time to smoke some spare ribs

[bryanw21157]

got me some pretty country-style spare ribs from the local market this morning




Heating up the coals for the miniwsm





We're cookin' now....




update:
3 hours in

ribs ready to come out of smoker




foiled with apple juice and back in for two hours.  Top / bottom rack positions switched.




the magic continues.....




next update when I pull them for sauce....

[1911Ron]

Looking good so far!

[bryanw21157]

Dont know what happened...tasted ok but were dry after 5 hrs...2 hours of that in foil. 

Look good though.   I think I will stick to racks...



Guess I needed some of this....

[bryanw21157]

I am going to add a water pan to the mini.  Or use my diy smokenator for long cooks...

[Eric02038]

did the water dry up or did you not start with water

[bryanw21157]

No water used...

[Eric02038]

Gotta use a water pan, it will make all the difference

[bryanw21157]

Ok.  Tired of pork jerky! 

[HankB]

I'm not convinced that water in the bowl is required for moist pork. Country ribs are actually pork butts cut into slices. That exposes a lot more surface to heat and they cook differently than a whole butt. I think they might have been done at 3 hours (depending on temperature.) Even bathing them in juice will not make that much difference.

I don't foil ribs or butts and have not produced pork jerky yet. Lately I've been foiling the water pan instead of using water except for hanging ribs where I left the water pan out. After almost 3 1/2 hours hanging over the coals at about 290°F (260-280°F on the lid thermometer), they were pretty moist.

[Bman]

I haven't done ribs in the mini, but don't use water in the full sized WSM and it works well.
Just a guess Bryan, but 5 hours seems like a long time (to me) when you're cooking individual bones like that.
3 full racks in my 22 only take 4 hours