First time Making Ribs

JoeyB106

Hi Guys,

I just got my BGE last week and i love it! so this week i would like to try making ribs, any tips you can give me i would greatly appreciate it! i already have the convEGGtor. cant wait to get out and make ribs! so any tips you can give me would be great! plus some good rubs to use?

Battleborn

There are a hundred different ways to cook them and flavor them. The single best piece of advice for ribs that I can give is to use the toothpick test to check the desired "doneness". The toothpick test is simply poking in between the ribs with a toothpick. If there is no resistance, the ribs are done. 

DieselkW

I like dry rub. 225º legs up, drip pan covering the convEGGtor. Use the steel grill, not the iron one for ribs. A rib stand is great to have, but not essential.

Most important is the wood. Hickory, I think, is best for ribs. Pecan, mesquite, walnut are all good alternatives. A tree that makes nuts, not fruit.

Dry rub - I make my own -

3 parts cumin
3 parts paprika
3 parts granulated garlic
3 parts granulated onion
3 parts chili powder
3 parts brown sugar
3 parts kosher salt
1 part cayenne pepper
1 part black pepper
1 part white pepper


Three hours without looking at it. I mean it, don't look at it. 
Wrap it in foil, loosely with some apple cider vinegar inside the foil. 2 hours.
Uncover, toss the foil. The rack should be very tender. One more hour or until you can grab one end of the rack and have it bend 90º. The bones might fall out where you place the tongs. It's ready.

JoeyB106

ok cool! one last question if i was going to smoke ribs lets say for a party if i make them on Friday, but the party isn't till Saturday whats the best way to keep them tender and re heat them.
due to it wont be at my house i will have to travel with them.

Thank you,

Joey  

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  How far do you have to travel (approximate time-wise) and what time do you have to leave for the road-trip?
Wondering if you can do them Sat before you leave...
And for your reading pleasure, use Google and add "egghead forum" to your question and you should be many responses.  FWIW-

gdenby

JoeyB106 said:

ok cool! one last question if i was going to smoke ribs lets say for a party if i make them on Friday, but the party isn't till Saturday whats the best way to keep them tender and re heat them.
due to it wont be at my house i will have to travel with them.

Thank you,

Joey  

welcome to the club. Many good, even great meals await.

A suggestion. Cook some for yourself before cooking for other folks a day ahead. Its possible to do, and good food from the Egg even as a leftover can be better than fresh from other sources. Still...

Simple rib rules. Stabilize the dome temperature anywhere between 250F and 350. Let "the bad" white smoke fade away, and put the ribs in after 10 min or so of "good" wispy blu-ish smoke. Don't mess w. the vents when the dome temp changes after putting the meat in. The dome temp will return close to where it was in 20 or 30 min, assuming there isn't so much meat that the airflow is blocked.

Wait, and assume the temp will gradually creep up. Be prepared to close the vents more as time goes on. You can tell the slabs are done, when a toothpick slides into the meat easily, and comes out close to dry. Or pick the slab(s) up at one end. When they fold almost in half, they are perfect. At 250 - 375, spares will be a minimum of 5 hours, usually more like 6. BBs, and hour sooner. Bone ends, if visible, should look dry. At 250-ish, spares will take at least 5 hours, probably more like 6. BBs, and hour earlier.

Really good quality ribs don't require anything more than salt and pepper. Most any rub you buy will be OK, but beware stale rubs. I had a few bottles that were freebies w. another purchase, and most of the flavor was gone, leaving just the salt and cayenne.

There can be any amount of fuss w. periodic mopping, foiling, additional rub applications, sauce, etc. But the base is just time.

Now the hard part. Saving them.

If you had your skills down, the best move would be to get up early on Saturday, cook the ribs hot and fast, wrap in foil, towels, and put in cooler (FTC method) and take them straight to the party. Serve w. some heated sauce.

The problem w. chilling the meat is that the succulent gelatin that developed while the slabs cooked will firm up. Re-heating will inevitably drive out more water remaining in the muscle tissue. The best remedy I've found is to place pats of butter w. the slab pieces in ziplocs, remove as much air as possible, and chill. Then drop the bags into warm water, followed by a wave zap that gets the butter bubbling.

JoeyB106

Thank you so much guys! 

AD18

What qdenby said.  Smoking is an art you will have to learn by the school of hard knocks.  Only having the Egg a week I would do a few trial runs on your own, learn what you like/works for you, and then commit to cooking for a group.  As you can see by the various historical posts there is no one "right way" too cook.  There are a ton of ways to mess up a cook though, been there done that:)  Best of luck one way or the other:)

JoeyB106

First set of ribs worked out awesome! 

tgs2401

Look great!

gdenby

They'll only get better. Practice maybe twice a month, take notes. I'll suggest that you try doing them "dry" style till you get that down. As the old saying goes, too much sauce on ribs is a little like too much lipstick on a gal. Makes you wonder what is really there.

MotownVol

That's right.  Practice, practice, practice.

bgebrent

Great work brother!

YukonRon

Outstanding first. They only get better with practice.

JoeyB106

Thanks guys! I'll be making more ribs this week!!! Dry rub is the best. 

JoeyB106

More photos to come 

DieselkW

I have a rack of babies and a rack of biggies in the fridge. Going to separate them bones from the membrane tomorrow morning.

I'm definitely going hot - there will be lots of red pepper in the rub, and mopping them at the end with Franks.

Let's you know you're alive!!