Spareribs Step-By-Step (Including my foiled vs. no-peek comparison)

nwa-smoker

New member
I smoked my first rack of ribs in my #2 Smokin-it over the weekend.  They were FANTASTIC and I wanted to give you the play-by-play so you could see what I did and offer any of your favorite tips:

1) I bought 2 really high quality racks of Spareribs at Sam's Club. I could tell that the meat was really well marbled and super high quality
2) The night before I cut the racks in half (so they would fit in my #2), trimmed the excess fat, applied mustard as a binder and coated them with the following rub recipe

1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons Spanish paprika
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon celery salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme

3) I wrapped the ribs and let them sit in the fridge overnight
4) The next morning I loaded the smoker with a chunk of cherry wood that weighed exactly 2.5 ounces. I bought the wood from smokinlicous.com
5) I filled a disposable aluminum mini loaf pan with apple juice and put it right up against the smoke box on the bottom of the smoker
5) I put the ribs in at 225 degrees.
6) One rack I did the 3-2-1 method
7) The other rack I did the no-peek method (though technically I did peek to wrap the other rack in foil)

At 6 hours I checked the temp and the meat was only in the 170s.  We had company over that I coundn't keep waiting so I took out the 2 smallest halves and left the other 2 halves to get in the 190s. In the end the ribs were really, really great even if I wish I had another hour to smoke the first halves. They were still amazing.  I also didn't taste a real difference between the ribs that were wrapped in foil for 2 of the hours and the ones that just sat there.  I felt the amount of smoke was just about perfect the day of though I wish it had a bit more smoke the next day when I had leftovers. What would I do differently next time?

- Next time I will bump up the amount of wood to 3 ounces for a slightly stronger flavor. I also want to try hickory just to compare flavors
- I will plan an extra hour of cooking time for the 2 racks of ribs to make sure the temp is in the 190s
- I will probably do the no-peek method again since the racks really turned out the same and the no-peek method is easier


I really think a lot of the quality had to do with the high quality ribs from Sam's as well as the high quality wood form Smokinlicous.  Any recommendations for my next try?
 
First, Welcome to the forum.  When you get time, visit the Introductions section and tell us a little bout yourself, what led you to Smokin-it and the like.
Congrats on the ribs. Rather than check temperature, I look for pull back (shrinkage) on the bone, 1/2 inch or more.  Also, if you can slide a toothpick along the bone between bone and meat with little to no effort, they should be done. I don't wrap ribs because I don't peek and really don't like the heat dump. And I do use a tad more wood, always hickory. Otherwise, I think you are doing fine. Keep tweaking till you and your family are happy with the results. Then repeat! Enjoy.
 
I smoked some back ribs to take to the lake for the Memorial Day weekend. I always smoke them pretty much the same as Old Sarge, I use a mustard binder and rub just before putting them in the smoker and smoke with about 4oz hickory ( sometimes a little cherry ) for about 5 hours No Peek. They always come out amazing. This time I pulled them at 4 1/2 hours, cut  them into single ribs and sealed them in a foil steamer pan to take and reheat the next day. While I prefer to just rest them in a cooler until time to serve, this work well. I did reheat them at 225 in an oven.
 
Howdy from Texas nwa-smoker and welcome to the forum. Congrats on your rib smoke.

Last weekend I also did three racks of babybacks in my #2 using Salt Licks' Garlic dry rub and no brine and 6oz Hickory. 225 @ 6 hours (2 peeks/done tests) and we were good to go.

Everyone's millage does vary but the above gets me in the ballpark with happy campers ...Keep On Smokin
 
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