When your ribs are tough. . .

simpson_eh

Is it because they cooked too long or not long enough? Last time I did ribs I used 3-1-1. They tasted wonderful, but the texture wasn't quite there. They were a little too tough. Do I leave them on longer next time or take them off sooner?

On a related note, I used the trimmings from those ribs to make breakfast sausage. I don't have a grinder so I just cut the trimmings into small pieces and buzzed it all up in the food processor with all the seasoning. They tasted great, but they were dry and chewy. Is there some trick to getting your sausage moist like Jimmy Dean's?

Maybe it was just a tough pig?

Little Chef

Ribs are tough...cook em longer. Sausage from the trimmings dry, likely lacking fat content and perhaps overcooked as well. Just my opinion!
(edited after a re-read....the toughness probably a result of the food processor. The meat may have been overworked. Did you just pulse it a bit? Difficult to get a 'sausage' consistency in a processor with an already tough cut like ribs.)
Good for you for trying! Next time will be better!

SmokinParrotHead

What temp did you cook them? Have you calibrated your dome thermometer to make sure it is accurate?

2Fategghead

simpson_eh, I assume you are talking about spare ribs. I smoke my spare ribs indirect at 250° dome but I cooked them in two layers the top layer is my trimmed slabs laying flat bone side down and the lower layer has the trimmings and rib tips. I think the top layer took almost 7 hours and the bottom layer came off sooner
Check out my cook. Tim

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=803528&catid=1

I asked my butcher where I got my ribs from to begin with to grind my trimmings. I made a fattie with my trimmings. I don't think a food processor will grind your meat properly for making ground pork. Here is what I did with my trimmings from my spare rib cook.

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=809732&catid=1

Wise One

If they were dry and tough, they were cooked too long. If they were moist but tough, they may have been cooked too fast. Also, what is your criteria for tough? You should be able to take a good bite of a rib without all the meat falling off the bone. That bite should be firm but not tough.

simpson_eh

Ok, here's my procedure. I trimmed the ribs St. Louis Style, coated the rack with dijon mustard and whatever rub is around. Smoke for 3 hours with apple wood at 250 degrees dome temp (and I have calibrated my teltru) I wrap them in foil and pour in a can of concentrated apple juice with A LOT of tobasco. Seal up the foil "boat" and go an hour like that. After the hour I pour out the liquid from the boat and remove my platesetter and place the ribs directly on the grate. I mix the liquid from the boat with trader joe's bbq sauce and brush it on the ribs every 15 min. for an hour. Then I cover in foil and a couple towels. Let the ribs sit inside a cooler for a half hour and eat.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I do think that last hour might have been longer than an hour due to losing track of time. I hope that's it. I don't expect my ribs to be mushy and falling off the bone, but they shouldn't be chewy either and these were.

I guess my confusion is that with everything else I cook, there's a way to tell when it's done. For instance with pork loin, if I take it off at 150 internal, I know it'll be perfect, but with ribs I don't know how to tell when to take them off. Do any of you stick them with the thermapen? What should the internal temp. be?

Kokeman

I cooked spares this weekend. I cooked at 230 grid temp for 3 hours bones down. Wrapped in foil with apple juice for 2 hours bones up and put back on grill for a hour. All indirect. I sauce for the last 1/2 hour with sweet baby rays. They were tender and not mushy.

Bacchus

Why not try em without all the fuss (sans foil) and see how they turn out? 6hrs at 275dome, without opening the dome even once for the first 5 hours, then a few times to brush on sauce. Forget the cooler too, lay them on a cutting board for 15 minutes then cut them apart a bit.

Kokeman

I have done that way and the ends come out dry and sometimes crunchy.

Bacchus

Thats why God made BBQ sauce.

Car Wash Mike

I think they are undercooked. No food processor.

Mike

2Fategghead

simpson_eh, You are asking how to tell when your ribs are done. I have asked the same question and I was told to use a tooth pick and poke the meat and feel the resistance. If the tooth pick goes in the meat that is undercooked it will go in with resistance. If the tooth pick goes in the meat easily and no resistance the ribs are done.

I was also told to pick up the slab of ribs and look and see and feel how flexible the slab droops. Pick them up in the middle with your tongs and bounce them up and down a little and watch how the fibers of meat stretch and pull apart. If the slab is still firm and hardly stretches and hardly pull apart they are not cooked long enough. If when you pick up the slab it stretches and pulls apart and almost breaks in half their done.

I am no expert and I can count on both my hands and toes how many times I have cooked ribs but, I will continue to figure out when the best time and the best way to cook and pull my ribs.

I hope this gave you some guide lines because I don't think the ribs are tender when they reach a certain temp because they must cook to temp but not pulled until tender by looking and feeling them. Tim