How can I tell if my ribs are done?

[redgriller]

Baby Backs don’t need to cook very long at all. Around 2 hours in the smoke at around 235 is all it takes. You can also grill them over low coals for about 45 minutes and get pretty good ribs. Baby Backs are naturally tender, so you don’t need a long cook time to break the collagen and connective tissue down to make the meat fall off the bone tender.

The cheaper Spare Ribs (Pork or Beef) on the other hand require about 3.5 to 4 hours at 225 to be done.

Just remember that Baby Backs are more expensive and more tender. They only need about 2 hours cook time at 235.

Spare Ribs are cheaper but much tougher and require around 4 hours cook time in order to break down the meat and make it tender.

 

[pacanis]

You make a good point between a true baby back rib and a Louisiana cut rib.

 

[JohnL]

You make a good point between a true baby back rib and a Louisiana cut rib.

I've never heard of the Louisiana cut pacanis, around here in Balto. I only see full size spare ribs or baby backs. Are the Louisiana cut ribs somewhere in between these two?

 

[redgriller]

I haven’t heard of the Louisiana cut before either, but with spare ribs, you have a few options.

First, you have the whole slab which includes the sternum bone, flap, and tips.

If you trim off the sternum, flap, and tips so that you have a long rectangular slab of ribs, then it is St. Louis style.

If you trim even more of the St. Louis style away so that it is a small almost square hunk of ribs, then you have Kentucky style.

Both styles just refer to how you trim your spare ribs.

 

[JohnL]

Thanks for the reply Red,
I usually get the whole rib, (2 in a vacume pack) and just remove any excess fat and the membrane from the back of the ribs. Now you say that, I have seen ribs in the plastic trays at the grocery stores with the sternum and tips trimed off.

 

[redgriller]

Some times I’ll smoke the whole rib too. It’s all good meat. The only catch being that some of the outer edges can dry up before the inner meat on the ribs is ready. Still, it makes for great baked beans and such.

I’ve seen the St. Louis style wrapped and ready for sell as well. Sometimes they even call them “Back” ribs (not baby back....just Back). I think they do this in order to fool people into thinking they’re getting the more expensive Loin Ribs or true Baby Backs. When you see those kinds of ribs again, notice what they are calling them and also look at the price per pound and compare that per pound price with a whole slab of untrimmed ribs. They often mark it up by a dollar or so per pound since they trimmed them for you.

Same thing with whole chickens, so I always trim my own ribs and cut up my whole chickens. If anyone is getting paid to do that, it think it should be me.

 

[pacanis]

Yeah, that's probably what I meant... St Louis style ribs. oops.

 

[cg1200]

Baby Backs don’t need to cook very long at all. Around 2 hours in the smoke at around 235 is all it takes. You can also grill them over low coals for about 45 minutes and get pretty good ribs. Baby Backs are naturally tender, so you don’t need a long cook time to break the collagen and connective tissue down to make the meat fall off the bone tender.

The cheaper Spare Ribs (Pork or Beef) on the other hand require about 3.5 to 4 hours at 225 to be done.

Just remember that Baby Backs are more expensive and more tender. They only need about 2 hours cook time at 235.

Spare Ribs are cheaper but much tougher and require around 4 hours cook time in order to break down the meat and make it tender.

Well I was at it today trying out some of the suggestions from this thread. I set the temp at about 250 and got the smoke going. Put a tin foil pan with water over the lit burner and let ribs cook for an hour. Checked them after the first hour and they looked very good already. Basted with Worcestershire and olive oil and put back on for 30 min. Flipped and basted again for another 30. Put BBQ sauce on for final 20 min. Total time about 2.5 hours. They came out very good. Extremely moist and tender. Not fall off the bone tender but very, very good. I think they could have stood to be cooked a little longer. Maybe a full 3 hours.

I was definitely cooking them for way too long initially. That much seems obvious now. Still I think they could be even more tender. Perhaps next time I'll try wrapping them in foil for a portion of time so I can cook them a little longer without drying them out.

Making definite progress. Very excited. Thansk to everyone for offering their tips.

 

[kitchenelf]

Good news!!!! Keep them unwrapped initially so they'll get the smoke flavor. Wrap in foil for the final hour or so. You can finish them on the grill to caramelize the bbq sauce.

 

[redgriller]

Be careful how long you cook a rib though. You can cook them so long that the meat literally falls off the bone with a shake of your wrist. That makes it pulled pork with bones and not ribs!

Sounds like you're getting along though. Great job.

 

[cg1200]

Be careful how long you cook a rib though. You can cook them so long that the meat literally falls off the bone with a shake of your wrist. That makes it pulled pork with bones and not ribs!

Sounds like you're getting along though. Great job.

