Newbie: Thermometer on Ribs ?

Here is a common sense approach to why few folks use a therm on ribs.

I understand a couple folks on here make it work for them.

What temp are you shooting for?
I've seen 175º-225º.

What weight ribs?
One lb to 7 lbs.

Where would you put a probe?

Fall off bone,or chew off bone?

You are running 2 cases in the cooker today,so about 36 slabs.

How many probes do you need?

Previous frozen,or fresh?

Thick end,middle,or thin end?

Loinbacks,Danish Babys,untrimmed spares,St. Louis trimmed,or Kansas City?

How old hog?
Nine months to nine years.

What type hog?

Lean,or fat bred?

Sounds simple to me .

With ribs, it doesn't make alot of sense to use one for reasons mentioned above. It is one of those things----kinda like using a thermometer on bacon. You'll know when they are done by simply pulling on the ribs to try to seperate them or folding the rack in half to see if it breaks. When you get your CS--BTW, you'll love it--and you start cooking ribs regularly, you'll see why no one uses a therm.

Hope this helps!
Zeb

I use a thermometer on almost everything I smoke, except ribs. Its not easy to get a good reading, mainly because of all the bone and how thin a slab is, assuming your talking about common pork spare ribs.

After you use the cookshack a few times, you will start to get a good idea of how stuff cooks, time wise. One piece of advice is to write everything down and save it. You think you will remember everything but its the little stuff thats easy to forget that can make a difference. I have found that for standard racks of spares it takes about 6 hours at 225 to get fall off the bone results. Some prefer to have a little tug left in the meat, its all personal preference.

There are a few ways to check for done-ness. I look for pullback. When the meat has pulled back exposing about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of bone on the ends, they are done to my liking. There is also a toothpick test, bend test and probably some others Im forgetting.

Regardless, keep good notes and dont open the smoker any more than needed. Every time you do you release lots of moisture and extend the smoke time. The only other thing I will mention is dont expect to have your recipes done in the time shown in the cookbook that comes with the smoker. Apparently they are not correct.

Have fun!