First Beef Rib Cook on BGE - Never Hit Stall

Nocturno42

As my first post on the forum, I have to ask if anyone has ever had this happen to them? This past weekend, my 5th with the egg, I wanted to do a three-bone rack of beef ribs. So I get a roughly 3lb rack from a local butcher know for good meats. I plan to cook at between 250-260 degrees for 6 hours indirectly and on the top rack of the eggspander.  I pulled the ribs from the fridge and placed them on the grill cold. As the title says the I never hit a stall 1 hour and 20 minutes into the cook I was at 175 degrees and by 2 hours 30 minutes I was at 205. They were awful, really unedible. Did I get a bad cut of meat? Did I do something wrong in my prep or execution?

If more cooking or perp information is needed I am happy to answer. 

SGH

My guess is the ribs was extremely lean. That would explain the fast cook time and it would also shed some light on them being awful. 

nolaegghead

Did you check if they were done by stabbing them with a skewer?  Time and temperature are not reliable parameters to judge when they've cooked enough to be tender.  Hitting a "stall" is not a prerequisite to cooking properly, merely a phenomenon where the evaporative cooling slows down the rate of temperature increase.

You should pierce the meat all over with a skewer or thermometer probe and the meat is done when there is almost no resistance (that of warm butter) when you push it in.

nolaegghead

Also, clarify "awful" - not tender, tastes like an ashtray, dry and mushy?

nolaegghead

ps-welcome!

Nocturno42

"Awful" = taste like a wet ashtray. I did try to probe for a buttery feel with my thermometer but I don't have a lot of experience using that method. Thanks for the welcome.

nolaegghead

The ashtray taste can be mitigated in the future if you start your egg by lighting the lump pile on the top and letting it stabilize for an hour or two before putting the food on.  You can also get that taste profile if you have crappy lump and/or too much smoke wood mixed in with it.

buzzvol

All the above and double check your dome thermometer calibration.

welcome!

Foghorn

First - welcome aboard.

Regarding the cook, I had some similar experiences when I first started exploring beef ribs.  Remember, it's a journey.

1) A picture of your ribs would be very helpful - to get an idea of meat thickness.  I usually get a 3 bone rack that has roughly 12 inch bones and weighs about 6 pounds.  Most butchers cut those in half and end up with 3 pound with 5-6" bones.  If that' what you had then it seems you had a good size rack.  I usually get Choice ribs because very few butchers will sacrifice Prime ribeye to leave it on the rib, but they will do that with Choice.  That is plenty of fat for a good rib cook.  

2) What size egg - and how close was the thermometer to your meat?  If the ribs were high in the dome, it is possible to get the thermometer reading 250 when the bottom side of the ribs are being exposed to a significantly higher temperature.

3) They may have been done around 190.  I probe for both temp and feel and around 180 I try to do it every 15 -20 minutes.  If you do that, you'll notice the loss of resistance to the probe when it probes like "buttah" all the way between the bones.  That's when they are done.  If they are done early, take them off and wrap them in foil and put them in a cooler to stay warm until serving time.  Many people add a towel around the foil for extra insulation (FTC - Foil, Towel, Cooler).

4) What is mentioned above about stabilizing the egg and getting good smoke is also very important.

Here is a pic of one of my best beef rib cooks that I hope is helpful - just to make sure you know the target.  It took me half a dozen beef rib cooks to get there.  You're probably better than I am and won't take that many reps...

These were cut in half and were about 6" bones with 3 pounds per "rack". 

They took a little over 5 hours at 275 as I recall.  

I hope that helps.  

Welcome aboard and post pics.

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
Definitely check your thermo calibration as mentioned above as something doesn't fit here.  The toothpick test is a great way to test for doneness of any rib cook.  FWIW-
Related, what cut of beef ribs did you get, back or short ribs?

Nocturno42

Thank you both for the insight I will have to check on thermo calibration.

Foghorn - The ribs you describe as being 5-6" long sound like exactly the type I had.  Attached are two pictures, the first is during the cook which may help show how high in the dome I was positioned. The second was after I cut into them for tasting.

I have an XL egg. As for stabilizing I lit the coals and let the egg get up to my cook temperature then I add the plate setter and racks which drops the temperature and finally when I am back up to my cook temp I let it stabilize for at least 15-20 minutes before putting the meat on the grill.

Thanks Again for the ideas.

jazimmerman

Foghorn said:

3) They may have been done around 190.  I probe for both temp and feel and around 180 I try to do it every 15 -20 minutes.  If you do that, you'll notice the loss of resistance to the probe when it probes like "buttah" all the way between the bones.  That's when they are done.  If they are done early, take them off and wrap them in foil and put them in a cooler to stay warm until serving time.  Many people add a towel around the foil for extra insulation (FTC - Foil, Towel, Cooler).

I did 2 racks of beef ribs last weekend. My didn’t probe well until ~207, they were quite stubborn. Cook took ~6.5 hours.

No after pics, but this one is from around 3.5 hours in.

DainW

It’s possible your thermometer was too close to the bone and giving you a false temp reading too. You have to be careful where you probe beef ribs bc the bone gets hotter than the meat. The ashtray taste again sounds like maybe just putting the meat on too soon and not letting the fire stabilize. I don’t think 15-20 minutes is long enough, at least for me. I generally let the fire stabilize at least an hour maybe 2 before a long smoke depending on what kind of smoke I’m getting. If you’re getting thick white smoke from the egg, it’s not ready to put the meat on yet. 

How was the tenderness? If they were the right tenderness, then they cooked long enough. If they were tough or chewy, then they were undercooked.