First Smoke, 3 Racks of Ribs

I did 3 racks of baby backs in a 55 with the hooks. Rubbed the ribs with CS rib rub, in at 225 degrees with 3oz. of hickory. I let the ribs sit about 30 min after rubbing them.

Took the ribs out exactly 5 hours later and they were falling off the bone tender and juicy.I did not open the door or mop/baste the entire cooking time. My wife loved them as did all our guests.

Were you using baby backs or full spares? If full spares I would assume 6-7 hours of cooking time.

Good point! I was using full spare ribs. I rubbed um and let them sit overnight. I probably did not allow enough time for them to cook. After reading the forum about temp swings I had told myself I would not drop the thermometer in to measure oven temp. Of course I did. When it was consistently hitting almost 300 I began to worry about overcooking the ribs. Sounds like i pulled my racks to soon--bad case of "smokus interruptus"

For loin backs, mine typically run 5 hours or so. I usually open the door at three hours to spray and rotate, and then again at about 4 1/2 hours to glaze and check doneness. Spares typically take about an hour longer. If yours were tough, it sound like they weren't cooked long enough...

quote:

Originally posted by RH:
[qb] I shut the door and set the temp to 125 and I do not open it for 5 hours.[/qb]

You mean 225, don't you?

-joe

Per CS and the prevailing opinion on the forums, don't worry about the temp swings inside the box. Also, you lose heat and increase time every time you open the door. I did full ribs last week, opened the door at 4 1/2 hours to sauce and cooked an additional 1/2 hour to set the sauce. The ribs were done to competition specs, i.e. the meat comes off the bone when you pull it or chew it off and is tender but is not "falling off the bone." IMO, there are so many variables like trimming, fat marbling, "enhanced", etc. there is no absolute for certain time. Sounds like for the ribs you had, you might have needed 6 hours and fewer door openings.

I usually have to cook my spares about 6 hours to get them where I want them.

The first 5 or 6 times I did ribs I could not get them to where I wanted them. So one day I stuck a thermometer in them and let them go to the temp I thought they should be. I figured since I let my butts go to about 195 to get nice and tender, I would try the same temp with my ribs. It took me about 6 hours to get to 195 and they turned out very tender, just the way I wanted them. So now, I let them go about 5 hours, then I put a light coat of sauce on them and let them go for another hour.

Mike

Thanks to all for the feedback. From the chump change I get for selling my Brinkman I will purchase a couple more racks to try again and some J.D. to sip while I wait for them to smoke.