Skip to main content

9 replies

Discovered Secret to Great Ribs: Super Low and Super Slow!!

FM Former Member
I finally had great success with ribs: They were super moist, with no foiling needed.

Here's what I did: Bought some loinbacks at Sam's Club, and for once, they were quite meaty! They come in 3-packs and I got one of the heaviest packs (8# total for 3 racks) ... maybe that's the key to getting meaty ribs, especially if the bones are the same size in all the packs.

So the stars were aligned to begin with.

Then I remembered reading a posting by Jack, a.k.a. Prison Chef, regarding a brisket question I had.

He said that there's a key to keeping meat moist: "... the one given in cooking is the higher the temp the lower the yield all other things being equal. by jumping your temps 11% you can expect your yield to be reduced around 5 to maybe 7%. or on a 14 pound packer excpect to come in around .35 of a pound lighter (around 5 ounces)."

He and others later described that the loss of yield was due to the loss of moisture in the meat. Basically, the higher the temp, the more moisture that "boils off the meat" just like boiling water evaporates into steam.

So I applied this logic to ribs. Instead of cooking ribs for 6 hours at 225*, as many people suggest, I tried 12 hours with the smoker dialed into 200*. (I've never checked my calibration at that temp, so judging by the time the ribs took to cook, the actual smoker temp probably was closer to 190* on avg.)

About an hour before taking them out, I sauced the ribs and put them back in to carmelize the sauce a bit.

The result: These were the most moist, best tasting ribs I've ever made. Surprisingly, they didn't pull back from the bone at all, which leads me to believe that the pulling back from the bone is caused by the meat drying out a bit and shrinking.

Anyway, for those of you who like moist ribs, try this super low and super slow method: set your smoker at 190-200* and check on them after about 6 hours (maybe check earlier if you are using babybacks). When they're almost done, add some sauce, put back in the smoker, and take out an hour later.

Try it and let us all know what you think of the results, and if that super low and super slow method results in a much more moist rib.
Last edited {1}
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

S smokenqueQ'n n Brew'n
Studly, I did the same thing as you did on Wednesday. Put a mixture of oak and apple in the wood box and set the smoker at about 180º. I let 'er rip for four hours and then cranked it up to about 225º for for the last two hours.

Interestingly, I never saw the thermometer go above 180º. Initially, it was 150º and I attributed that to cold smoker and cold meat. Unless somethin has changed, the t'stat has always been in the ballpark.

But, the results were moist, tasty ribs (spares). However, I just posted a question about taming rubs.. Either my tolerance for salt has changed because we've reduced salt in most of our cooking.. OR, the meat didn't give up enough juices at this lower temp to "wash" off some of the salt.
FM Former Member
Jack, yeah, thanks for the original advice you gave me about the higher the temp, the lower the yield and moisture. Let me know how your ribs turn out.

GLH, the fat rendering seemed about the same as other ribs I've cooked at 225* because I brought them up to the same degree of doneness (not sure what temp they were ... I just go by when you can twist the bone in the meat).

On another note, an interesting thing I found out when cooking the ribs super low and super slow was that the membrane pretty much detaches itself. I didn't mess with the membranes before putting the ribs in the smoker. But when the ribs were done, the membrane had almost detached by itself. You could pull the membrane off super easy with your fingers.
FM Former Member
Dude, you're onto it. I researched the bejesus out of all these strings, and I liked your approach best; noticing the temp swings, why not go lower and let it swing away. I took mine out at 8 hours however ( i was just checking them, but they were perfect; sauced them, let them stay in a half hour more). They were perfect ribs. I let them sit in a big pan in unlit oven for an hour or so with foil on, then we porked on pork. When I first took them out I thought they were going to be kinda dry, but once we actually cut into them, they were AWESOME. I did two slabs which weighed about 9lbs total. Only thing I would do different is add more rub before I put them in CS, beyond what I did night before as a lot of that "leaks" off in fridge. Big rub of regular brown sugar gave it awesome bark. Have no idea why some say they can't get bark. It was KILLER!! At this temp and time, you can leave all day and not worry about them. At 4-6 hour smokes, you kinda have to be home on a weekend, so it worked out great during week.

By the way, I live in pear country in California and used 2/3 pear, 1/3 hickory. Right on money. Really light tasting smoke, but you KNOW they are smoked.
FM Former Member
Glad it worked out for you, Meatboy!

Yeah, I've been working on fine tuning this "lower and slower" method. Dialing in the temp to 200* and cooking 8-10 hours seems about right. If you go lower on the temp, it takes too long.

My ribs are tasting better and turning out way more moist smoking them at 200* than the 225-250 that I used to do.

Also, the ribs seem "meatier" after the cook because they aren't shriveling up due to high heat causing loss of moisture.

I highly recommend that anyone who likes moist ribs try this lower and slower method.
FM Former Member
If it works for you, perfect! There really is no "one" way to do it, that's the fun of BBQ.

The real key was having meatier, probably fattier ribs.

There is also some inverse proportion law (whatever) that some meats you just can't smoke "low" forever. That will dry them out. Having something with enough fat will keep it moist for that period.

Try the same thing on smaller loin backs and you'll see.

Also fun to see new ideas that work.

Smokin'

Add Reply

Post

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×