Well, ......ribs are finished.
Ed those ribs are packaged in a solution. Did your rub contain a large amount of salt? I find those ribs don't need a salty rub due to being in a brine. And they end up having a hammy taste.
Good luck and look forward to the finish pics.
If these beef ribs are packaged in a solution, I didn't notice. You must be reading the label of the pork ribs. However, my very own rub, Texas Kick Ass Rub #1 does not have any salt or sugar added at all. I do that intentionally as some times I use other methods of spicing up the product and that way there becomes too much salt. My rub consists of southwestern, Italian and heat spices.
In any event, I began cooking with the 3-2-1 method. At the conclusion of the 3 rd hour, I foiled the ribs. I thought that I could do this neatly but that did not happen. I am lucky that one of the slabs did not end up on the floor. More practice. After I foiled the ribs in which I put some beef broth, I let the temperature drop to 225 degrees as I did not want to dry everything up. After 1 and 1/2 hours, I opened the foil and basted them with my hot sauce and let them sit in the pit for another 1/2 hour. By that time, the pit temperature had fallen to 200 degrees as I did not put any more fuel into the firebox for over 2 hours.
The ribs were dark so I gave them another coat of hot sauce because Pappy likes his ribs with a shine. I figured they must be dried out and not chewable. So I slice some up and put them on my plate.
Boy, was I wrong. These beef ribs were nice and moist inside. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the worst and this was 180 degrees opposite. Don't get fooled by the dark color of the outside of the food you are cooking. It is the inside that counts. I even got a nice little smoke ring. Here's a thought, smoke the ribs for 3 hours and then toss them in a big pot with about a thousand onions and you could get a nice onion soup out of this served with some Italian bread with melted mozzarella cheese all over it. Just a thought.
Here's Dixie out in the backyard enjoying a very meaty and juicy rib for herself, because she's a good girl. She gave me two paws up for quality. She doesn't even mind the hot sauce.
Well, that's the end of my cook for today. It's fun to cook on the stick burner. Every time that I do this whether it is the Pellet Smoker or the Wood Smoker, I learn something new. This time I added a steel pan to the smoker grill filled with water. I really believe that helped to keep things moist. That allowed me to keep the lid closed instead of opening the lid every 1/2 hour or 1 hour to spritz the ribs with apple juice. Aaron Franklin uses the water and says to keep the lid closed to keep the heat in and steady. I did not even use that much wood. Maybe 3 to 4 chunk pieces. I added some lump every time that I added the wood. This seemed to keep heat fairly steady at 250 degrees. It's this challenge of tuning which keeps my interest. And, the results are not that bad either.
Happy trails.
Ed
