Bone In Pork Country Style Ribs - stalled?

[slidedude]

I have some bone in country style pork ribs in the smoker - the temp's been fairly steady at 240 to 260...I've cooked them before and it's taken about 3 hours to reach an internal temp of 180, and I put them in foil at 240 for another hour - came out great.

But this time it seems stalled at around 167, and I'm 3.5 hours in...I even raised the temp to 250 - 255, but they are still stalled at 167. These are bone in instead of boneless...so should I expect it to take longer?

Any opinions/suggestions?

 

[foamheart]

Seriously no idea. If they were mine and I was running into a time problem (we all know what happens when ya cook on the clock), I'd go ahead and foil 'em. Course it might ruin your pork, I just can't say.

Sorry, I just try hard to never have to look at a clock when smoking and it saves me untold frustrations.

 

[mikeworthington]

It's probably too late to help you with this cook now but if it happens again, IF you have the color you want, go ahead and foil, jack the pit up to 275-300 and keep a close eye on them. Once it breaks through the stall, it won't take long to hit 195-200.

Michael

 

[slidedude]

I know...you are so right. I just didn't want to end up with them all dried out. I unplugged my clock on the back porch and pit my watch away....:-)

I foiled em and I'll deal with what happens. Thanks for the reply!

 

[slidedude]

It's probably too late to help you with this cook now but if it happens again, IF you have the color you want, go ahead and foil, jack the pit up to 275-300 and keep a close eye on them. Once it breaks through the stall, it won't take long to hit 195-200.

Michael

Thanks Michael - I did have the color I wanted, so I foiled them and put them in a 250 degree oven in the house...they came out a wee bit tough, but the meat pulled right off the bone easily and they were pretty darn tasty. I just didn't have a stall the first time I did these, so I was surprised it was happening. Thanks for your reply!

 

[mikeworthington]

According to folks who have spent a lot more time than I have studying the science of BBQ, the stall happens when your meat is losing moisture and therefore cooling at a rate equal to or faster than the pit can heat it up. That's a simplified explanation but it's essentially what's happening...just like when you boil water on the stove. The water evaporating takes the heat away from the pan and keeps it from burning up. Sooo, the options are wait it out, jack up the pit temperature, or foil. I choose to foil myself.

When I foil, I always put something in there with them to add moisture while they finish. I do this on all my pork...whether it's butts, ribs, whatever but that's just me because I cook hotter than most people do.

Now, I put down a bed of brown sugar and a generous ribbon of squeeze margarine but you can use apple juice, Coke, 7UP, Sprite, pineapple juice - or plain old water. You can use just about anything but it should be something that goes well with pork. Trapping the steam will help you get past a stall and speed up the cooking process. It'll help tenderize the meat and soften up rock hard bark that got a little too dried out.

Keep on smoking. In my opinion, there's no substitute for knowing your smoker to turn out great meat.

Michael