Carwash Mike's 2 hour rule for prep

Deluca

Anyone know why Carwash Mike said Not to keep the ribs in the fridge for more than 2 hours after the prep?

Thank You

Corey

stike

well...  i can't speak for Mikey. and wish he was here to speak for himself.

i'll say that there is a common 'rule' that leaving rub too long on the meat (pulled pork, ribs, etc.) can make it taste hammy or begin to cure it.

in reality, that's really not possible, but it sounds reasonable, and so the myth lingers.

in truth, your smoke ring IS ham.  it IS cured, because of the way the nitric acid formed from the smoke actually changes the meat. but even the best smoke ring is only a surfacelayer.

even if your salt and rub somehow effected a cure in the time between your rubbing it and putting it on the smoker, i'm not sure how you could tell the difference between it and the smoke ring itself.

personal experience: i rub the meat when it is convenient for me.  some times that's a day before, even a couple.  once screwed up and couldn't cook my ribs, and they went a week in the rub.

no difference (good or bad).

even if the rub sucks out water from the ribs, they'll be fine.  you can't truly dry out meat using a small amount of salt (as in a rub).  and in fact, sugar draws more out than salt does. but no one ever warns a you about that.  good reason, neither will dry it out to any real degree

Deluca

Thanks for the response... The ribs are going to be in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours. We will see how it goes!
I used to put em in over night but I never used mustard.

stike

nothing to worry about overnight except anything acidic (marinades).  they will sorta 'par cook' the surface and turn it mushy. actually, they denature the proteins.