Better luck next time I hope

[heatman]

Well I  smoked my 1st rack of spare ribs yesterday and it was quite a disappointment. I'm sure it was the ribs I used. The were Kroger brand  "moist and tender" and I already found a post on here were someone had similar results. They were tough and as my wife said they tasted more like ham than ribs. I guess they add a salt based solution to they.

I have seen a few guys post good results from meat purchased at Sam's club. Any other suggestions on were to buy decent meat??

 

[JckDanls 07]

If you have a local Butcher shop... that would be the place.. why don't you tell us some particulars on your smoke.. waybe we can find out what went wrong.. did you take any pics ?... Temps ? Wood ? Peel the silverskin off the back ? any Info you can give us

 

[raptor700]

I like the Sam's meat, especially the Smithfield bran. 

They have good products

 

[heatman]

If you have a local Butcher shop... that would be the place.. why don't you tell us some particulars on your smoke.. waybe we can find out what went wrong.. did you take any pics ?... Temps ? Wood ? Peel the silverskin off the back ? any Info you can give us

I used charcoal  and added some Hickory chunks for the 1st 2 hrs. I think I started with too many hot coals as the temp went up to 280 pretty quickly. I took the top off to cool a bit and then it settled down and stayed at 225- 250 the rest of the time.

They seemed to be cooking quickly so I did the 2-2-1 method. This all was done on a Brickman vertical charcoal smoke with the water pan.

Almost forgot, yes I did remove the membrane before cooking.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Yes.. i agree.. the quality of the meat could have a lot to do with it...but also your temps were fine at 225-250.. you should have let them go for the full 3-2-1..(sounds like undercooked to me)... The problem most people have is that they keep opening the smoker... so then they don't actually get the full 3 hours of cooking time as you lose 10-20 minutes cooking time EVERY TIME the smoker is opened...

What about a butcher shop.. have any in the area ?

 

[michael ark]

Don't get better than farm fresh.Here your state .http://www.eatwild.com/products/indiana.html

 

[owlcreeksmoker4]

I agree does kinda sound like what JD07 was saying. I get a lil hatch happy sometimes and It can make the performance on your smoker falter dramatically

 

[heatman]

Thanks for the replies guys. I little more info. This was only my 3rd smoke, the 1st two being chicken and they turned out pretty good. 

After 2 hrs I was using my new ET-732 and it was reading 140 degrees so I got a bit nervous about over cooking. Maybe I got a bad reading due to too thin of a cut of meat? Below is a picture at 2 hrs. just before foiling them. To me they looked to be drying out. I was pretty good about not peeking due to the new thermometer and being able to observe that way.

They look overlapped in the picture but I just moved them, they were separated when cooking.

 

[JckDanls 07]

AHHHHHHHH.. there lies the problem... Ribs are the ONLY thing we don't cook by temp... they definatly go by time...

 

[owlcreeksmoker4]

agreed its so hard to judge temp on ribs, even if you hit the middle inbetween the ribs. ive gotten so used to them i can just tell so its hard for me to impart that in a message

 

[SmokinAl]

We get all our meat at Sam's and with the 3-2-1 method for spares, it's hard to get chewy ribs.

 

[pops6927]

Sounds like the solution to the problem!  The best part is, you have to practice practice practice and eat your mistakes, every last delicious morsel!  You personally get to be your own judge and improve your craft on every smoke!  Thank you for sharing and allowing us to help!

 

[tjohnson]

Practice Makes Perfect!

Todd

 

[frosty]

Go get 'em Heat man! 

 What Pops and JD07 said!  But hey, it was a Good try, and eat the evidence.  I agree they might have been better, but they still looked great.  Keep working on the 3-2-1 method, and you should be fine.  I like them that way, but the home boss prefers her's a little more soft, so we leave off the last hour sometimes. 

Keep up the good work, the next batch will be better.