First cook SM-045 / pork spareribs

I'm not good enough rib cooker to tell you, but it sounds overcooked. There could be other issues though. I've never had spare ribs cook in only three hours.

Were these trimmed spares (St. Louis style)?

What cooker did you use? (Edit: I see from you thread title that it is an SM-045.)

What temp did you smoke them at?

What rub did you use, and what ingredients are in it?

Where did you buy the ribs, and were they pre-injected with a brine solution, or were they plain minimally processed meat?

What was the temp that you used? I did a few slabs of spare ribs yesterday and cooked them at 225 degrees. Put them on at 10am, went for a hike and by 2pm they were just about done. I agree with SkipQ, I never has spares finish in 3 hours - usually 5+ I think that maybe your cooking temp was too high, and possible you used too much foil and that obstructed smoke getting into the meat? I don't cut my slabs, just trim them up a bit to fit on the shelves. The smaller the slab, the more dried out it'll get, as the ends will be less moist then the middle of the rack.

I'm no expert,but I have cooked with some,and haven't cooked on an 045,but guess kinda like a Smokette.

Rub on overnight,maybe started curing the ribs.

Was it a 1.5 lb slab,or 5-7 lb slab?World of difference,Smokin' would say.

Was it a 1/2 oz-or six oz chunk of wood,could make a world of difference?

Was instaread checking temp at the cooking rack,or someplace in/on the spares.Not sure I ever figured how to check rib temps,but either way it was probably 50* to low.

Like folks above said,injected/pre-frozen could extend cook time,maybe mushiness.

Not sure what spraying with apple juice would do,other than make exterior wet/mushy/cooler and wash off rub?

The final 1/2 hr of cooking,after wetting down the ribs,probably didn't allow the cooker to get back up to temp,so you can't count it.

The rest and wetting down the slab,after 1/2 hr,could have cooled the slab even more,and contributed to the mushiness?

I guess I'll be a contrarian and speculate they were undercooked.

Give Smokin's Ribs 101 a good read,and give it another shot.

The forum will get you there.

SkipQ / nysmoke

Purchased the ribs at Kroger. They were frozen and we thawed them at home. These were not St Louis ribs. We have since located a local butcher shop which we'll now use.

The rub included paprika, sugar and onion powder. Not sure how old it was. It came from a recipe found in the Neely's cookbook. The ribs cooked at 225. I spot checked the temp 3 times. The temp ranged from 225 - 227. Inserted the probe into the side of the meat closest to the door. Am wondering if the probe should have been inserted on the top side of the meat. The intent was to keep the probe away from bone.

If your Kroger carries the same ribs as mine, the ribs you bought were destined to fail. They are heavily injected to something like 18% of total weight, and the one's I've seen have been cured to a ham like state before you even get started.

milez, your process and cooking temp sounds fine in general, so perhaps Tom is right and they were undercooked. That's curious. I normally have to smoke spares for 5 to 6 hours.

The main thing I look for in a rub is that it DOES NOT CONTAIN PAPAIN. It sounds like yours did not contain any, so that's good. Papain is the enzyme from Papaya. It's one of the main ingredients in most meat tenderizers, like Adolf's. A meat tenderizer should never be used on any smoking meat, and probably not for most meat cooked any other way. A meat tenderizer product with Papain should be reserved for cooking shoe leather that you want to resemble real meat when its cooked. The reason I mention this is because papain makes meat mushy, at least in my experience, and too much of it can make your meat disintegrate.

Like Todd G. said, the meat from Kroger probably was injected with a tenderizing brine of some kind. Avoid this kind of meat in the future. The couple of times I tried it I also ended up with mushy and disappointing results.

By the way ...

One of the best things I ever did to improve my spare ribs was to learn to cut them St. Louis style. You can learn to do this very easily. You just need a sharp knife. You cut the flap off the bottom (its called the skirt), then you separate the brisket (rib tips). A heavy sharp knife is helpful here. There's a cartilage joint between the brisket and the main part of the ribs on the big end. You cut there, not through bone. Down toward the small end it's just cartilage, and easier to cut. Finally you pull the membrane off. Then rub, refrigerate, and smoke 4 to 12 hours later (I don't like to leave rub on ribs for too long - you don't really need to since the meat is thin).

It'll end up looking more like a rack of loin back ribs when you are done, but a bit more triangular. Google it, there are lots of vids and sites with good pictures and descriptions.

You still cook and eat the parts you trim off, but they will be done much sooner. That's good, because it'll give you something to snack on while the ribs are cooking. I make a little tray out of foil for them so they don't fall through the grill.

It seems to me like the trimmed ribs cook more evenly, and they look better, when the skirt and brisket are trimmed off.

I hope this is all helpful to you. Good luck on your next try.

I'd say undercooked also.

Couple of things.

Don't spritz them. Each time you open the door you loose heat and extend the cooking time, the total time you mention ( 3 1/2)isn't enough for even small spares that weren't trimmed.

Put the wood towards the front of the box and see how it does. It may not necessarily turn to ash, depending on the length of cook. It's only there to smoke, not produce heat.

Be careful with the butcher, he may resell the same stuff. Ask him what the price difference between St. Louis and Full Spares are (if it's too much for you, we can teach you how to do it yourself)

Ask him if they're solution enhanced. If he doesn't know what that means, run, he's not a butcher

KNOW the weights of the racks. The difference of a 1/2 lb in spares can easily be another hour to cook.

And...... don't rely on the probe when doing ribs. There's not enough meat there to be sure that you have it properly placed.

Learn to use the "toothpick test".

Qnorth

OK, you got me. what is the "toothpick test"

Thanks for your help.

Milez

quote:

OK, you got me. what is the "toothpick test"

Check out this link:
http://forum.cookshack.com/eve...=670100993#670100993