Author Topic: The Basic of cooking ribs ...Part 2 of 2 ... Article from TexasBBQ newsletter  (Read 2585 times)

Barrel99

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How do you know when the ribs are done?

Tear Test

The best way for you to determine if the ribs are done is to use your hands. Pick them up with gloves on your hands and twist the ribs at the top of the rib to see if you see the meat start tearing away from the bone. When done the rib meat will tear away from the bone cleanly. If they are tough to tear then leave them on the smoker for more cooking. You should feel the ribs give in the middle if you hold the rack by the two ends. You will see the give in the rack of ribs when they are done.

Once you see the meat cleanly pull away from the bone take them off the pit and enjoy. If you don’t have a good pair of gloves that can handle the heat, the grease, and holding or moving the meat then we have those on our site so order a pair of those gloves with your rub order and you won’t need another tool around the pit for moving or holding the meats you are cooking.

Toothpick Method

Tooth picks are great around the smoker to do things like hold stuffed meat together but they are great when it comes time to test the meat for doneness. You can use a toothpick to determine if the ribs are done by simply running a toothpick between two bones and see if it passes thru the meat easily. If you feel resistance then the meat is not as tender as you may prefer it to be so let the ribs cook a bit longer.

Feel Method

You can pick the rack of ribs up in the middle of the rack and the two sides should drop down a few inches as you hold the ribs. The more it drops down the more tender the ribs are.

Bones of the ribs are exposed (this does not always happen to a rack of ribs)

You will sometimes see the meat pull down the bone of the rib. This is just an indication that the meat is shrinking and it is not the best way to determine if the ribs are cooked to your liking. They are pretty when the bone is exposed but do not use this as a measure of the doneness of the rib. You will notice also that ribs that are wrapped in foil for a hour or so that the rib bone is often more exposed than ribs that are cooked without wrapping.

For grilling you can cook either baby backs or spares over direct heat. Prepare the ribs the same way as before except this time you will be cooking directly over a very hot fire.  Add some smoke flavor to the ribs by adding some wood to your fire. See our website at www.texasbbqrub.com for a discussion on adding smoke to the gas or charcoal fire.

If you are grilling your ribs and you start to see a heavy char forming on the bottom of the rib just place a piece of aluminum foil under the rib and that will knock the direct heat coming from under the rib off of the rib. Watch the ribs carefully as to not burn the coating of rub or sauce you have on the ribs. Rubs and sauces all have some sugar in them and sugar will burn at a little over 300 degrees so use the aluminum foil to keep the ribs from getting burned or too heavily charred.  Cooking time for the baby back ribs on the grill (try to stay in the 300 degree range on the grill) will be about 1 to 1½ hours and for spares about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours.

If you want to finish off the ribs will a BBQ sauce add the sauce the last 15 minutes of the cooking time. This will keep the sauce from burning. You can even add the sauce to the rib after it has finished cooking and you are getting ready to slice the ribs.

WRAPPING RIBS IN FOIL

I have had hundreds of questions about wrapping ribs. Here are my thoughts. There are a lot of smokers that prefer to wrap their ribs during the cooking process to shorten the cooking time and to also make the ribs fall of the bone tender. I prefer not to wrap my ribs but if you would like to wrap your ribs during the cooking process then there are a couple of rules of thought on this.

If you wrap your ribs the meat texture will begin to change. They can get mushy if you leave them wrapped too long so be careful with the wrapping of ribs. I hate to change the wonderful texture of ribs so I stay away from wrapping except in competition where the judges think the meat has to be falling off the bone. I personally like to pick up the rib bone and eat the meat off of it. You decide and try both methods.

Cooking times and the 3-2-1 Method

Spare ribs: If you are cooking on a pit (low and slow 225 to 235 degrees) then the general rule of thought is to do the ribs using the 3-2-1 method. That is the method that says 3 hours uncovered on the pit, then wrap for 2 hours, and then take them out of the foil and put them back on the pit for another hour to tighten the ribs back up. I find that wrapping the ribs for 2 hours the ribs are overcooked so use the same method and do the ribs 3 hours on the pit unwrapped then 1 ½  hours wrapped then another ½ hour unwrapped back on the pit to tighten up the ribs. Pour or spray some liquid over the top of the ribs to give it some moisture when you wrap the ribs. You can use apple juice, or the best I think is some spray margarine and spray the top of the ribs real well. You can add some honey or brown sugar or both to give a much sweeter taste to the rib.

Baby Back ribs: For the smoker, use the same method but cut your time to say 2 hours on the smoker unwrapped, 1 hour wrapped, and then 15 to 30 minutes back on the smoker uncovered to tighten the ribs back up. Again, add some liquid to the ribs that you are wrapping like apple juice, honey, butter, or spray margarine. This will give the ribs some moisture to work with inside the wrapping.

If you are cooking baby backs on the grill then use a 1 hour on the grill, 45 minutes wrapped and then 15 minutes to tighten the ribs back up.

Cutting the Ribs

First, fresh cut ribs straight out of the pit are the most wonderful tasting ribs you will ever pick up. Dripping with natural juices and full of flavor it just does not get any better than a rib coming off the pit and cut while it is hot and then eaten immediately.

Ribs should be cut off the full rack when you are ready to serve them and you should not cut them in advance as the rib will dry out as the air hits the meat. So try and cut the ribs right when you need them and cut just enough for everyone to enjoy and then cut more for the second round of eating. And there will be a round 2 and maybe a round 3.

The best way to cut your ribs is to lay the rib on a cutting board with the bone side of the ribs facing you. You are going to want to cut between the bones where the meat is. You can take a sharp knife and just place it between the rib bones starting at the top of the rib and work it down between the rib bones. Once you get pretty good at this and for some great show to your friends you can stand the rib on end and with a really sharp knife and nice cooked ribs take the knife, starting at the top between the bones run the knife down the rib letting the knife naturally follow the rib bone. Makes a nice show and it will impress the friends. And then once they eat your ribs you will be the rib king.

So get out there and cook some ribs because with practice you will just get better.


PPS: Pass this on to your friends and neighbors so they can also learn about cooking great ribs. They will love the fact that you thought of them while learning about ribs.
Arnie near Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Smokin-It #3, Landmann GSM Propane smoker, WEBER kettle, CharGrill Gas BBQ, Brinkman Gas/charcoal combo grill

1-is fun, 2-gets you through, 3-will set you free, 4-and you don't need no more...WAHOOOOOO!!!

Grampy

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Arnie, Thanks for posting this! There is a lot of good information in this article.
Jimmy from Arkadelphia, AR
Smokin-It #2
Woo Pig Sooie!

OFFSHORE GINGER

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Arnie, Thanks for posting this! There is a lot of good information in this article.
X-2 that and thank you Arnie .
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