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First Ribs

ThailandBBQ
ThailandBBQ Posts: 51
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
My first ribs on the egg. They were good but they were done in just a little over 2 hours and not quite what I had hope for in tenderness. I cooked them at 250 and i did calibrate my temp probe so I "think" the temp was ok. This was only my second cook so it apears it will take time to figure the temp and times out.

Cheers,
Mike
RibsonEgg.jpg

Comments

  • Gator Bait
    Gator Bait Posts: 5,244
     
    Hi ThailandBBQ

    Welcome to the forum, glad to see the Egg arrived intact.

    The ribs look good but I am going to guess that they were done to soon. I have just cooked ribs for the first time and am no expert. The method I used was the Car Wash Mike method that is a proven winner. You will notice that he starts his ribs at a lower temperature, 200º to 225º. I started mine at 200º at the grid or about 222-225º dome. I gave my first ribs 6 1/2 hours. I had to cut my racks of ribs in half to fit my medium egg and was having trouble telling when they were done. Next time I will check them after about 5 1/2 hours by cutting into them to see if the bone is white.
    If your dome was 250º your grid was probably 20-25º hotter and would account for the fast cook and being less than tender. Even over cooked by about an hour mine were still pretty good. Next time they will be better. :cheer:

    Good luck,

    Gator

     
  • I thought the grid was cooler than the dome temp? How can his dome read 250 and the grip be somewhere around 275*?
  • Thanks for the replies, I did a little research on the dome vs. grid temps and am now more than a little confused on which will or can be higher. In any event I will go with a 200 degree temp on my next ribs.

    Thanks again,
    Mike
  • NC-CDN
    NC-CDN Posts: 703
    250 is fine. You just need to cook them at least 2 or 3 times LONGER. I do mine for 3 or 4 hours before I take them off, foil and cook for another 90 minutes. Then I sauce them and cook for 20 minutes or so. So it's like 5-6 hours. So 2 hours won't give you what you desire. They may have some colour and appear "done", but they are not dunnnnn.

    Don't give up. Try again. If you went to 200F, you would have to cook even longer than 5-6 hours.
  • danny285
    danny285 Posts: 360
    Your cook time and temp is normal for me, ribs about 2 to 2.5 hrs and butts 3/4 hr pr lb.
  • AZRP
    AZRP Posts: 10,116
    I can't tell by the pic if those are spares or BBs, but at 250 dome BBs will take 5 hours to cook and spares closer to 7. What made you think they were done after 2 hours? -RP
  • Bacchus
    Bacchus Posts: 6,019
    250 is a good temp. I did mine this past weekend at 300.
    Your's were underdone in all probability.
  • I guarantee they were done, a little well done. They are spare ribs. I have cooked many ribs on smokers and gas grills and they never were done this quick. By the way I checked them with my Weber remote thermometer, they were done.

    No worries I will try again!
  • TampaQ
    TampaQ Posts: 40
    They were cooked as to not be a health risk yes.....But you need to cook them a lot longer for the fat and connective tissues to render out of the ribs. I cooked my BB's on Tuesday for almost 6 hrs at a Dome temp of 275.

    Most people don't cook ribs to a Temperature like Loin or Butts.
  • NC-CDN
    NC-CDN Posts: 703
    TampaQ wrote:
    They were cooked as to not be a health risk yes.....But you need to cook them a lot longer for the fat and connective tissues to render out of the ribs. I cooked my BB's on Tuesday for almost 6 hrs at a Dome temp of 275.

    Most people don't cook ribs to a Temperature like Loin or Butts.

    Yeah this. Like I said. Edible....yes. Done like most people eat them...no. I personally can't eat ribs like that. Trust the advice you are being given. I would hazard a guess they have done them before and always have great success.
  • Bacchus
    Bacchus Posts: 6,019
    Ribs on a BGE for 2 hours at 250dome temp may be technically "done", but by commonly practiced Barbecue standards they are far from it.
    We are just trying to help. Cook them 5 hours next time and you will like them better, guaranteed.
  • I do not see the meat pulled back on the bones. They look undercooked
  • It's hard to tell in the picture but the ribs were pulled back from the bone a little.....but with that said I will heed all of the advice. Tomorrow ribs go on for 6 hours no matter what!!!!

    Thanks for your input and I will post on my second time around in a couple of days.

    Mike
  • Gator Bait
    Gator Bait Posts: 5,244
    Hey Mike,

    When I cook indirect I use a DigiQII, I guess they are now called the DigiQ DX. It has two temperature probes, one for the meat and one for the pit temperature. the pit probe I often clip to my grid that the food is resting on. The DigiQ will control the pit temperature extremely well. I light my grill and place the plate setter and everything else right in on top of the freshly lit fire and set the DigiQII to the temp I want. For my ribs I set it for 200º. I let the blower on the DigiQ bring the egg up to temperature, it never over shoots, nails it every time. I love it. I calibrate the DigiQII to my Therma Plus which is about half again more accurate then a Thermapen. I also calibrate my dome thermometer to the same. When the pit probe on the DigiQ reads 200º my dome will read a hair over 220º. I am no professor at thermodynamics but I have my theories. The greatest heat will be closest to the source, your fire. The plate setter is a baffle/shield that is between your fire and the chimney. The shortest route for the heat and gasses raising from your fire will not be through the plate setter but around it between the legs. The shortest route means the least amount of energy lost along the way and your dome thermometer will read a little higher then one cliped to the grid sheilded by the plate setter. During an indirect cook if any of your food should hang out past the drip pan and plate setter between the legs it will cook faster and may well burn. Some eggers will use an extra raised grid for cooking pizza's that will actually put the pizza stone a few inches up into the dome. This way they get the maximum amount of heat and their pies cook faster, more like a wood fired commercial pizza oven. At least that is how I understand it. I could be all wrong.

    With a direct cook the heat and gasses raising off your fire have nothing to get in their way like a plate setter and the shortest route to the chimney is straight up around your food. Now your dome thermometer is probably going to read very close to the grid temperature if not just slightly lower.

    Anyway that's the way my thermometers read and my theory why. ;)

    Gator

     
  • Well I finally got a chance to smoke some ribs since my last fiasco. I did CWM's (RIP) recipe except I used spare ribs again. I did fairly well keeping the egg around 210 once I got it there. After 3 hours or so when I tried to bump it up to 250 it took me a while to get it there and stabilized, I was on the low side so I think this had little effect on the outcome. After about 5 hours the temp jumped up around 290 to 300, I had trouble getting it back down. Bottom line is they ccame out a little dry in a few places but were much better than last time. I seem to spend a lot of time watching the temp guage and rest assured all my adjustments were very minute.

    Next time I should ace it.

    Thanks for everyone's help.

    One item I noted was that when I opened the egg to spray the ribs every hour my temp would jump and not come back done without further adjustment....everything I read on the forum says it should come back and stabilize....I guess I have a cranky egg.

    Mike