Weekend #2 with MES

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kcsandip

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 3, 2016
13
10
So after my brisket attempt, I'm gonna be brave and try St Louis style ribs tomorrow. Rub is on, ribs in the fridge now. My dilemma. ..to foil. .or not to foil. I don't like fall off the bone ribs, but I don't want to pull so hard it takes a lot of effort. I want something in the middle :-) advice welcome!
 
Modified 3-2-1 would work.

3 hours in the smoke
Wrap in foil with a little juice and into the smoker for about 1-1.5 hours. Then check and see what the tenderness is like.
Then, one more hour in the smoke.

Last weekend, I did some ribs that had a nice tug but came off the bone well.
 
I'm a non-foil guy. I'd run your pit around 250 and let em ride. If you want to sauce do so the last 45 minutes or so. Start testing Defoe doneness around hour 4. Pick the rack up with tongs about a third of the way. If the rack bends almost 90 degrees you are done. Check every 30 minutes after hour 4. Every 15 after hour 5.
 
If you have a good instant read therm like a thermapen, check between the bones starting at the 5 hour mark. IMHO 195 IT is just perfect for ribs.
 
I got sick of guesswork with ribs. The common misconception is that you can't temp ribs because they're too thin. You can. Temp in the middle of the rack between the bones. Use a good thin probe thermometer. I use the Thermapen.
180°-185° gives the perfect consistency for me. 190°-200° will get you into falling off the bone territory.
In my smoker at 300° I usually start temping at two and a half hours. Usually hits temp right around 3 hours. Then I wrap them and let them rest for 30-45 minutes.
Baby backs and spares are equally easy using this method. Any pit temp is fine too, though obviously the timing will change.
I struggled with ribs for years, never getting consistent results. Then I saw a post on here by Disco called "Ribs the way I like them", tried his method and boom. Consistent results time after time after time. No guessing, no voodoo, no BS. Just repeatable ribs done right every time.

Edit: didn't mean to Parrot SmokinAl, took me a while to type out my reply.
 
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Hubby wanted fall off the bone ribs, and that's what he got! I did 3-1-0.5. (Small slab..the pic is half the slab) got good flavor, very tender :) not bad..will try no foil next time. Thanks all
 
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