Baby Backs Gone Not-So-Good

Rascal

I've never really nailed baby backs and yesterday was no exception. Prepped a few meaty racks with black pepper and John Henry's pecan rub, wrapped them in Saran and refrigerated overnight. Stabilized the Egg @ 250 and cooked for 3 hours (indirect, over a drip pan with apple juice & cider vinegar). Foiled them, cooked for another hour, removed the foil and cooked for another hour +. During the final 30 minutes I basted one rack with Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Sauce. After all that work, the meat was certainly cooked through (even showed a bit of smoke-ring) but they just weren't very tender. The rack that got sauced was a bit better, but not really outstanding. I've had better results in the oven and seeing as I followed the general guide lines to a 'T' (3-1-1.5) I'm not sure what's up here. Temperature was steady (250 dome) throughout the cook. I've got a relatively new Tel-Tru thermometer, and while I haven't checked the calibration, I find it hard to believe that it would be so far off to ruin a cook like this. I did have 2 oven thermometers on the grill and they were both reading in the 250 range.
I dunno...

Boilermaker Ben

what's your measure of success for ribs?

Are you cooking to time (3-1-1), or do you check for tenderness before you take 'em off the egg? I've had baby backs go 6 hours. Just cook them until they go all floppy on you.

Car Wash Mike

I would never leave a rub on overnight. I know everyone's tasts buds are different, but pepper? Put some apple juice in the foil next time.

Mike

Photo Egg

Some of the Baby Backs are cryo packed in a sodium solution and they seldom come out real tender and have more of a ham cured taste.
Also check and make sure your dome therm is on the money by testing in boiling water. SB near 210-212.
Take care,
Darian

Photo Egg

PhilsGrill

Forget the liquid in the drip pan. When you wrap in foil, add honey, brown sugar and apple juice now. This will help keep them very moist.

Chefjj

Maybe try using ribs with a higher amount of fat, like beef ribs. That should give you more room for error, and you'll still have great tasting meat!

Rascal

With all the tips, next time WILL be more better! : - ) Cheers!!

Rascal

Thank you! These were very 'meaty' BB racks from Publix which does not employ 'additives' as far as I can tell. Perhaps the regular, or St. Louis cuts would have been better. Beef ribs put me into orbit so they've got potential too! Happy Cookin'!

stevesails

i did BabyBacks yesterday myself, 3 hours indirect, 1 hour wrapped, didnt have any apple juice, so i put a little cranberry juice, Tasted great, then another hour unwrapped, and used sweet baby rays. They were fantastic, Family didnt rave very much. but I could tell the difference from Ribs I have made in the past.

I was amazed how easy it was to keep the temp at 250-260. and how much lump was left when I looked at it today. I think I used up more with a hamburger in 7 minutes, than I did in 5 hours yesterday.

Just call me another convert from gas.

NC-CDN

PhilsGrill wrote:

Forget the liquid in the drip pan. When you wrap in foil, add honey, brown sugar and apple juice now. This will help keep them very moist.

I do this with my baby backs too. Works great. Seal them up tightly and be careful when you open. I do them in the foil for about 90 minutes. Prior to that I have them on with some hickory for about 3-4 hours.

After foiling them I take them out and slather my sauce on. Pretty much bang on every time. I also take the membrane off and dry rub them. Sometimes I rub with olive oil prior to rubbing. Not sure it matters too much. I cook them indirect with a drip pan. I add apple juice, apple cider vinegar, water, beer or combination.

Jai-Bo

I cook ribs anywhere from 3-6 hours depending on the cut....I use Bad Byrons Butt Rub on most of my meats and it is AWESOME!!! My last ribs, after cooking fer about 4 hours exposing the bones, I tooke em off and wrapped them in foil after basting w/ honey and brown sugar....They were not fall off the bone but very tender and juicy!!!

WokOnMedium

The only thing I do differently is only use time as a guideline. That last hour can leak into a little longer. If those racks were big and really meaty, they may not have been completely done.

While basting and turning, pick the rack up with your tongs in the middle, if the rack starts to break...pull them.

If all this was already said, my apologies, I skimmed and missed it.

Get back out there and try again, my guess you'll have plenty of folks to sample and give you feedback.