Frustrated withribs

carpetman · May 2005

I bought 56 lbs. of St. Louis Style Ribs for $2.49/ lbs (crazy I know). I want to get great tasting ribs. I use Paprika, sea salt, cayanne pepper, black pepper,onion powder and garlic powder, yellow mustard and lea & perrins to "marinate" before rub. Let sit for 8 plus hours and cook at 225 for 5 hours. They just are not what they should be. I cook indirect for the entie time. What is wrong?

Toy Man · May 2005

What to you feel is wrong with them?[p]The cooking time seems a little short to me.[p]Toy Man[p]

Car Wash Mike · May 2005

Carpetman,
KISS, Keep it simple.
I think you went overboard on the stuff, just use a good rub.
Ribs on the egg or so easy. Pull the membrane off, apply rub then mustard. Cook indirect at the same time and temp for 3 hours, foil with an apple juice/bbq sacue mixture for 1 - 1/2 hours finish indirect with the heat bumped up to get a good sauce and texture.[p]Ready.
[p]Foil

Finish
[p]HTH[p]Mike

Unknown · May 2005

Carpetman,[p]Well, what are you looking for?! A little more info would help us to help you, but extrapolating a bit from your post I would suggest the following:[p]Try it with less "stuff" on it at first. Definitely lose the Worcestershire sauce, and I'd suggest trying a rack or two with nothing but coarse ground salt and pepper, probably for the 5 hours you've been doing. This is a good base line to start playing with flavors and textures.[p]You did not mention any smoke; I'd suggest a good long 2 hours minimum of smoke. Toss in some fist sized chunks of your favorite hardwood, and the ribs go on when the nasty white smoke dies down. Any fruit wood goes well with pork, but hickory or oak will do.[p]Once you get a baseline rack of ribs cooked up, you can start to decide what direction you want to go. More smoke or less, more rub or none at all. Sweet rub, salty rub, spicy, etc.[p]With that much rib, you have a nice big "canvas" to paint on for a while to home in on your personal target![p]Enjoy,
bc

Borders · June 2005

Carpetman, I echo what bc said. In my opinion, in these longer cooks, the flavor comes more from the smoke than the rub. I really have a hard time telling the difference in rubs on brisket and boston butts and to a lesser degree ribs. I save my "good" rubs for shorter cooks like chicken, steaks, pork loin, etc., and make my own simple rubs for the longer cooks.
Keep trying. You and your egg will get 'er done.
Scott

Smokey · June 2005

Car Wash Mike,[p]3-2-1 ribs (or close to it). Works every time and it's EZ!![p]Nice pics and I'm sure good eatin' too![p]Smokey

Bigfoot · June 2005

Borders,[p]Ok here is my scant 2 cents worth.... I have to agree with most here - step back and let's start simple - First you never really said what you do not like about the ribs - Are they not tender enough - not a good flavor???[p]I have found that a very basic rub is the best - Once I have my rub on the ribs, I will usually spray them with some apple juice and lay pieces of thick sliced bacon on them and toss them on the smoker (indirect is a must here) [p]Often I will also put a beer (some mild one nothing real hoppy) in my drip pan - If I am using 225 degrees and have nice meaty St Louis style ribs - I would go 6 or even 7 hours. If you need to expedite it a litttle you can get away with 275 for 5ish hours - but that is pushing the envelope. [p]Too bad you are not in the Baltimore/DC area or you could pop over and see what I mean - They are some good eats!

Brobear · June 2005

Carpetman,[p]I really think the important part of the rib cook is not only the indirect step, but wrapping the ribs in foil with a littly apple juice mixture or whatever for an hour or so. Here is the way I did 4 slabs this weekend which my friends and spouse thought were the best ever:[p]Coated ribs with yellow mustard and a little swamp venom.[p]Cooked indirect for 5 hours at 250 (time for round of golf)[p]Removed slabs and placed in foil tray with 2 cups apple juice, 2 cups water. Covered with foil.[p]Continued at 250 for another 1.5-2 hours.[p]Removed plate setter and coated ribs with Sweet Baby Ray's and cooked direct at 250 for 30 min. per side.[p]Fall of the bone tender with a nice marbelized(sp) exterior.

fishlessman · June 2005

Carpetman,
there are lots of different ways to cook ribs and lots of ways to serve them that change how they are. i cook raised grill direct most of the times at 225 and start checking them at about 4.5 hours or so. sometimes they go 7 hours before they are to my liking. if they are for me, i like them served dry with a hot/spicey bbq sauce on the side, or a mustard sauce. if im serving to company, i serve most with a mixture of bbq/honey sauce and i lean towards the sweet side in proportions, put this on the ribs during the last 30 minutes of the cook and put a few coats on. seems that most folks in the north like sweeter ribs. youll need to try a few methods and a few serving styles to find what you really like

Unknown · June 2005

Carpetman,[p]You don't need to marinate the ribs. I'd add about 1/2 cup of brown sugar to your ingrediants(less the worchestershire)and simply rub them just before cooking or maybe 1/2 hour prior. The mustard is optional and just to make the rub stick. I skip the mustard and use a 3/1/1 method similar to CWM but less time in foil. If you want fall off the bone tender leave them in the foil longer.

Jay Brilliant · June 2005

Bigfoot,[p]I just read your post and noticed you said that you live in the Baltimore area.
I'm about to get an egg and would love to have someone in the area that I could
get some good tips from. I've never actually had any food cooked on the egg, but I've so many good things about it, that I feel like I have. Let me know how I could contact you.[p]

Frustrated withribs

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