I think the length of time was my problem all along. I was cooking them for 4 hours and they were coming out very dry and tough. On this attempt i think I took them off a tad too soon or didn't have the temp quite high enough. In my case the longer I left them on the more dried out they became.

Next time I may bump temp up to 265 or so and wrap for the middle hour in foil. Sauce them and finish off for 30 min unwrapped.

 

[BBQBob]

Do you remove the membrane before cooking the baby backs? Failing to do this can cause them to be tough.
I don't use my gas grill for smoking, I'll use my bullet smoker or offset smoker for this purpose. I cook my baby backs in the bullet smoker for 5 to 5.5 hours. I try to keep the temp in the 200 to 225 range. I will use apple or pecan wood for baby backs.
I prep them with my own rub and will place strips of maple bacon on the slabs. I don't wrap them in foil or plastic during the cooking process. The bullet smoker has a water pan to distribute the heat and add moisture to the meat. I do spray them with apple juice as they are cooking, after 2 hours then every hour. I let the ribs rest about 15 minutes before cutting them apart.
Always keep practicing your technique, because the results are very tasty.

 

[Jeekinz]

Just found this forum and am looking for some help. I've been cooking baby back ribs on a weber gas grill for the last few months. I get the temp up to about 200 degrees. I light the left most burner only and cook ribs on right side of grill away from heat (indirect). I use hickory wood chips in the smoker box and let cook for about 4 hours. The meat seems to shrink back from the bone but I've been finding the meat kinda tough. Are they over cooked or undercooked? I thought over-cooked ribs yielded meat that literally fell off the bone. I seem to have the opposite problem. Could they possibly need to cook longer? these are not huge baby back ribs. They don't taste bad it's just after 4 hours I would expect the meat to be very tender. What do you thinK? should i go longer or shorter?

Cook at 225-250. Pick the rack up with the tongs like in the pic. When the rack starts to seperate, they're done. Some chew to the meat with a clean bone. My baste is equal parts apple juice and apple cider vinegar with 1/4 part dark brown sugar. I just mix it up in a 2 cup measuring cup and pour some on every 30 minutes. Mops and brushes tend to remove rubs and spices. Spray bottles work great if you have multiple cuts going at once.

I add my sauce once I see them seperate the slightest bit. It seems the time it takes to finish from that point on is good time for the sauce to cook.

 

[kitchenelf]

My baste is equal parts apple juice and apple cider with 1/4 part dark brown sugar. I just mix it up in a 2 cup measuring cup and pour some on every 30 minutes.

Jeekinz - did you mean equal parts of apple juice and apple cider vinegar?

 

[Jeekinz]

Jeekinz - did you mean equal parts of apple juice and apple cider vinegar?

oops....brb.

 

[skyy38]

Want to know my Hot wing tips.....

Sure,give us your hot wing tips-knowledge IS power after all....

I've been doing some thinking about hot wings lately and come to a couple of conclusions.

1. The cooking method is wrong. Or at the very least, too separated.

2. Hot Wing sauce should be more than just hot sauce and butter.

3. There is one element that is missing in current Hot Wings that will push the next generation of Hot Wings into the future. I absolutely believe that this one element is not in play anywhere in these United States.

 

[cgaengineer]

Just found this forum and am looking for some help. I've been cooking baby back ribs on a weber gas grill for the last few months. I get the temp up to about 200 degrees. I light the left most burner only and cook ribs on right side of grill away from heat (indirect). I use hickory wood chips in the smoker box and let cook for about 4 hours. The meat seems to shrink back from the bone but I've been finding the meat kinda tough. Are they over cooked or undercooked? I thought over-cooked ribs yielded meat that literally fell off the bone. I seem to have the opposite problem. Could they possibly need to cook longer? these are not huge baby back ribs. They don't taste bad it's just after 4 hours I would expect the meat to be very tender. What do you thinK? should i go longer or shorter?

I know this is an older thread and I am also new here. I myself use my Weber Genesis to cook ribs using indirect medium. The ribs are done when the meat starts to seperate from the bone...you will see the tips of the bones exposed 1/2" or so. Pick up the Weber Cookbook for Grilling and it will give you alot of hints and also great recipes.

As another posted said DO remove the membrane from the back of the ribs...nobody like to eat that once cooked.

 

[cg1200]

I know this is an older thread and I am also new here. I myself use my Weber Genesis to cook ribs using indirect medium. The ribs are done when the meat starts to seperate from the bone...you will see the tips of the bones exposed 1/2" or so. Pick up the Weber Cookbook for Grilling and it will give you alot of hints and also great recipes.

As another posted said DO remove the membrane from the back of the ribs...nobody like to eat that once cooked.

