Baby back night

milesvdustin · March 2018

did two racks tonight as a test for a rib comp in May. I did a 2/2/1 method, only thing in the wrap was parkay and some brown sugar. The flavor was fantastic, but some parts seemed tough and others gave a perfect bite off the rib. Smoked at 225 the whole time. Some thicker parts even were dry a bit.

Any ideas?

One was rubbed in honey hog hot and one was blues hog. Thinking s combo would be best.

gdenby · March 2018

The color and glazing looks good. Usually "dry" for pork ribs means under cooked. That is, all of the collagen hasn't turned to gel, and the fat hasn't seeped thru the meat. I also notice that there is little if any draw back from the bone. What I see in mine that work the best for me is that when the meat is bitten, there are no little shreds left clinging to the bone, which means the membrane along the bone cooked away.

abtaylor260 · March 2018

I just use a toothpick and when they probe tender its a good sign they are moist. I typically tend to overcook them though. yours look great though!

Of course everyone likes a certain rib consistency...

saluki2007 · March 2018

Agree that they might not be done yet. I like to use the toothpick method to check if they are done. Stick a toothpick in between the bones and when it slides in and out with little to no resistance then they are done.

pgprescott · March 2018

Toothpick is the way for me. You will notice particularly with loin back/ babyback ribs that there is often some variation within the slab. Our Kroger ones leav a lot of loin on top which varies from end to end throughout the slab. Poke a few spots in short. Shoot for the middle bones for comp.

milesvdustin · March 2018

Toothpick test seemed pretty good so I bent them and had some cracking so I pulled them. I will try longer before foil next time maybe a 2.5-2-1. I will go again this weekend.

gdenby · March 2018

Seems like a plan to me. Good luck. To me 'yer already in the 90% bracket. Every next +% will be hard, but aim for the point where you go "these could have been better..." and everyone eating the are going "These are sooo good."

YukonRon · March 2018

Baby Back Night could be every night....great looking cook.

Theophan · March 2018

milesvdustin said:

Toothpick test seemed pretty good so I bent them and had some cracking so I pulled them. I will try longer before foil next time maybe a 2.5-2-1. I will go again this weekend.

I'm with @gdenby (and many others): FORGET about the time! Time won't tell you how long to cook them. Some racks can need longer than others! The only way to tell when they're done is to TEST whether they're done or not. If you did the toothpick test and they were still a little under, then now you know how the toothpick feels going in when they're not quite done. Next time test it in several places and make sure it goes in easier than it did before. And maybe do the 90° bend test, too, just for extra confidence.

By all means, if you want to give them an extra half hour on the beginning, have at it. But the bottom line is: don't take them out of the Egg until they TEST done!

YukonRon · March 2018

Baby Back Night could be every night....great looking cook.

milesvdustin · March 2018

Im just trying to get times for the local rib comp.

last year i competed and got so drunk before noon i dont remember it.

pgprescott · March 2018

Man that seems like a long Time in foil based upon my experience. Anything over an hour and you can just remove the bones. I tend to cook at 250-275 though. Must make a huge difference. Good luck with the comp.

milesvdustin · March 2018

I thought it was a long time in foil too. I checked at 1 hour and they were still pretty tough so I let them go another 30 then another 30.

Dome thermo is calibrated

gdenby · March 2018

2 1/2 things I can think of.

What sort of rub did you use? While pork usually gets more sugar than beef, if there was little or no salt, the meat would expel more moisture and and might end up as a chewy mush. Not really tough, but sort of a dry lump.

There have been discussions here and elsewhere about using 3-1-1. More time spent taking smoke and getting to 160ish temp, so water is coming out fast but more importantly the collagen is breaking down quickly and the fat rendering nicely. The hour in the foil is adequate to infuse the liquid flavors.

Which leads to a subsidiary question. What was the temp of the parkay and sauce? Too much and too cold would have slowed the cooking.

Besides preferring a dry rib to wet, another reason I stopped the method was once I used a sauce w. lots of sugar, which ended up turning into a taffy coating. That was tougher than the meat.

milesvdustin · March 2018

Rub was blues hog and meat church honey hog hot. Sauce and parkay were fridge temp.

milesvdustin · March 2018

Sauce is a 50/50 mix of blues hog regular and their tennessee red

gdenby · March 2018

milesvdustin said:

...Sauce and parkay were fridge temp.

Ahh, that was some of the problem. Closed into the aluminum packet, it all had to come back to temp. At dome 225, I wouldn't be surprised if that dropped 1/2 hr. off the total cook time.

While it is hard to get an accurate reading w. a thermometer, try matching the pouch additions temp w. the meat. I.E., a minute or so in the 'wave before pouring it on/in.

milesvdustin · March 2018

Ill give that a shot next time, thanks!

Baby back night

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