LarryWolfe
Chef Extraordinaire
shaebert said:So it was my first time cooking a couple racks of baby back ribs on my gas grill. And they turned out very dry. I was wondering if you guys could help me out and tell me what it did wrong......
I started out putting a dry rub on the ribs. I put a metal pan underneath the grate that had the ribs on. I had that filled with water. I also i had a metal container of apple wood next to it. I cooked the ribs for 4 hours. I had to add more water once. I tried to keep the temp down but i couldnt get the apple wood to smoke unless id turn both of my 2 burners on. In the end the temp ranged from 225-300, but i kept it around 245 most of the time. I added sauce to it around the 2nd hour and continued to do so every 30 minutes or so. In the end the meat was not tender and very dry. It had a good flavor though.... So what did i do wrong? was it too hot, did i cook them too long? Did i just fail to cook them the right way?
Thanks for the Help
'Dry' meat comes from one thing..........over cooking.
I think your temps were higher than you think, especially when you were cranking up the burners to get the wood to smoke. Next time wrap wood chips in foil, poke 2-3 holes in the top of the foil and place directly on top of the lit burner. That will give you smoke without having to crank the heat up high at all.
What kind of ribs were you cooking? Generally if you're slow cooking ribs, loin back ribs take around 5 hours and spares 6 hours if you're cooking in the 245º-260º range. You can also cook them at higher temps 325º-375º and finish them in the 2.5-3 hr range depending on the type of rib you are cooking.
If you want to give it a go again using low and slow on the gas grill, try the smoke method as I described above and cook the ribs in the smoke @ 245º-260º (loin backs 3 hrs - spares 4 hrs), then wrap in foil and continue to cook ((loin backs 30-45 minutes - spares 1hr) (you can add liquid at this point to the foil if desired such as apple juice or another fruit juice)). Remove ribs from foil and place back on the grill to firm back up and sauce for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the rib.
If you prefer to grill vs. low and slow, cook indirect in the 325º-375º range (use a drip pan, especially on a gas grill) for 2.5-3 hrs or until the bones have pulled back and the ribs are almost tender. At that point move the ribs to direct heat to finish with a nice sear and char.
These are two different methods that will give you great but very different results.