First ribs

NewBerlinEggprentice

I  pick up two racks of baby backs Friday afternoon. I decided to try Meathead's recipe for "Last Meal" ribs from from his cookbook. I removed the membrane and dry brined with kosher salt two hours before cook time. I prepped the Egg for indirect and got it to  275°, though I wanted it at 225° to 250°. My new Smokeware cap made it tough to keep any cooler. But I will learn. So anyways on they went with a little cherry wood for smoke after a dusting of House Divided rub from Lanes BBQ and Pork U. 


After about three hours the surface of the ribs cracked when flexed, so I figured they were done. I slathered one rack with Sweet baby Ray's and left it for another 10 minutes.

 I thought the color on these was just fantastic. And as I soon found out the flavor was even better.
I plated it up and had ribs three ways. My mother-in-law made one rack and her slow cooker with sauce then my two racks off the Big Green Egg; one dry, one sauced. Paired up with twice baked potatoes, green beans and some cornbread.  What a delicious New Year's day meal. Thanks for looking.

joeybrown105

Good for you man - ribs are always one of the crowd favorites in our house.. that smoke ring in the final pic is strong! 

JohnnyTarheel

Great looking meal... Happy New Year!!!

NewBerlinEggprentice

joeybrown105 said:

Good for you man - ribs are always one of the crowd favorites in our house.. that smoke ring in the final pic is strong! 

Thanks @joeybrown105, it's fun to see rib bones all over the table when 7 people are getting after it!

JohnnyTarheel said:

Great looking meal... Happy New Year!!!

Thank you, sir!

pgprescott

Those look perfect, nice job! Fwiw, I think good ribs are one of the most challenging cooks, far more so than say, brisket. 

NewBerlinEggprentice

pgprescott said:

Those look perfect, nice job! Fwiw, I think good ribs are one of the most challenging cooks, far more so than say, brisket. 

Thank you for the kind words. I'll say that I was little more nervous about this than the pork butts I've done before. I would have liked the temp more around 250, but all's well that ends well.  No body complained. In fact my 7 year old picky eater was tearing them up and signing me praises. Now that's an endorsement!

clifkincaid

Ribs in 3.5 hours? Is that because of the dry brine or something? I know Turbo is 1hr40 at 350...isn't everything else 5-6 hrs at that temp. Not being a smartass just trying to see if I'm missing another step with ribs.

 Maybe just running @275 is a good idea!

ColtsFan

My egg loves 275. It will sit there for hours and hours. Anything lower is a struggle... Hopefully there is a controller in my near future to help with this 

logchief

+1 on that cook.  I've found that it's easiest to keep my egg at 250-275 on L&S and it seems to work well for me.

NewBerlinEggprentice

clifkincaid said:

Ribs in 3.5 hours? Is that because of the dry brine or something? I know Turbo is 1hr40 at 350...isn't everything else 5-6 hrs at that temp. Not being a smartass just trying to see if I'm missing another step with ribs.

 Maybe just running @275 is a good idea!

I'm no pro. These were my first. I don't think more time would have made them worse. I'm used to eating crockpot ribs which must be eaten with a fork as the bone slide right out. I've learned that food will be done when it is done when cooking on the BGE. It can be challenging for dinner planning, but we are rewared when we are flexible.

YukonRon

Those are great looking ribs you have cooked. Very nice, excellent presentation; 5 stars

NewBerlinEggprentice

YukonRon said:

Those are great looking ribs you have cooked. Very nice, excellent presentation; 5 stars

Thank you kindly, sir. I've seen your endorsement on plenty of posts on here. I value your stamp of approval.

bhedges1987

pgprescott said:

Those look perfect, nice job! Fwiw, I think good ribs are one of the most challenging cooks, far more so than say, brisket. 

Your idea of good brisket must not be very good lol! 

pgprescott

bhedges1987 said:

pgprescott said:

Those look perfect, nice job! Fwiw, I think good ribs are one of the most challenging cooks, far more so than say, brisket. 

Your idea of good brisket must not be very good lol! 

I just don't think it's as difficult to get quite good as it is to get ribs just right. The difficulty in cooking brisket is vastly overstated. Not nearly as easy as pork butt, but not that big a deal. Overcooked ribs are real easy, perfect ribs are not that easy. 

Foghorn

clifkincaid said:

Ribs in 3.5 hours? Is that because of the dry brine or something? I know Turbo is 1hr40 at 350...isn't everything else 5-6 hrs at that temp. Not being a smartass just trying to see if I'm missing another step with ribs.

 Maybe just running @275 is a good idea!

@clifkincaid, think of it this way.  Those aren't the thickest ribs out there (they actually look great to me - I think it is possible to put too much meat on a pork rib which messes up the bark to meat ratio) - but for a lot of pork ribs people talk about:

6 hours at 225
5 hours at 250
4 hours at 275
or 1 hr 40 min at 350 (turbo).

They all give roughly the same results. So, 3.5 hours at 275 doesn't seem to surprising.

GregW

Great looking ribs.