Foiling is one of those..."some hate it and some love it."
I say, try all methods and find what works for you. Ribs are subjective. Taste, texture, sauce, no sauce, fall off the bone, not fall off.
To achieve "fall off the bone" you are technically overcooking the meat. All judging goes for the "tug off the bone" when you bit it the meat comes cleanly off the bone. Besides, fall off the bone and HARD to slice.
If your ribs aren't falling apart, you just need to smoke them longer, foil or no foil. If you do them longer, they will dry out. HENCE, the quandry...foil or no foil???
Foiling tends to do a couple of things:
- It helps retain moisture and thus, keep things from drying out.
- It will help "steam" the meat, so the outside texture of the ribs will be different if you foil than if you don't. If you like that, and cover them with sauce, you'll never know the difference.
For a crispier bark, or for "Memphis" style ribs, ribs without sauce, the foiling isn't the best way. You need a little bit of that moisture to escape for the ribs to get a little bit of bark, so don't foil.
As for the 140 thing, it's like an urban legend of Smoking. It's not as much the point as when the Smoke Ring stops forming, since that is a chemical interaction between nitrites in the smoke. It actually continues past 140 (the smoke ring formation). What does happen is a change in the meat itself and it tends to stop absorbing the smoke "flavor" (it a smoke ring the smoke flavor, nope). SOoooooooo, basically at the point, whether it's 140 or whenever your foil, any smoke flavor will stop penetrating.
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. Sometimes I foil, sometimes I don't.
