pre-baking baby back ribs

deepsouth · June 2008

i'm a newbie barbeque'er, so i'm always seeking out tips...... before i did baby back ribs the first time, my father said i should season them up good, wrap them ni foil and bake them between 45 minutes and an hour and fifteen minutes, which would lessen the cooking time and tenderize the ribs.

i then unwrap the ribs, re-season them and put cook them indirectly on the BGE until they look like they are supposed to.

this seems to work pretty well, but i'm wondering if there is a downside to it??????

Bacchus · June 2008

The BGE is a far superior cooking vessel than an oven, in many peoples opinion anyway. It will hold in more moisture, and add more flavor. There should be no reason to pre-bake. Souns like that may have been a method used with a cheapo grill.

fishlessman · June 2008

you might get some negatives about baking them, but if you like them then they're good. you can bake them in the egg as well and alot do with the 311 method. best thing to do is try all the methods and find the one you like, it could be doing what your doing now.

civil eggineer · June 2008

If it works for you go with it but there is no need to use the oven cook them in the egg in foil.

deepsouth · June 2008

forgive me, but what is the 311 method?

deepsouth · June 2008

oh no, i'm defo not wrapping them once inside the egg.....

it seems from the responses that i need to just start them on the egg instead of in the oven. i'd guess it couldn't take much longer to cook them really.

RhumAndJerk · June 2008

One of the biggest things that you will be missing out on is the pentration of the smoke into the meat.
Most of the smoke flavor is absorbed by the meat when the surface tempature of the meat is under 100.
When I smoke ribs I keep the temp as close to 225 as I can for the first hour, I may then kick it up to 250 for the next four or five hours.

Ribs are a simple cook. Purchase a Rib Rack and just cook the ribs direct for about 5-6 hours.
I rarely even open the dome while cooking. I may rearange once but not more than that.

Again think simple, the less you do the better they will turn out.

Hope this Helps,
RhumAndJerk

deepsouth · June 2008

that helps tons. thanks for that great information. not being experienced or a cook, i need to learn things like this!

Slotmercenary · June 2008

greetings,
the 3-1-1 method is as follows. grate temp around 250 cook indirect for 3 hours then wrap in foil with some type of liquid and cook for an hour then remove foil and do the last hour on the grill again. the last hour is when you would slather the ribs with sauce of choice if you like wet ribs.

personally i don't use foil during my rib cooks but if you want the meat to fall off the bone then give it a try. it is basically steaming or braising the ribs for an hour inside the foil.
good luck and remember experiment and see what method you prefer and go from there you will be an Eggspert in no time, practice makes perfect.

gdenby · June 2008

3-1-1 has some similarities to what your father recommended. For 3 hours, the ribs are cooked , usually indirect, then wrapped in foil meat side down with just a bit of sweet fluid, then unwrapped, and finished meat side up. It is a tiny bit quicker than doing without foil, and pretty much guarantees a tender succulent result.

There are variations, 3-2-1, or for baby backs, 3-1-.5.

Its a good method, but the best I've had have been just cooked between 225 - 250 for as long as it takes, which is anyplace between 5 and 6.5 hours.

RhumAndJerk · June 2008

Just remember that the BGE is a tool. Like any tool there is learning curver, so stick with it. Sometimes you hit your thumb alot before you finnaly hit the nail on the head.

Learning to cook with the BGE is fun. Enjoy.
R&J

Porky1 · June 2008

So long as you don't boil your ribs it is OK. Good advice given above and the learning curve will be steep when you start smoking those ribs.

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