First Rack of Ribs!

[kelvinator]

So yesterday I cooked my first rack's of ribs (baby back). I bought a pack from Cash & Carry and it was about 9lbs for $25.

Preparation: I removed the membranes, although I think I may have missed it on one of the 3 racks because one of the racks seemed to have it on while eating. One of the racks I did not remove any membrane as it didn't appear to have on on it. I washed and dried the ribs then coated them with yellow mustard then used about 3/4s of a bottle of Daves rib rub on both sides between the 3 racks. I was then able to fit each whole rack diagonally on the smoker racks. I put a pan of apple juice in the smoker tucked against the wood box and put a 2.6 ounce piece of hickory that came with the smoker wrapped in foil in the box.

Cooking: I put the ribs in the smoker at 1:45 at 235 degrees. I checked them at 6 and they didn't pass the bounce test so I put them in for another hour checked at 7 and they still didn't pass the bounce test. Left them in till about 7:30 and pulled em even though they still didn't pass the bounce test since it was time to eat. The pan with apple juice still had some in it but was covered by about a centimeter of grease haha. After pulling them I brought them in and coated the tops with the Memphis BBQ sauce #1 I made from Jeff's book then flipped them and cut them.

Conclusion: I noticed the bigger parts of the ribs were more difficult to cut through. In terms of taste I thought the ribs turned out great for the first time and everyone else really enjoyed them. Nice bark, maybe a bit too much bark. Smoke flavor was not too strong, rub was great and BBQ sauce was good as well.

The bigger pieces were a lot chewier than the small ones which were great. I was definitely disappointed by the larger pieces though. I am not sure what the issue was/is. They were in the smoker for 6.5 hours. Were they not in long enough? Or were they overcooked? Maybe they got too dry, maybe when I checked them at the 4 hour mark I should have sprayed them with apple juice or something…? Or maybe they just weren’t in long enough? Maybe the bark go too thick and dry for the bend test to work right?
I am not one of those people who is really into the fall of the bone rib meat doesn’t even stay together ribs but I definitely found the big pieces way too tough for my liking.

Any thoughts?

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[NDKoze]

My guess is that they were just really meaty ribs and needed more time.

That is quite a bit of time for Baby Backs though. I have had St Louis cut ribs take 7+ hours, so it is not terribly far out of bounds though.

[kelvinator]

My guess is that they were just really meaty ribs and needed more time.

That is quite a bit of time for Baby Backs though. I have had St Louis cut ribs take 7+ hours, so it is not terribly far out of bounds though.

Yeah, Jeff's book says 3-4 hours but that PDF that was created and posted on here for the smokin-it smokers says 5-6 so I figured I would check at the 4 hour mark and hope they would be done at the 5 hour mark. But yeah 6.5 hours does seem like a lot since most places say 3-4. At the 5 hour mark I used my instant read food thermometer and I think the meat was like high 160's or something...

I wonder if spritzing them with apple juice when I first checked them would have helped at all...

[NDKoze]

The general rule of thumb here has been 5 hours for Baby Backs and 6 hours for Spare/St Louis Cut ribs. But these are not firm numbers.

I'm not sure spritzing them would have decreased the smoking time. Every piece of meat is different and I am guessing you just got some ribs that needed the extra time.

I think I am kind of in the minority here, but I actually prefer St Louis Cut ribs better than Baby Backs. They take a little longer (6-7 hours for me), but I like them better than when I have smoked Baby Backs.

[kelvinator]

Yeah I doubt it would decrease cooking time but maybe it would make them more moist?

I thought I remember reading somewhere that spare ribs are better than baby back ribs in terms of flavor and quality...or maybe it was the other way around...I don't recall.

[DivotMaker]

Kelvin, the ribs look really good.  It does seem like a long time for baby backs, though!  You might check your box temp to see if it was really smoking at 235.  I usually smoke 3 racks at a time, and never even reach 6 hours before they are done perfectly. 

You brought up a good point about smoking whole racks... One end of the rack is always much thicker than the other.  I always cut my racks in half, and probably would, even if I had a #3.  The reason?  Different cook times.  I put the thick ends on the lower rack, and the thin ends up top.  That way, the thick ends cook faster (closer to the smoke box) and finish the same as the thinner ends.  If you have a rack that is uniform thickness all the way, go for the full rack cook.

[kelvinator]

Thanks!

I had my Ivation wireless thermometer in the smoker up on the middle rack in the back right corner. I had three racks with a rack of ribs on each one diagonally. Each rack I reversed the direction of the ribs. So the thermometer was above the end of a rack of ribs. On my first smoke (the meatloaf) with the #2 set to 250 I was hitting internal peaks of 285. This time the temp wasn't reaching above 190 for awhile and as the cooking process progressed the temp read higher and higher with the last 2 hours at least being in the 235 range with some peaks hitting 245. I probably did not have the probe in a great spot being above some of the meat though.

I put all 3 racks with the ribs on them into the top three slots...idk if that is a good way to do it or not. i keep hearing to put the meat as high as possible in the smokers.

[kelvinator]

Here is a picture of the ribs right after I seasoned them.
They seemed relatively uniform there was definitely a small and large end but the difference wasn't huge.

[DivotMaker]

Yeah, Kelvin, meat as high as possible (more stable heat).  I'm a fan of thick meat below, and thin meat up high.