Ribs getting black on top

islamoradapaul · December 2010

Hi,

I just took a couple of slabs of spareribs off the Egg. They were cooked at 230 for about 5 hours, over the plate setter on rib racks, sprayed with apple cider, cider vinegar 'mop' mix every 20 mins or so, adding a handful of spoaked apple wood chips every half hour or so. Light stream of blue smoke coming out of the top most of the whole time.

The warmest the meat got with a meat thermometer was about 140 at the center.

Now I've heard that if you leave them in even longer, say 7-8 hours, and get the temp up to 170+, that is how you get true 'falling off the bone' tenderness. The problem is, at the end of hour 5, they were quite dark on the top, even black at the tips. I know it was just blackening on the very superficial surface of the meat, but I shudder to think how charred they might have gotten with even another hour of this, let alone 2-3.

Any thoughts?

fishlessman · December 2010

way too many wood chips for use in an egg, most here dont add during the cook and just use a handfull or two at the start of the cook.

"Sparky" · December 2010

If you're opening the dome every 20 minutes,those ribs will take prolly 9-10 hrs :ohmy: The blackening is from the burning sugar in your "mop" sauce.Also,you don't need to add chips every 30 minutes,and you don't need to soak them.I usually just start with a few dry chunks and they produce enough smoke for the whole cook.

Edited:I meant to say that the blackening is coming from the sugar in your "mop" sauce,and the severe over-smoking by adding wood every 30 minutes :ohmy: Adding wood during a cook is something that I have never had to do in an egg

Little Chef · December 2010

Waaayyyyyy too much wood, and with all the acrid (blue) smoke, it discolored the meat. As the others have said, a handful of (dry) chips or a couple chunks at the beginning, and allow the blue smoke to turn to white smoke before adding the meat. Just because you may not "see" smoke, doesn't mean it's not adding smoked flavor. Also, let the Egg do it's thing! No need to keep opening the dome. Let 'em humm along, and mop towards the end of the cook.

Gator Bait · December 2010

When I cook ribs I watch their color and rearrange them as needed to distribute the color on them. I think mine get dark on the up most tips because higher in the dome is hotter and a V rack holds one edge higher. The ribs in the end slot of the V rack also get darker faster then the others and I will move them toward the center and the lighter ones from the center out to the end slots. The ones in this photo are in need of turning. I will flip them end over end so the ends get reversed also as apposed to flipping sideways and leaving the ends where they are. The egg is a primitive cooking tool at best and is not known for distributing very uniform heat, there will always be spots that are hotter then others and rotating your food is the easiest way to work around it. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. :laugh:

I cook mine using a higher heat/shorter time method but it all amounts to the same thing in the end.

I agree that it is probably partially due to the sugars caramelizing in your mop but that shouldn't be any problem, I think they are darkening due to the distribution of the heat.

No spare ribs were injured, harmed or miss treated in any way in the production of this post! . . . they were all Baby Backs.

Blair

islamoradapaul · December 2010

THANKS EVERYONE. I hope my next rack of ribs comes out better with less smoke and less opening and closing of the egg. Happy Holidays!

Ribs getting black on top

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