First Batch of Pork Side Ribs - Thoughts?

Side ribs???

Must be a canadian thing. Their either Baby Backs (loin backs) or Spare ribs. Side "could" be baby backs (because they're from the side, sorta the back). It will make a difference in time to cook and to know the difference when you're reading recipes. BB's take less time. Spares come in varieties (St. Louis, trimmed, etc).

For me, the presets don't work. There is TOO much variation in side of the ribs and a 1/2 kilo difference in weight can mean an hour more.

You'll need to cook them to your preference.

My basics on ribs:

Guide Page -- Ribs 101

The key is to create your own flavors.

They'll be some folks jump in and tell you some thoughts.

I'd definitely read through the Rib archives, lots of great info there.

Smokin'

More like a "Buck" thing Smokin'! The correct wording should have been spareribs. The certainly weren't BB's ... even I would know the difference there I do know the slabs were huge.

Great, now we know where to start. Always fun learning the terminology, it's always fun trying to describe meat in a text posting (like brisket, many didn't know the diff between a flat and a packer).

So, do you know if they were trimmed down to St. Louis or not? Probably not if they were "huge"

Reason I ask is definitely weigh your ribs until you learn and do enough of them.

You can get spares that weigh 2.5lbs a slab all the way up over 4.0 lbs a slab and thus you could see why the setting doesn't always work. That 1.5lb different can easily be a difference of over 2hours to finish.

Smokin'

buck,
here's a thought but it is based off of peggy's sm150.
try this-
manually set 165f and let it just start to smoke.
(for this we use 4.5 ounces of pellets in a foil pouch) when you just get smoke throw the ribs in and hold this for about 2 hours.
manually set temp to 275f and set time for 3 hours. about 90 mins into this add another pellet pouch and let it go.
test a set of ribs and if you need more time just add it.
our experience has been for 3 1/2 down ribs the time at 275 has been about 4 hours.
hope it helps you some
jack

I'm no pro,but I do cook with some on a regular basis.

Like Smokin' says,read his guides and the archives.

They should answer about 95% of your questions.

After that ,you'll be able to pipoint your couple questions,and we can offer specific suggestions.

I'd suggest this, with all your products.