never had ribs this meaty in a restaurant. They were a little more fatty than I'm used to also, but I guess that's a function of them being so big and meaty. Overall I like the Sam's club ribs; I've also got some supermarket ribs I'll try next to see if they're that much smaller than the Sam's club pack. I know the Sam's price is much better than the supermarket.

Comments/Conclusions/Questions
1. They weren't too smokey, which is a good thing. But maybe they could have used a little more smoke??? If you look at my final picture, you can see what my wood looked like after the smoke. This is exactly how the wood looked after my first smoke last weekend.  I just saw a post made within the past 24 hours discussing this. The wood came from Smokin' It when I bought my smoker 3 weeks ago. I'm keeping it in a sealed ziplock bag. Should my blocks be reduced to white ash like this? Should I foil or soak the chunks? How about a wet paper towel inside an open sandwich bag placed inside the ziplock bag with the wood (a mini humidor)?
2. Need to use much bigger pieces of aluminum for wrapping the ribs during the second part of the smoke.
3. I understand that everybody has a different idea of how ribs should pull from the bone. My family likes them to separate very easily, which means they need to be over-cooked somewhat. Last night the ribs did separate from the bone cleanly (for the most part) but it required a little tug. These ribs were so big that they could have easily gone the full hour, if not more, during the third phase of the cook.
4. The 3-2-1 method definitely requires more work (which is frowned upon in the Lazy-Q handbook) but we like the sweet flavor. Can't make a final decision until we try the no peak method.
5. I know wrapping in the middle of the cook softens the bark, but since we have no prior experience we can't say if that hurt the meal or not. Again, have to try the no peak to see which tastes better for us.
6. We seem to not like the Bone Suckin' Sauce on pulled pork but we do like it on ribs. The vinegar in the sauce seems to work better on ribs in our opinion.

Any info you can pass along on the wood/ash situation would be appreciated, in addition to anything you can teach me about my rib smoke.

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[SuperDave]

Ken, can you post a picture of the underside of the lid on the fire box?  I don't like to see that much ash personally.  A significant black creosote on the underside of the lid tells me, fire!  This will take away actual smoke time.  I like 4 ounces for my wood weight as I felt 3 was a little too light. 

Looking at your bone ends, there isn't much pull back.  That confirms that they could have gone longer to get the fall off the bone you might have been looking for. 

[ibbones]

Ken, your smoke looks great.  I do not think there is a right or wrong way to smoke, just preference.
I am not one to do the 3-2-1, mostly because I would rather not have the sweet flavor on ribs.  Yeah, I'm kinda weird like that.  And, I do not care for caramelized sauce on them either.  I would rather dip the ribs in my own sauce.  Saying all that, I just do the "no-peek" method.  I usually toss my ribs into the smoker at 225* for ~5.5-6 hours, no water pan, and between 4-6 oz of wood.  Yes, a little more than what is recommended but it works for us.
I bet when you try the next four or five cooks of ribs, you will find which way works best for your family.
Sorry, I cannot answer about the wood/ash question as I sometimes get ash and sometimes get a charcoal chunk after.

[baran3]

Here's the photo of the underside of the box lid. After both of my smokes it was covered in a loose black material that I was able to rub off with a paper towel. I guess it could have been creosote.

Also, yes, I noticed the lack of pull back on the bone ends but forgot to mention it in the original post.