St. Louis Style Spareribs - FIRST TIME HELP!! :-)

Hillbilly-Hightech

OK, so my GF got me a pack of St. Louis Style Spareribs for Valentine's Day (I know, great gift, eh)!!!

Anyway, never did them before, so I need advice on... well, just about EVERY ASPECT of the cook!! hehe...

So, here's my questions:

Dome Temp?
Time expected?
Rub? Yes/No? If so, what kind (I have a butt-load of Dizzy Pig's stuff).
Mustard? Yes/No?
Rib Rack or flat on the grid?
Raised Grid? Yes/No?
Direct or Indirect?
Flip or not?
Spritz w/ apple juice / vinegar or not?
Foil or not?
Time out of foil, time in foil???
Sauce? Yes/No? And if yes, when do I put it on??

Anything else you wizards can think of to help make this a successful cook?????

As you can see, I just wanna know what to do, from the ground up!!! hehehe...

Thanks in advance,
Rob

hogaholic

There are a bunch of Rib recipes in the Pork section of the cookbook here on this page.

Also google search Car Wash Mike's rib recipe

I cook at 250 for at least four hours indirect in the vertical rib rack with a drip pan of apple juice and water.  Lots of rub (I make my own) and i don't use mustard.  No spritz.  I then foil after brushing with honey and adding some apple juice to the foil boats and back on the egg for about 45 minutes.  Remove from foil, lightly coat with sauce, and finish direct.  If you choose to finish with sauce be careful not to use one with much sugar or it will burn.

gdenby

Good check list.

My answers.

Dome Temp?
     250F
Time expected?
     However long. Depends on weight and thickness, etc. Probably 6 hours (* see below)
Rub? Yes/No? If so, what kind (I have a butt-load of Dizzy Pig's stuff).
     Yes, not BBQ without rub. If I get really good pork, just salt, pepper and a little sugar do. A half-n-half mix of Dizzy Dust and Swamp Venom is my standard.
Mustard? Yes/No?
    No, neutral oil
Rib Rack or flat on the grid?
    Flat on grid preferred
Raised Grid? Yes/No?
    Yes
Direct or Indirect?
    Indirect usually, just a drip pan
Flip or not?
     not
Spritz w/ apple juice / vinegar or not?
     brush lightly with water about an hour before finish. (* see below)
Foil or not?
    Not
Time out of foil, time in foil???
    N/A
Sauce? Yes/No? And if yes, when do I put it on??
    Yes, As a side at the table.

Anything else you wizards can think of to help make this a successful cook?????

* The timing depends on many things, such as  dome temp variations. I usually check at about 4 hours to see if the meat is drawing back from the bone. Sometimes it does not draw back a lot, but usually its about 1/4" at 4 hours. If the meat looks dry at that point, I may brush on just a little more oil. When the meat draw back increases, sometimes to 1/2", I try a bend test to see how close to being done the rack is. Usually is done. Instead of sauce, I add another light dusting of rub and a bit of sugar. It doesn't seem to hurt much if the heat is increased to 300 or so during the last half hour, and improves the "bark" some.

Little Steven

Good check list.

My answers.

Dome Temp?
     250F
Time expected?
     However long. Depends on weight and thickness, etc. Probably 6 hours (* see below)
Rub? Yes/No? If so, what kind (I have a butt-load of Dizzy Pig's stuff).
     Yes, not BBQ without rub. If I get really good pork, just salt, pepper and a little sugar do. A half-n-half mix of Dizzy Dust and Swamp Venom is my standard.
Mustard? Yes/No?
    No, neutral oil
Rib Rack or flat on the grid?
    Flat on grid preferred
Raised Grid? Yes/No?
    Yes
Direct or Indirect?
    Indirect usually, just a drip pan
Flip or not?
     not
Spritz w/ apple juice / vinegar or not?
     brush lightly with water about an hour before finish. (* see below)
Foil or not?
    Not
Time out of foil, time in foil???
    N/A
Sauce? Yes/No? And if yes, when do I put it on??
    Yes, As a side at the table.

Anything else you wizards can think of to help make this a successful cook?????

* The timing depends on many things, such as  dome temp variations. I usually check at about 4 hours to see if the meat is drawing back from the bone. Sometimes it does not draw back a lot, but usually its about 1/4" at 4 hours. If the meat looks dry at that point, I may brush on just a little more oil. When the meat draw back increases, sometimes to 1/2", I try a bend test to see how close to being done the rack is. Usually is done. Instead of sauce, I add another light dusting of rub and a bit of sugar. It doesn't seem to hurt much if the heat is increased to 300 or so during the last half hour, and improves the "bark" some.

Agree with all. Sometimes 7-8 hrs

MaskedMarvel

Do you want them St. Louis style?  

The cut of the ribs makes them labelled that way.  They should be almost perfectly rectangular.  

If you want them to taste like you got them from a St. Louis pitmaster, then the main rule is LOTS of sauce.

gdenby

If in St. Louis, (dang, long time since I've been there) I would happily eat well sauced ribs. Where I come from, No. Indiana near Chicago, ribs are almost always sauced. Never heard of "dry" ribs when I was younger. And a good sauce is a wonderful thing. But I've had some slabs that there was so much sauce that, really, I could barely taste the pork.

