Spare ribs, first time on the grill

JohnfromKentucky

My wife has baby back ribs down and they are SOO good, but they are done in the oven. Well, these spare ribs were on sale and I thought I would experiment on the egg. I followed the directions in The fundamentals of Smoking book and I wasn't able to trim all the tips off because I don't have the right tool (a good knife...mine are ok, but I need something better...recommendations?)

Anyway, here are the pics. I used Famous Dave's rib rub on top of slathered mustard.

JohnfromKentucky

Ok cook is done. I put butter & honey with apple juice on it and wrapped it twice, putting it back on the egg for around an hour. I took it out and put bbq sauce on it and back on the grill for about 15 minutes and pulled it. It is good, but there are tough parts, mainly the outer part. 

How can I prevent this next time? I know you all like the bark, but we are finding that it's not our favorite

pic is before I wrapped it in foil

EggNashville

Those ribs look great!

stv8r

Personally I use the 2-1-1 method (225f) as that seems to be my sweet spot.  2 hours unwrapped, 2 hours wrapped and spritzed with apple juice  and last hour unwrapped saucing the last 30 mins.  Also don't forget to remove the membrane on the backside. I find ribs pretty easy to cook overall although I have no doubt their will be some here to disagree with my method  

dmourati

Any knife can be used to trim ribs. Don't overthink it.

If you want less bark, spend more of the cook time in foil.

StillH2OEgger

They look great -- I also have used and really liked the Famous Dave's rib rub -- but I'm not surprised they maybe didn't cook evenly with the untrimmed half appearing much thicker. Lots of ways to get good results with ribs, but toothpick test is best indicator of finish.

RyanStl

Were the edges extending over the platesetter? The edges are hot spots, plus since the ends of the ribs are thinner they'll cook faster.

Edit: saw the picture again and the rib edges are over edge of the platesetter. I like rib racks that keep the ribs on its side. Also, I sometimes cut the ribs in half to fit better. That's when I was using a medium, but now it stock to my XL for ribs

JohnInCarolina

stv8r said:

Personally I use the 2-1-1 method (225f) as that seems to be my sweet spot.  2 hours unwrapped, 2 hours wrapped and spritzed with apple juice  and last hour unwrapped saucing the last 30 mins.  Also don't forget to remove the membrane on the backside. I find ribs pretty easy to cook overall although I have no doubt their will be some here to disagree with my method  

I'm just trying to square your description of the method with it being "2-1-1".  Sounds like it's actually "2-2-1".  

stv8r

JohnInCarolina said:

stv8r said:

Personally I use the 2-1-1 method (225f) as that seems to be my sweet spot.  2 hours unwrapped, 2 hours wrapped and spritzed with apple juice  and last hour unwrapped saucing the last 30 mins.  Also don't forget to remove the membrane on the backside. I find ribs pretty easy to cook overall although I have no doubt their will be some here to disagree with my method  

I'm just trying to square your description of the method with it being "2-1-1".  Sounds like it's actually "2-2-1".  

My bad it was a typo.  I do mean 2-1-1.  one hour foiled. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. 

JohnInCarolina

stv8r said:

JohnInCarolina said:

stv8r said:

Personally I use the 2-1-1 method (225f) as that seems to be my sweet spot.  2 hours unwrapped, 2 hours wrapped and spritzed with apple juice  and last hour unwrapped saucing the last 30 mins.  Also don't forget to remove the membrane on the backside. I find ribs pretty easy to cook overall although I have no doubt their will be some here to disagree with my method  

I'm just trying to square your description of the method with it being "2-1-1".  Sounds like it's actually "2-2-1".  

My bad it was a typo.  I do mean 2-1-1.  one hour foiled. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. 

That makes more sense to me.  2 hrs in the foil tends to produce ribs that are fairly mushy, in my experience.

Mark_B_Good

I use 2.5-1.5-0.5 method ... for real.

JohnfromKentucky

Just finished off the last of the ribs. They were really good!