Ribs Too Dry

Duuane

Greetings, I got my egg a month and a half ago, and this is my first post/inquiry...On July 4th I cooked two racks of ribs. I think both racks were drier than they should have been, but oddly, the one with the thicker meat seemed the most dry. I will explain my cooking process, and maybe I could get a suggestion or two on how to fix this. On both racks, I used my own variation of different dry rubs that I've seen. I got the egg to a steady 225 degrees, I put the racks in a rib rack, and closed the lid for a full two hours. The temp stayed quite steady during that time. After the two hours, I wrapped both racks in foil with a mixture of Apple cider, honey, and brown sugar. They went back on for an hour and forty minutes. After that, and due to family requests, I slathered them with a mixture of two different commercial sauces and honey. I coated them one more time, and took them off after a total of 45 more minutes. That gave me a total time of four and a half hours of cook time. The thicker meat seemed a little drier, but both were not as moist as I wanted and expected. I would like to get mine a little closer to a pulled pork texture...not quite there, but a little closer. Did I do something wrong? Did I do things right, but not for the right times or temp? Thank you for any help I can get. ....I love the egg and cooking adventure that goes with it

nolaegghead

They were likely undercooked. Look up the bend test for ribs.

Canugghead

I'm not an expert, others will chime in, but I suspect your ribs were undercooked.

fishlessman

if they were st louis cut and not babybacks the method you describe usually goes 3 hours, then 2 hours in foil, then 1 hour to firm them back up. im thinking under cooked which explains the thicker ones being the way they were. when they come out of the foil they should be near falling apart and hard to move without them breaking, thats the key with that method. if they are in the foil long enough they will get that fall off the bone texture, the last hour plus minus is to firm them back up again. one more thing with the foil stage is meat side down so they braise

nolaegghead

Oh yeah, I forgot to say welcome to the forum!

lousubcap

First up-Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  And +1 with the above on undercooking.  You did not mention how you determined the ribs were finished-but the bend test or my favorite, the toothpick test is the way to go.  Insert a toothpick into the thick rib meat and get no resistance either way-you are there.  FWIW-

JRWhitee

Welcome to the forum, I have cooked dozens of Ribs and the only time they didn't turn out was when I cooked them at 225. My opinion is ribs need to be cooked at least at 250, I have cooked some at 300 with good luck too. I don't use foil and they are done when they bend 45 degrees when picked up with tongs. The rib temp has been 195 or so when done.

KennyLee

Welcome.......I also think they were undercooked.  My best results are using a similar method that you used, but two hours unwrapped, one hour wrapped, then two hours unwrapped for a total of five hours, maybe adding some sauce the last hour or so if desired.  I also cook in the 250-270* range for my best results. 

buzd504

JRWhitee said:

Welcome to the forum, I have cooked dozens of Ribs and the only time they didn't turn out was when I cooked them at 225. My opinion is ribs need to be cooked at least at 250, I have cooked some at 300 with good luck too. I don't use foil and they are done when they bend 45 degrees when picked up with tongs. The rib temp has been 195 or so when done.

I agree with all of this.

nolaegghead

I concur with buzd504's concurrence.  Does everyone else concur?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R-02WxWO4I

bbqlearner

Agree with all comments above- most likely under-cooked. I usually cook in 250-300 dome temp. My  rib IT temp is usually 205 before I check with the bend test and that's usually when I pull it.

DMW

I concur

anzyegg

Welcome and agree with all the good advice from the others. I've cooked St. Louis ribs turbo and they are very forgiving and good. The Babybacks were good but had to be put back on because I was undercooking them. We'll get the hang of them thanks to some fine folks on this forum.

Duuane

Thanks for the welcome, and the replies. They were baby backs, and my decision on how done they were was two fold, the time at temp, and the bend test, but that was my first bend test, so I had nothing to compare it to. It sounds like I should bump up the cook temp next time, and extend the cook time. As far as meat side up or done when I wrapped them, well, I actually had a discussion with a friend this evening about that...and I'm sorry to say...I simply don't remember which way I did them. If I had to guess, I did it meat side up, so I was pouring the mixture directly on the meat side. I will make the corrections and try again, as soon as ribs come back up in the rotation...Tks again. Oh, what's cooking "turbo" ?

tulocay

Welcome and I concur.

Mickey

Welcome to our world. The bend test: Turbo Ribs

Dave in Florida

This is how I do turbo spare ribs.  These will not be fall off the bone but single bite tender. 

LBGE at 350 dome, indirect, legs up, drip pan raised off of the platesetter with 50/50 mix of apple juice and water.  Placed 4 chunks of peach wood on each side of the egg.  Make certain ribs don't hang past the platesetter.  Ribs went on flat bone side down for 1 hour.  Then I flipped them bone side up for 1 hour, I do this to even out the color on both sides.  Some people flip, some don't.  After the 2nd hour checked that they had a drawback and passed the bend test. I usually sauce with 50/50 mix of Blues Hog Original and Sonny's Sweet sauce and enjoy single bite through tender ribs.

NPHuskerFL

Welcome. Bend test and I really almost prefer a simple toothpick test myself. Likely, from what I've read in the header post, they were underdone. There's always next time. It happens.