rib racks

kentucky smoke

New member
It’s been a great weekend! My wife is out of town, and I’m smoking all weekend. Friday night ribs, jerky yesterday, and a brisket on as I spell check.

A few observations and questions about the ribs. This was my first effort at making baby backs. I used the instructions from Big Poppa and Bear. Followed them exactly. I smoked 7 slabs on the MAK at 225

First observation, The RIB RACK is awesome. If you don’t have one, get one. Next, I don’t think there’s anything better than smoking on a brisk mid-west fall afternoon / evening, and drinkin beer with your buddies, (a little horse racing betting on line helps too).

Question: out of the 7 slabs, 4 could have competed in a competition, they were awesome! Two were so so and one was just lousy. You can tell when you cut it. Is it the slab you buy? Any chance it’s the position on the rib rack?

Any ways, love this site and all of your comments and suggestions. Gotta go, need to get the brisket off in time for football.

NOTE TO SELF: with a belly full of beer and a few gin chasers, DON'T decide to trim the fat off your brisket with a brand new Cutco knife …… OUCH !!!! Still have all ten, but a few aren’t very pretty.
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
Gary... The problem can be heat related...Rib Racks are great...THey only way you can get a quantity cooked...but cooking fewer racks usually is better. Maybe next time rotate the rack once during your cook...did you do the foiled one or the let it rip one?

Did you buy them in the crooovaced three packs? I buy them and there is always a heavy one and a light one. We actually weigh our racks in competition....
 

Bear

Moderator
I'm with BP, I think sometimes it has to do with weight vs. cooking time. A heavy slab needs a little more time. Most of the places that I like to by ribs are in single slab packages. Sometimes I find them so cheap in the 3 packs that I can't resist.

All that being said, sometimes I think you just get a bad piece of meat. All hogs are not created equally........
 

kentucky smoke

New member
You know, I don't remember the placement on the racks.. Next time I will take note of that. I bought these in two different locations. Bought three at a local butcher shop and 4 at the grocery section of a super market. Not sure which ones were which. I understand NEXT TIME, I will be more careful to pay attention to size. I actually think the bad one was under-cooked. Thanks for all your help
 

scooter

Moderator
What specific thing about the lousy rib made you think it was undercooked? If cooking multiple racks (or just one) I always rotate them around in the cooker and if I use the rib rack, I'll rotate them around in the rack, inside racks to outside and 180 degree rotations. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes in getting uniformity of doneness through all your racks.
 
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