8 to 10 Hour Ribs?

Try them at 250. I have had better luck at 250. In the beginning, I cooked at 225, but I seem to have better results at 250. Good Luck.

Hi Steve,
I cook my ribs at 225 for 4 hours and they always come out nice and tender. Everytime you open that door you increase the cooking time. I am not sure how tender you like your ribs but the 4 to 41/2 hour range has worked for me.
Good Luck

Thanks for the suggestions.
Next time I'll try 250. I prefer my ribs somewhere between fall off and tug off the bone. At 7.5 hrs @ 225 I'm guessing I was about 1-2 tugs away from where I wanted to be.

7 1/2 hours is a loooong time for ribs. I would put a temp probe in the smoker to monitor cook temps and verify the accuracy of the thermostat setting. Every time you open the door you add about 1/2 hour to the cook time. I do St. Louis style spares for six hours at 225, never open the door and they come out just short of fall off the bone.

Question:

Have you checked the temp of the unit with a thermometer? Not just the setting, but the internal temp?

When people have power problems or put the wrong kind of extension cord, the smoker actually runs at a lower temp than the dial.

Smokin'

Steve,

SmokinOkie makes a very good point. If you are running a long extension cord and/or too light a gauge it will affect the power to your CS.

Also you mentioned 12 lbs. of ribs...was that the total weight? What was the weight of each rack? Are they trimmed or untrimmed? This makes a difference. A 2.5 to 3 lb rack will cook in less time than a 4 to 4.5 lb rack. And if you're buying a bigger rack than that, you may not get good results anyway. I'm guessing that you are using some big honkin' ribs and not trimming.

Check your cooker temp like Smokin sez and like CT sez, don't open the door.

Some of us may open the door once near the end of a cook to put on sauce, but that's usually it. I do baby backs most of the time and 5.5 to 6 hours is just about perfect for me.

Don't give up, and give us more info on your next post.

Hey, thanks again!

I won't ever give up on the ribs. In fact I am just heading over to Costco to get more.

I have used a meat thermometer before in the meat. I will use it to confirm the internal temp. Unit is plugged directly into an outlet, no extension cord.

As for the weight of the ribs, the spare ribs if I remember correctly were 2 whole untrimmed racks that weighed about 12 - 15 lbs total. I cut those in pieces and ended up with 2 St. Louis style racks and whatever the other misc. parts are. Dry rub and 24 hrs in fridge. They took up all 3 racks with about 1/2" between each piece. 5 hrs @ 225 in smoker. Opened door @ 4 hrs. to sauce.

The total weight on the baby backs were about 9-10 lbs. total for all 3 racks. They were costco ribs right out of the pkg. just cut in half with membrane removed from back, dry rub and 24 hrs in fridge. 7.5 hrs @ 225 in smoker. Opened door @ 4 hrs to sauce, then every hour after that to check for done.

My current plan for next batch is confirm internal temp., weight (3 racks @ approx. 3 lbs each), rub, refrig, 6 hrs @ 250, open door only @ 6 hrs mark to check.

Let you know how they turn out. Thanks!

Like Mike says,a six to seven lb slab of spares could have come from a not only large,but old hog.

We see them promoted by the grocery chains,and they could take 8-10 hrs.

If they were previously frozen,they could also take longer to come tender.

3 1/3 lb average loinbacks are pretty large as well.

After you confirm the cooker is running at temp,you should be ok.

If you are cooking loinbacks,that weigh three lbs this time,I might still check them by the four hr mark and flip them.

You might also consider seasoning them about an hr before they go in the cooker.

The low meat to bone ratio on loinbacks makes them easy to overseason,or cure.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Steve have you tried smothering the ribs in yellow mustard before applying the rub? That is my technique. I put in baby backs for 5 hours at 225, take them out and mop them with bbq sauce and rap them in foil, back in the smoker for another hour.

Thanks to all for the help and suggestions. This last batch turned out great!

Basically went with the plan I last mentioned, incorporating most of your suggestions.

Instead of the cryopac trio of bbacks from costco, I found individually packaged and weighed bbacks. Picked 3 racks about 2.5 lbs each. I think that keeping the size of the racks in that weight range was the key as Mike and Tom suggested. I did not realize it but the racks varied from about 2 to 4 lbs each.

Cooked at 225 for 5.5 hrs then opened only to apply sauce (rapped one of the racks in foil) and back in for another 1 hrs.

All turned out great, can't wait to do more.

Thanks, Steve

Steve,

Congrats, sounds like you got it nailed!!! Nothing wrong with Costco's baby backs, I use them frequently, but they are "enhanced." Don't be afraid to do spares either, just trim them and be mindful of the weight. It's helpful to have a food scale.

Glad you had some success!

quote:

Originally posted by Steve N:
[qb]I did not realize it but the racks varied from about 2 to 4 lbs each. [/qb]

This is a key point for new cooks to keep track of.

You should know the weight of your racks, individually. When I but 3 pack cryo's of ribs, I can get a 2.5, a 3.5 and even a 4 in the same pack. That being the case, you can add hour per .5 lb (on average, but don't quote me).

That's one of the reasons you'll get differences each time and even within each batch.

When I'm doing my contest ribs, I trim them up so they all weigh the same. I don't like them finishing at different times.