spare ribs

Rub the night before or just before, use foil or not, sauce em or not - on and on! My advice would be to keep it simple the first time, then build from there. Mix up some spice rub, make it as sweet or not as you like. Rub them puppies down and throw em in. Check em after a few hours, take them out when they have a good wiggle and enjoy! If they aren't done yet you can sauce and foil if you want for a while longer. Or just keep going with them. I guess what I'm trying to say is keep it simple and enjoy.

Go read Ribs 101.

Don't over think them, keep to the basics. And start them earlier, are they really 5 and 6 lbs each? Those are huge, I'd trim them down to St. Louis.

I'll be around the forum this morning if you have more questions.

Thanks for the replies. There are really 5 and 6 lbs. They were on special at HEB for $0.97/lb. I dont have high expectations after reading all the posts on spares last night. It sounds like it may be a big old oinker that produced these "special" ribs. I guess I better put them on now if I plan to eat them tonight for the game. If they dont turn out good, at least I am adding some new seasoning to my new smoker.

Go ahead and turn your smoke up to 250.

At about the 4 hour point, you might wrap them with foil. Apply a little more smoke and maybe 2 TB of apple juice and then put them back in. The idea is that wrapping them will braise them and help them cook faster.

Bad thing about putting in foil is know when to pull them out. Check at 6 hours by pulling the foil out, opening and checking the ribs

OR

Just let them go, don't foil and start checking at 6 hours.

Turned out great. Thanks Okie. I wrapped in foil w/ apple juice as Okie suggested after 4 hrs. Cooked for another 2 hrs at 250*. Thanks for all the input. I think my next smoke will be a turkey. I am going to start doing my homework now.

For turkey, check out the Turkey Forum and Turkey 101.

Glad it work on the ribs!

Well, I tried spare ribs this past weekend, but not nearly with the same success I've had with baby backs. (they were a lot less money than the baby backs however!) I used vertical racks and cut the ribs into 4 ea "1/2 rack" sizes. 4.5 hours in the smoker, couple chunks each of apple and hickory. After that, I was able to twist the rib bones on the end, but not the larger ones in the middle. Checked the internal temp on one of the meaty ends with my probe and it was 165. Sauced them and put them on the grill for 15 minutes to glaze. I guess to me, they just seem to be a tougher cut of meat. They tasted good, but were much tougher and did not come off the bone easily. When I did the same process with the baby backs, (they only took about 3 hours) I couldn't even take them off the grill without them falling apart. Any suggestions on anything I screwed up? Thanks!

Let them cook a little longer... If the temp was 165, then they weren't done in my opinion. I recently did 3 slabs of ribs, and checked the temp after about 5 hrs with a Thermapen. The bottom rack was 185 so I took it out for dinner. The other racks were only in the 160's or 170's (forget which) so I left them in for another hour or more. And all 3 racks turned out very good.

I also think putting them on the grill might have toughened them a bit.

I think you need to let them get into the 180 range before removing. My $.02