baby back ribs not tender

[tyrntlzrdking]

Hello,
Ive had my Smokenator for about a month now and have cooked baby back ribs about six times.
I have no problem bringing it up to temperature and maintaining it. I am using a rib rack which holds the ribs up on their side.
Problem is that after six hours the ribs are not tender.
If I then rap them in foil and put in oven for an hour or so they are great.
Is this normal for smoking ribs?
Ive kicked up the temp to about 275 at top of grill, but the thermometer at grate level well read about 200.
Should I go up to 300 at top of grill dome?
Not complaining, just learning.

[bigsteve]

Jul 26, 2009 18:48:42 GMT -5 tyrntlzrdking said:

Hello,
Ive had my Smokenator for about a month now and have cooked baby back ribs about six times.
I have no problem bringing it up to temperature and maintaining it. I am using a rib rack which holds the ribs up on their side.
Problem is that after six hours the ribs are not tender.
If I then rap them in foil and put in oven for an hour or so they are great.
Is this normal for smoking ribs?
Ive kicked up the temp to about 275 at top of grill, but the thermometer at grate level well read about 200.
Should I go up to 300 at top of grill dome?
Not complaining, just learning.

IMHO, 200 at the grate is a little low for ribs. I shoot for 225-235. And I use what they call the "2-2-1 method" for baby backs. That means 2 hours smoking, 2 hours in foil on the smoker, and 1 more hour back on the smoker unfoiled. You may want to put a little liquid like Apple juice in the foil to braise the meat.

Have you checked your thermometers in either icy/slushy water, or in boiling water? I only have about a 15* difference between my dome and grate once the temperature is up and stable. If they are correct, I'm not sure why you have such a large gap. Are you measuring at the cooking grate, or on the coal grate, like you would use for a large Turkey?

[twoshots]

I have to disagree with bigsteve, there can be as much as 50 to 60 degrees difference between the dome and the main rack, get a remote temperture probe and prove it to yourself. You can get the accessory rack that sits on top of the main rack, that will get you another 15 to 25 degrees closer to the dome thermometer. It is absolutely amazing the difference of a few inches of hieght to the thermometer will make in any kind of smoker, ( I have 4 different kinds, but I like my Weber w/smokenater the best!

[bigsteve]

Jul 26, 2009 20:38:16 GMT -5 twoshots said:

I have to disagree with bigsteve, there can be as much as 50 to 60 degrees difference between the dome and the main rack, get a remote temperture probe and prove it to yourself. You can get the accessory rack that sits on top of the main rack, that will get you another 15 to 25 degrees closer to the dome thermometer. It is absolutely amazing the difference of a few inches of hieght to the thermometer will make in any kind of smoker, ( I have 4 different kinds, but I like my Weber w/smokenater the best!

I get that kind of difference as it's coming up to temperature, but after it settles in, the grate and dome never seem to be more than 15-25* apart. I'm trying to understand why they would be so far apart as the OP says?

My Brinkman Gourmet is the same. After everything is settled in, it's 15-30* difference between the dome and the top grate.

[twoshots]

trynlzardking is saying he has a 75* difference, so his dome temp should be 300* to 310* for 225*-235* at main rack on his cooker.
If he has a probe as he indicated i dont know why he is concerned about dome temp.

[bigsteve]

Jul 26, 2009 22:02:16 GMT -5 twoshots said:

trynlzardking is saying he has a 75* difference, so his dome temp should be 300* to 310* for 225*-235* at main rack on his cooker.
If he has a probe as he indicated i dont know why he is concerned about dome temp.

I understand what's going on. IMHO, somethings up, 75* seems too much to me.

[lytefly]

I see anywhere from 30 to 70 degrees difference from the Dome to the Grill. I have a Weber Premier. I have tested both the Weber Dome thermometer and the Maverick ET-73 (Cool tool! www.maverickhousewares.com/et73.htm) remote smoker thermometer that I use for grill temp. Both register fine. The gap does close between the two as things settle, but I have never seen them closer than 30 degrees.

Since this is far different from "published" reports, I was concerned at first. But I decided to trust the temp at the grill and go with that. I typically have to maintain a 260-270 dome temp to maintain a 220 or so grill temp.

[tyrntlzrdking]

Thanks for the replies. My stated temperature variation from dome to rack may not be exact, but close.
I have two quality thermometers which seem to be accurate.
I keep the dome locked down air tight with clamps.
I thought the rib rack would solve my problem by raising the ribs up (I flip them after 3 hours).
I guess I will try 300 degrees at the dome. I do know this will require adding much more charcoal during the process.

Is anyone getting tender fall off the bone ribs without wrapping in foil with fluid?
I will keep experimenting.

Jeff

[tyrntlzrdking]

[/quote]IMHO, 200 at the grate is a little low for ribs. I shoot for 225-235. And I use what they call the "2-2-1 method" for baby backs. That means 2 hours smoking, 2 hours in foil on the smoker, and 1 more hour back on the smoker unfoiled. You may want to put a little liquid like Apple juice in the foil to braise the meat.[/quote]

Well after a few more efforts at some tender ribs, I went with the
2-2-1 method.
They came out fantastic tasting and tender.
I gave up on watching the dome temperature as the directions say, and just kept the grate temp. at about 225.
Had to close the top vents way down when I used no water for the foil part of cooking.

[bigsteve]

There's nothing like success, is there?

[smokedogg]

Jul 26, 2009 18:48:42 GMT -5 tyrntlzrdking said:

Hello,
Ive had my Smokenator for about a month now and have cooked baby back ribs about six times.
I have no problem bringing it up to temperature and maintaining it. I am using a rib rack which holds the ribs up on their side.
Problem is that after six hours the ribs are not tender.
If I then rap them in foil and put in oven for an hour or so they are great.
Is this normal for smoking ribs?
Ive kicked up the temp to about 275 at top of grill, but the thermometer at grate level well read about 200.
Should I go up to 300 at top of grill dome?
Not complaining, just learning.

[smokedogg]

I too did babybacks on my weber with the smokenator. There's nothing wrong with having to wrap them in foil for the final hour to achieve the tenderness you want. Barbeque champions like Myron Nixon suggest this as an excellent technique. I smoked baby backs for four hours yesterday in cold conditions and had used up my charcoal. I wrapped the ribs in foil with bbq sauce on them and finished them in oven at 250 degrees for two hours. The best baby backs I ever did!

[kathleenp980]

Jul 28, 2009 7:53:22 GMT -5 tyrntlzrdking said:

Thanks for the replies. My stated temperature variation from dome to rack may not be exact, but close.
I have two quality thermometers which seem to be accurate.
I keep the dome locked down air tight with clamps.
I thought the rib rack would solve my problem by raising the ribs up (I flip them after 3 hours).
I guess I will try 300 degrees at the dome. I do know this will require adding much more charcoal during the process.

Is anyone getting tender fall off the bone ribs without wrapping in foil with fluid?
I will keep experimenting.

Jeff

Thanks you for the post. ;D

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[flbuckeye]

Also, if you are using racks, air flow between the ribs is limited. The cook time should be increased accordingly. I don't wrap at all. I do rotate the ribs after 2 hours so the slabs on the end get moved to the middle