YO PORK SPARE RIB EXPERTS........

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captok

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 6, 2010
17
11
I'm a rookie at this so sorry if this is a basic question.

I did some Pork spare ribs yesterday in my smoker using hickory wood.  I was able to keep the temp at 225*.

I used a modified 3.2.1 method of 2.5 - 2 - 30min.

I kept one rack country style and one rack I cut St. Louis style.

I used 2 different types of rub.  One sweet and one not so much.

The 1st 2.5 hours I was direct on the rack.  spraying with apple juice every 30 minutes.

Next 2 hours....rapped in foil with a little butter and apple juice.

last 30 minutes back on the rack and put very little BBQ sauce on the last 15 minutes.

I had good pull back and the tenderness was good.  I could grab the bone twist them out with ease. (some I hear call this overdone..I dont know)

The problem is I couldn't tell the difference in the taste between the 2 racks of ribs.  I used the 2 different types of rubs I mentioned above.  The outside of the ribs were kinda charred a little and took the taste away from the rubs I used.

Any ideas on this??????????

Thanks for any info.
 
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First off welcome to SMF there Capt. Now what kind of smoker do you have?? Then is that your smoker in the picture??? It sounds to me that you might have the ribs alittle too close to the fire end of your smoker (thats if thats your smoker in the pic) if so then move them farther away fromthe heat. If not show us your smoker and then we will have a better way to help you. If you haven't stopped into Roll Call then please do and let us know what you are smoking on. 
 
Yes that is my smoker in the pic.  I did have the ribs on the other side of the smoker than the firebox. 

It's a homemade smoker made out of a old propane tank.  My father-n-law just showed up at the house with it one day...he made 2 of them and gave me one.
 
could be a number of things ; Is this a single rack or a double ? Stacked one will impart flavor to the outher. or if single maybe the rub wasn't heavy enough ?

As far as the burn the inlet may be to large ?

And by the way Welcome , And I'm no expert .... LOL

And has your Thermo. been calibrated ?
 
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It is a single rack.  No I have not ever calibrated the thermometer.   That was kind of my thought, maybe my temp is much hotter than I think it is.  Whats a good way to calibrate it?
 
1 . Bring a pan of water to a boil , temp should be 212.F

2 . My wife calibrates with Crushed Ice and water , should be 32. f
 
1 . Bring a pan of water to a boil , temp should be 212.F

2 . My wife calibrates with Crushed Ice and water , should be 32. f
OH THANK GOODNESS!!!! From the start of this I thougt you were advocating he boil the ribs first....
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Well my thermometer is OK....I just put the thing in the oven at 350* and it read 345*.
 
Well my thermometer is OK....I just put the thing in the oven at 350* and it read 345*.
But is your oven accurate?

The best way to check your thermometer/probe is the boiling thing, as Elly & Otter mentioned. You don't list where you are, but unless you're at some higher altitude, water will always boil at 212˚.

Bear
 
I did the water boil also...it read a little over 200.   btw...I live in Arkansas
 
I did the water boil also...it read a little over 200.   btw...I live in Arkansas
OK, that's pretty far off, but that didn't cause your problem. To me that just means you were at 235˚ when you thought you were at 225˚. Not a big deal.

I don't know much about that smoker. Could it have to do with where the meat is and where you're measuring the temp?
 
Well I put a thermometer inside my smoker and it read 30* higher than my temp gauge screwed into the top of my smoker.  So instead of cooking at 225 I was cooking at 255.  This may explain my problem.  I'll try some more ribs this weekend and see.
 
also spritzing w apple juice every 30 min could be washing away some of your rub.depending on how much you are spraying.
 
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