Baby back pork ribs.....advice

[bigalcal]

I have recently acquired a Weber Kettle 22.5 and I have attempted baby back ribs and side ribs with average success. My most recent attempt came out so-so. Here's what I did.
2 racks of baby back ribs
coated with prepared mustard, added rub and put in fridge for 1 1/2 hrs
Set up BBQ indirect heat with side charcoal baskets and drip tray with water
Temp at or near 225 F
Placed racks flat on grill
Added 4 chunks of soaked hickory after an hour
Sprayed with apple juice/cider "mop" every hour or so
Cooked for approx. 5 hrs @ 225 approx.

Resulting ribs were dry and not "fall off the bone"
Should I have cooked them longer?
Foiled them?
Any advice would be appreciated...I got to get this right
Thanks!!

[Chasing_smoke]

Hmm everything sounds good there.. My question would be where are you getting your temperature reading from? Is it the lid or the grate.  My first rib cooks took forever just using the vent/lid method to read temp. What thermometer are you using? My suggestion is an oven thermometer on the grate and use that unless you have one with a probe to read the grate temp. Built in stock ones are generally always off.  You want the temp read where your food is cooking to be most accurate.

Also I use the snake method that many use here and it's easy to do with great results.


 "my kettle is more powerful it will do almost anything."

[Jeff]

Ok...I've seen your monikor before and was wondering this.

Big Al Cal?
Bi Gal Cal? 

LOL

Ok...back to the important stuff.  When I make my ribs, I do the 3-2-1 method. 
3 hours on the grill, 2 hours in foil ( I put apple juice in, sometime a little honey), and 1 hour back on the grill to sauce

I think that the 2 hours in the foil should help alot with the problem of dryness you are having!

Good luck!

[Aawa]

At 225 it will take longer for your ribs to cook.  I normally do my ribs about 275ish and that rack of baby backs will take about 3.5 hours.

If the ribs are dry and not falling off the bone, you didn't cook them long enough.

[bigalcal]

BIG Al Cal!!! I'm from Calgary, thus the moniker!!

[Jeff]

Good to hear this!  LOL  BIG AL! 

[Aawa]

Also one way to tell that the ribs are done is to pick them up  in the middle of the rack.  If they bend to 90 degrees (or close to it) and don't break, that is when the ribs are done.

Here is a rack of St. Louis cut ribs I did last week.  You can see how they are nice relaxed that it falls almost 90 degrees but doesn't break apart in my hands.

[1buckie]

" drip tray with water
Temp at or near 225 F
Added 4 chunks of soaked hickory after an hour
Sprayed with apple juice/cider "mop" every hour or so"

You would think with water,, soaked chunks & spray, there would be enough moisture available....

BBQ is different in some ways.....

The soaked chunks just seem to make the fire  (coals) work harder to burn off the excess moisture, to then do what they were going to do anyway...burn.....
The water pan's fine...a lot of people do that to keep the temp inside more even & the general environment moist....I don't 'cause I roll kinda fast & sloppy & would just spill it all over gettin' in the cooker......
Spritz / spray is OK but I'll only do that once, maybe twice, if they seem like the bark/ crust is getting too dry.....
Running @225, when you open to fiddle w/ sprtizing or any other reasons, the temp is just that much slower to recoup......and  Chasing's right about therm's.....you could be reading 225 & actually be @180....it's possible & they would take 19 hours at that temp.....
Pork needs to cook "x" length of time to get the fat rendered down.....backribs are not as critical maybe as the regular flats, but still need some time...........

These are dry rub, no mustard or other fiddling, spritz once & go ~~~>



Whole regular ribs, a little different than what you're asking about, but same concept.....cooked at medium temp, 260-275 & they come out tender to the point a bread knife cut wavy thru them.....

When you get down to when it seems like they're close to done (like Aawa
 says, or using Jeff's wrap method for part of the time)... use the 'bend test' to see if they're done / tender enough ~~~>


With backribs, wrapped, try 2 hours regular, 1-1/2 hrs in foil & 30~45 min. back out to set up glaze or sauce them...... 

[One Touch Platinum]

You said that they were baby backs ......I made the mistake once of cooking some baby backs the way that I cook up loin back/spares and came out with something that resembled jerky. There is a huge difference in the fat content and the meat content of baby backs and other types of ribs. I believe that you are not supposed to cook them as long as other types of ribs or you will dry them out and make them tough.

[HankB]

Moisture actually comes from the meat. Paradoxically if they are not cooked enough, they will seem dry.

The first sign that they are close to done is that the meat starts to pull back on the bones. Then use the bend test for the final indicator.

I cook mine at a higher temp. The last back loin ribs I smoked (on the WSM) were hung vertically, never mopped or sprayed and there was no water pan in the cooker. In other words, no additional source of moisture. Nor do I foil ribs. They were pretty juicy.



During the cook, the temperature ranged from 280° to 315°  (250° to 285° on the lid thermometer on the WSM.)

[Tom C]

Ok...back to the important stuff.  When I make my ribs, I do the 3-2-1 method. 
3 hours on the grill, 2 hours in foil ( I put apple juice in, sometime a little honey), and 1 hour back on the grill to sauce

I think that the 2 hours in the foil should help alot with the problem of dryness you are having!

Good luck!

3-2-1 is great for St. Louis not BB

2-2-1 works better for BB. If your looking you are not cooking Smoke @225 degrees After I put the ribs on the cooker it is only open three time @2 hours to foil @ 4 hours to unfoil, @4:30 to sauce @5 hours to remove.

[bthorn9435]

2-2-1 is all u need!!!

[bigalcal]

I finally BBQ'ed ribs again and followed everyones advice and they came out a lot better...still a long way to go. Practice...practice. Thanks all!!

[pbe gummi bear]

This is a great thread. I cooked a bunch of ribs with no foil and they always just turned out ok. First time I did 2-1-1 they were amazing! I prefer my ribs on the fotb side though.