I prefer a sauce with a good molasses flavor, and enough cayenne to make me sweat.

Flamethrower

250 dome, Rub with your favorite 5-0-1 I dont use foil. Drip pan with apple juice and water, Works for me

Hillbilly-Hightech

Thanks for all the responses - I will bookmark this & use it for this weekend when I do the ribs, and then take pics & report back how things went!!

BTW, I do believe my GF likes a good bark, so I think if I go the route of foiling, that it will inhibit the bark? If that's the case, then Gdenby's et al advice about NOT foiling is the way for me to go!!

THANKS!!
Rob

noarmysargent

Hillbilly, Everybody likes something different.  I experiment every time I cook.  This is my rib likes;
325 F w/ wood chunks
No foil while cooking
dry rub w/ mustard
I like the bark.  Hotter temp seems to give a better bark.
I take all pork off the egg and foil it.  I place it in a cooler and let cool slowly. 1 to 2 hours
That makes it pretty juicy and still enjoy the bark
Having Fun is the main ingredient!

daveyray72

Smoke for 3 hours...foil for 2...remove from foil for another 1-2.  You will end up with great fall of the bone ribs with a nice bark.  The bark is going to be a product of the amount of sugar in your rub.  I personally use a 50/50 mix of brown sugar and a rib rub (commercial or homemade).  Spritz with apple juice every hour also.  You will build layers of flavor.  I prefer oak or hickory for smoke on my ribs.

gdenby

The reason there is time out of the foil at the end is to bring the bark back, and allow the ribs to be sauced at the end. As I've mentioned, I prefer a dry rib. That means the remnant of fat is quite crusty, with the rub embedded in it. Most of the foiling methods recommend placing the slab meat side down in a pool of sweet liquid. I've had times when the sugar that penetrates into the meat ends up getting a little caramel texture, which is not quite what I want.

And I like the simplicity. Put it on the grill, maybe mop it a few times, serve.

Ragtop99

I've only done them once on the egg.  Went for simplicity and was very pleased with the results. 
No mustard, no foil, no rib rack.  6 hrs at 250* or little higher.  Flipped them at 5 hrs as part of a bend test.  Last hr at 300* (still indirect) was sauce on bottom and cook 20 minutes. Flip and suace on top.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Touch up sauce again and cook 15 minutes.  Pull them off and eat.

GreenhawK

I like to keep it simple too.  I don't really understand why all of these people like to do all of this wrapping, unwrapping, and saucing etc.  Seems like to much work to me.  If you want to have them fall off the bone wrapping will help you get that, but I believe you loose flavor with it.  I don't believe falling apart is the best flavor either.  

I usually just spray them with pam, and put the dry rub on. I think the pam helps the rub stay on thicker.  It makes a nice paste.  Then I put them on indirect at 250 and leave them alone until I am looking for them to be done.  I open the lid and look at them at about the 5 hour point and go from there.  St. Louis ribs usually seem to take 6 hours give or take.  I brush a thin coat of sauce on them about 10 minutes before I pull them off.  I just leave them on there long enough for the sauce to dry up a bit.  Then they are ready to cut up and eat.  

I use the bend test for doneness.  If I pick them up, and they start to crack on top as they are bending over and feel real good and flexible, they are done.

R2Egg2Q

Since you said your gf prefers a good bark, I'd say go no foil this round as the ribs will have more bark that way.

Here's my suggestions to your list of questions (specifically towards a no-foil cook):

Dome Temp? 270-275
Time expected? 4 - 5 hrs (I look at the amount of pull back from the ends of the bones, do the bend test and look for a little cracking in the bark right at the bend looks like this:

Rub? Yes/No? If so, what kind (I have a butt-load of Dizzy Pig's stuff).  Yes - Not sure which DP rub to use on pork as I haven't tried DP on pork yet.
Mustard? Yes/No? No - I just let the rub soak in for 7-10 mins before flipping & rubbing the other side.
Rib Rack or flat on the grid?  Flat
Raised Grid? Yes/No? Yes if you want your cooking grate temp to be closer to your dome temp
Direct or Indirect? Indirect (I prefer the platesetter & drip pan)
Flip or not? Not
Spritz w/ apple juice / vinegar or not? Apple Juice about every 45 mins but not until 2 to 2 1/2 hrs in (enough time for the bark to firm up some)
Foil or not? Not since you're looking to get more bark
Time out of foil, time in foil??? N/A this time
Sauce? Yes/No? And if yes, when do I put it on?? If you sauce, 10-15 mins before pulling from the Egg.  Perhaps you could leave some unsauced and have the sauce on the side if necessary so you can get a better taste of the rub without the sauce masking it.

As pointed out by others, there's many ways to get the same end result. Nice that you're cooking to your gf's preferences.

Good luck!

thechief96

This may be farther down the road but I went and I learned a lot.

 

http://eggsbythebay.com/BBQ_Classes.php