Spareribs - What's with the trim?

ThinkandDrive

So, my wife is away this weekend and I've decided to spend some quality time with mt Mistress. Mistress BBQ, that is.[p]A few weeks ago, I tried some ribs at a BBQ I hosted. After an overnight butt and being distracted by the guests, I don't think they turned out that great. I just didn't have the time to focus on them.[p]I bought a decent rab of spareribs and cleaned and rubbed them with my own rub. Since I hadn't done a lot of research before hand, I didn't pick up on the step to trim them and separate the skirt and tips. Is that really important? That is, to the cooking? It's just me today, so I don't care about presentation or whether I have to do some extra cutting when it's time to eat.[p]I'm doing the rack flat on a raised grid at 250 degrees and plan on flipping every 45 minutes. Then 1.5 hours in foil and the last hour direct. I'm 20 minutes in and already I see that the billowing smoke is gone.[p]I have a "sauce" of honey, 1/2 lemon, garlic and a jalapeno pepper waiting in the fridge for the last hour. I don't really want very "saucey" ribs; more like a glaze. Think that's appropriate? It worked so well with the shrimp kabobs I did earlier in the week that I wanted to give it another try.[p]Any other tips?

thirdeye

<p />ThinkandDrive,[p]Heck, I like cooking un-trimmed slabs. These are real ribs. They take a little more skill and patience, but theya are worth it. You will figure out the extra row of bones and the eating technique in about 5 minutes. The meat from the strip is really good and I actually like it better than from the main body.[p]If that 250° is dome temp, don't go any lower, and you could go 25° hotter without a problem. I would wait for the last 15 or 20 minutes for the glaze instead of an hour.[p]~thirdeye~

ThinkandDrive

thirdeye,[p]Yeah. That's dome.[p]Looks like the BGE was with your thinking and settled in around 275-280. [p]I just hit my first 45 minutes. Some things I read say to turn every 45. Others don't specify. But maybe they assume that's a given.

thirdeye

ThinkandDrive,[p]Turning is a personal thing. I start them bone down and baste at about 2 hours (basting or spraying is personal too). I baste and monitor progress about every hour. Some times I turn, sometimes just rotate to balance the cook. [p]I have a hot spot in the rear of my large, so I lay them side to side instead of front to back.[p]~thirdeye~

ThinkandDrive

thirdeye,[p]Then I guess I'm sorta on my own to figure out what my personal taste is. Good thing I have two days to myself. [p]I have a few hours of BBQ University on my Tivo to watch. So wish me luck.[p]Thanks for all your generous advice!

Unknown

ThinkandDrive,[p]I just bought some ribs today and plan to cook tomorrow. I did some research on trimming them to make St. Louis style and found this video at youtube...[p]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_MGM_RRTUQ[p]Hope it helps.[p]SwineLover

ThinkandDrive

So they came out.[p]I totally nailed the flavor I was going for with the rub/glaze ingredients.[p]However, they ribs themselves were both too tough and WAYYY to soft. It was almost like jerkey wrapped around greasy pulled pork. There weren't even many bones to contend with. I was literally left with the jellied marrow parts.[p]So where did I go wrong?[p]Here is how the cook wen down.[p]I purchased the slab and brought it home. I pulled the membrane and rubbed very liberally with my rub.[p]I set up the BGE with the extended grate below the main grate with a large terracotta saucer in for the indirect. In top of the main grate, I put a painters tray for a drip pan. I then put an additional grate on top of that, at gasket level. [p]At around 1:30ish, I put the rack flat on the raised grid. The done settled at 275 degrees. I cooked the ribs for three hours, flipping every 45 minutes.[p]After that, I put them in foil with no additional moisture. The ribs felt like they were getting pretty done, so I only cooked in the foil for 30 minutes.[p]I unwrapped the ribs and put back on the grate for 15 minutes still indirect. I then pulled the terracotta saucer out and put the ribs back on the top grate. I brushed them with a mixture of 1/2 cup honey, juice of 1/2 lemon, chopped garlic and jalapeño twice over the next 30 minutes.[p]When I pked through the bone with a bamboo skewer, they seemed butter soft and very tender. So I pulled them off.[p]ten more minutes resting and then I tried to cut them. The bark was way too tough and the meat underneath very soft. I couldn't get a clean cut.[p]I ended up eating them just sort of off the bone scrap by scrap. The flavor was incredible. But the texture wasn't.[p]Where did I go wrong?