Been a while since I started this thread. Can't believe people are still posting to it! Anyway - I always remove membrane. Sometimes it's a pain in the @ss but I usually get it off completely.

Check this out. I was preparing to grill some ribs a few weeks ago but the weather turned awful before I started so I decided to try and cook them in my kitchen oven. I know, it's heresy but I've seen Bobby Flay do it and others as well so I figured what the hell? Better than getting soaked all afternoon.

I set the temp to 260 put the ribs on a broiler pan and filled the bottom part with water figuring it would create steam and keep the ribs moist. I let them cook for about an hour and basted with Worcestershire and olive oil. Let them cook another hour and re-basted. At this point they looked great. I was optimistic they might be ok. I flipped them for 20 min and then flipped back and put on BBQ sauce for another 20 min.

They were the best ribs I've ever made. The meat was so tender and moist it practically fell off the bone. The texture was perfect and it even looked like BBQ ribs. I was so stunned. I didn't think it was possible to do this in a regular oven. Total cooking time was about 2 hours and 40 minutes. At the same time I was now puzzled as to why my grill attempts have never even come close to achieving this level of tenderness.

So what I've learned from this is my Weber (Summit 450) thermometer may be off. I cook at the same temp on the grill but they have never been this moist and tender. I'm wondering if its hotter in there than its showing on the gauge. I also think the water pan beneath the ribs helped a lot in keeping the ribs moist. I could tell when I went to baste that the ribs just looked moist and I could see the bones becoming more exposed on the end. I also might be adding too much smoke which might be drying them out too.

Pretty interesting. I'm tempted to just keep cooking them in the oven and then finishing on the grill but that seems like cheating.

 

[cgaengineer]

Been a while since I started this thread. Can't believe people are still posting to it! Anyway - I always remove membrane. Sometimes it's a pain in the @ss but I usually get it off completely.

Check this out. I was preparing to grill some ribs a few weeks ago but the weather turned awful before I started so I decided to try and cook them in my kitchen oven. I know, it's heresy but I've seen Bobby Flay do it and others as well so I figured what the hell? Better than getting soaked all afternoon.

I set the temp to 260 put the ribs on a broiler pan and filled the bottom part with water figuring it would create steam and keep the ribs moist. I let them cook for about an hour and basted with Worcestershire and olive oil. Let them cook another hour and re-basted. At this point they looked great. I was optimistic they might be ok. I flipped them for 20 min and then flipped back and put on BBQ sauce for another 20 min.

They were the best ribs I've ever made. The meat was so tender and moist it practically fell off the bone. The texture was perfect and it even looked like BBQ ribs. I was so stunned. I didn't think it was possible to do this in a regular oven. Total cooking time was about 2 hours and 40 minutes. At the same time I was now puzzled as to why my grill attempts have never even come close to achieving this level of tenderness.

So what I've learned from this is my Weber (Summit 450) thermometer may be off. I cook at the same temp on the grill but they have never been this moist and tender. I'm wondering if its hotter in there than its showing on the gauge. I also think the water pan beneath the ribs helped a lot in keeping the ribs moist. I could tell when I went to baste that the ribs just looked moist and I could see the bones becoming more exposed on the end. I also might be adding too much smoke which might be drying them out too.

Pretty interesting. I'm tempted to just keep cooking them in the oven and then finishing on the grill but that seems like cheating.

Try one more time on your Weber, if 3 burner you might try turning off the center burner and just using the 2 outers. I have done several racks of baby backs and they all came out great, if fact my parents said they were the best ribs they have ever tasted.

Your oven idea is exactly how a smoker works (water pan). You may try that with your Weber...you can also parboil the ribs prior to finishing them on the grill. You might also get another thermometer and check your Weber temp.

See Stevens site for an awesome book and several ideas on how to grill.

barbecuebible(dot)com

 

[cg1200]

Try one more time on your Weber, if 3 burner you might try turning off the center burner and just using the 2 outers. I have done several racks of baby backs and they all came out great, if fact my parents said they were the best ribs they have ever tasted.

Your oven idea is exactly how a smoker works (water pan). You may try that with your Weber...you can also parboil the ribs prior to finishing them on the grill. You might also get another thermometer and check your Weber temp.

See Stevens site for an awesome book and several ideas on how to grill.

barbecuebible(dot)com

I will definitely give the grill another shot. I feel good about what I've learned and look forward to my next attempt. I will definitely figure out some way to get a water pan beneath the ribs. This seems vital. I'll also try lowering the temp to maybe 225. I may have to prop the lid open to achieve that temp. The weber tends to run pretty hot.

I have a 4 burner grill and usually only use the far left burner and place the ribs on the far right. I sometimes have to light the smoker burner to get the wood chips to burn but turn it off as soon as it starts to smoke.