Ribs: When the Bones Fall Right Out?

Guess that's what you call "fallin off the bone tender" I was looking at some BBQin website yesterday.. can't remember whose.. talk about tender.. their line was.. "Ya don't need teeth to eat our meat".. now that's fallin off the bone tender.

I would guess that if you were cooking these ribs over a grill or in an offset smoker.. the meat would "cinch" down on the bones to a great extent. Whereas, with the CS, there is so much moisture in the smoker that this shrinkage doesn't happen? That's my guess anyhoo...

Bill

Boy! That is just the kind of ribs I am looking for. I don't eat the bones anyway, but tender is what makes my family smile and leave grease all over their faces. We are planning on ten people eating ribs with us this weekend. the slabs will be cooked hanging in the model 55 on the first smoking after the break in. I hope the ribs fall off the hooks - a mess, but I know they will be good.

Hi TNBrian-

Sounds like you are describing slightly overdone ribs. As you can see from the posts above, many like them that way. When you slow cook the ribs, the collagen/fat in the meat itself breaks down, and the meat becomes tender. The meat will also shrink, and you probably noticed that the meat pulled back a bit from the tips (ends) of the ribs. The longer you cook the ribs, the more tender they will get. If you cooked them long enough, eventually the slab would just fall apart. Of course, much past that, they may start getting dried out, and you'd have rib jerky!

I like to cook my ribs to the point that when you take a bite, the meat comes away with little to no effort, but the rest of the rib remains intact. It's sort of a personal preference sort of thing, however, so if you like the ribs the way you cooked them, I'd stick with it!

I have been useing "rib hooks" on both baby back & St. Louis style ribs all spring & summer. I put them in my smokette @ 225 de for 4 hours. For whatever reason, we believe they are better than lying the ribs flat on the racks. Meat is close to fall off the bone, but not quite there.

Dave,
I agree with you 100% because I've been using the rib hooks in my Smokette also and I think there is a big, big difference as opposed to lying flat.

For one thing, they are all at the same level in regards to heat, and air flow, whereas when I used three racks, the bottom would smoke faster, the middle next, then the top.

Ever since using the rib hooks, they've come out perfect, and all at the same time, so I'm sticking with it.