Practice smoke didn't turn out too well

[delarosa74868]

I I got what was left of the ribs at the store yesterday.  They were frozen solid.  I took them out of the fridge for small increments of time  to speed the thawing before morning.  I assumed they would be full thawed by 5am, wrong.  By morning the ends were pretty thawed, but the center of the slabs were still a bit hard.  I put them on the counter while I got my smoker stoked up. An hour later they were still about the same.  Im practicing for an upcoming event that Im cooking in and my plan for today was to simulate the event & get my stuff done in a certain time frame.  I put the ribs on still a little on the cool side.  I usually put them on at room temp.  I went ahead and put them on and well, they turned out tough! Im pretty bummed now since I have been so consistent with my ribs lately.  13 days till the cook off and I feel like Im back at square one!

 

[adiochiro3]

What kind of ribs? What method did you use? Temps? Is there any chance the fire/heat got away from you for a short time? If you have had success before, don't let one setback ruin your confidence.

Fully defrosting and starting meat in the smoker once it reaches room temp is best ( sounds like you already know this), so make sure that is the case with the next attempt. You could have pulled the ribs from the freezer and just let them defrost. To speed things up, place them in a pan of water and run a thin stream of water over them from the faucet (while sealed in plastic, of course).

Shake this one off and try to learn from it. More info for us will help diagnose the situation.

 

[SmokinAl]

I have pulled ribs out of the freezer, thawed them in a pan of water, rubbed them & into the smoker in less than 1 hour. I couldn't tell the difference.

 

[delarosa74868]

Spares, 2-2-1 @ 225'.  The temp never got over 235.  Everything was exactly the same as before besides the ribs not being completely thawed. 

 

[SmokinAl]

Maybe you just got some bad ribs. It happens.