Question on cooking ribs?

[curtis rosche]

I was gonna grill up some ribs tonight for valentines day,,,,, but the grill is under too much snow and I decided to use the oven. 225, about an hour per pound is what I have read?
My question is this: can the racks of rid be stacked on too of eachother or do they need to be side by side. I've got 6.8 pounds of pork ribs lol. Don't wanna turn it into inedible garbage

[Bill Bukovec]

I usually cook mine side by side. Since most ovens have two racks, they should fit. Unless you only have one pan.

Good luck.

[curtis rosche]

I thought about that but wasn't sure if it would cook different like pies and cakes do.

[Mike Henderson]

I double wrap mine in aluminum foil, then put them in the oven at 400 degrees for a bit over an hour. Then take the ribs out and open the aluminum foil to form a container. Dump off the fat and coat the bottom of the ribs with barbecue sauce (lay them bottom up in the "pan"), turn the oven down to 300 to 350 degrees, and cook for about 30 minutes. Then turn the ribs over and coat the top with with barbecue sauce and cook an additional 30 minutes. You want to dry the sauce so it sticks well to the ribs.

You can put the ribs on different racks, if you need to. Most ovens have "hot spots" and if your's has some especially hot spots, switch the ribs around about half way through the first cooking.

Remove, cut into individual ribs, and serve.

The advantage of cooking in aluminum foil is that it retains the moisture in the meat so it comes out juicy and falling off the bone. You can't put barbecue sauce on the ribs initially because the sauce contains sugar and the sugar will burn during the initial cooking.

If you don't cook in aluminum foil, you should cook at a low temperature for a long time.

Mike

There are three cuts of ribs:
1. Regular (long) ribs
2. St. Louis cut (a bit shorter than regular ribs)
3. Back ribs (sometimes called "Baby Back Ribs" to indicate that they are short, not because they come from baby pigs), which are shorter than the St. Louis ribs and have the best meat to bone ratio - and are therefore the most expensive. I prefer to do the back ribs.

There is more meat to bone as you move up the rib towards the backbone and that's why back ribs are preferred.

[Jason Roehl]

I'm a fan of low and slow--remember that the boiling point of water is 212ºF, so with some salt, it would be just a bit higher, but my theory is that if you don't get them to the boiling point, they will retain more moisture. However, the enemy of tender is collagen, which requires a higher temperature to break down, so at some point near the end, you'll want to take the ribs up to about 275-300ºF for about a half hour, preferably wrapped in foil at that point to hold the moisture in.

But I do all this in the smoker...they're just not the same out of the oven.

[Stan Calow]

side by side. But in oven I don't think you want to do 7 hours ( your formula of 1 hour per pound). I usually do 3 1/2 to 4 hours on the grill, no matter the size. You can tell done by looking at 'em

[Michael Mahan]

But I do all this in the smoker...they're just not the same out of the oven. Smoker's RulZ

but to answer your question like Mike above I like slow in the oven in AL foil ,
then drain off fat then brush with sauce finish open in a shallow pan watching carefully not to burn the sugars .
some guys pre-boil the ribs in beer & then do the sauce in the oven , this works best when you have a big load of ribs for allota people

[Rich Engelhardt]

Make ribs???
LOL!

Easy! I buy them at the store and we take them to my mother in law so she can make them.

My mother in law makes the best ribs & the best potato salad in the world, bar none.

Now if y'all will excuse me, I'm going to go downstairs and lecture my wife for an hour or so because she's not more like her mother! :D

[Michael Mahan]

Make ribs???
LOL!

Easy! I buy them at the store and we take them to my mother in law so she can make them.

My mother in law makes the best ribs & the best potato salad in the world, bar none.

Now if y'all will excuse me, I'm going to go downstairs and lecture my wife for an hour or so because she's not more like her mother! :Dlet us all know how that lecture of yours goes over on Valentines Day :rolleyes:

[John Coloccia]

As a general rule, when you make anything in the oven, you want to space it out a bit. Things give off steam in the oven. If you stack things too close, you will steam them instead of baking them. That's why your potatoes come out soft and mushy, like mashed potatoes, instead of roasted when you stack them all on top of each other.

[Larry Frank]

It really hurts to think of putting ribs in the oven instead of the smoker. If I cook them in the winter I do it on the gas grill with a smoker tray. I still mix up a rub and put it on them before putting them on the grill. I usually cook them an hour on the grill with some smoke and then put them in foil at a low temperature for 3-4 hours followed by a finish on the grill with the barbecue sauce of my choice.

I learned a lot about cooking them by watching BBQ Pitmasters. I actually took some notes and have been trying them out. I was amazed when they put Parkay on them and seasoning before wrapping in foil.

[curtis rosche]

Came out pretty incredible.
Soaked in a brine marinade for 23.5 hours, then one hour at 400 with foil, and 2.5hrs at 225 with no foil. 15 minutes on broil. Meat falls off the bone, has a nice ring around it. Seasoned just right. Didn't even need sauce

[Jeff Erbele]

My first choice by far is the smoker. Our winds can be a challenge blowing from every compass point within 15 minutes. So I usually plan around the forecast. I use rib racks with the racks standing vertical. Most of the fat renders and drips off, rather than laying in it. With a basic rub the ribs are darn good with out sauce. IMHO that is the true test as sauce will disguise lesser results. That being said I will glaze some of them. Baby backs cost a little more but produce the best results in my opinion.

My second choice is the grill with a smoker box, if I must make ribs at some location without a smoker. Maintaining a good consistent temperature range can be a challenge. Without a smoker box, a tin can with a few air holes or even tin foil to hold the wood chunks or chips works.

I made ribs in the oven in foil, one time in recent history because ribs were promised but the wind was blowing heavy patio furniture about that day.

I'll never boil ribs because that is the principle of making soup, extracting the flavor for the broth. Professional and competition rib cookers don't do that either. It works,but as my last choice. Smoking is out of the question with liquid smoke as an alternative.

I don't necessarily buy the rule of thumb, "about an hour per pound" because rules like that are flawed:
1/2 lb = 1/2 hour (nobody makes 1/2 lb; but it helps make my point)
1 lb = 1 hour
skipping up the scale
15 lbs = 15 hours
30 lbs = 30 hours....see where this is going. No one is going to get ribs done right with such a rule, unless the weight range falls in an acceptable cooking time range at a given temperature.

Ribs have a relatively thin cross section compared to whole poultry, ham or roasts. With those large piece such rules (lbs x time) usually work. One exception, prime rib. If you compare a 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 lb prime ribs, the cross section changes little. As the weight increases, the main difference is in length. The butcher cut a longer piece. The cooking time changes little even though one may weigh twice as much as another. That is not the case between a 12 lb and 26 lb turkey, everything is larger proportionally and it takes longer for the heat to penetrate; so (lbs x time) works well. Back to ribs.

Side by side. Don't stack them, take advantage of the thin cross section. They'll cook faster and more uniform.
As mentioned, collagen is what you want to break down with heat, via Low & Slow, meaning Low Temperature, Slow Cooking = Long Time.

My smoker doesn't apply to your oven, but my target temperature is 220 on the thermometer on the door, never more than 220 or for very long and never under 200. Too low they won't break down the collagen as well as the wood chunks don't put out the desired level of smoke. Too high and the ribs dry out; the extreme is shoe leather.
I open the top vent wide open to facilitate air flow which is a must and regulate the temperate with the burner and tweak it with the bottom air inlet vents.

As mine is a vertical box, I never open the door until I think they are done. Opening the door allows all of the heat to fall out and all of the smoke leaves. Opening the door will add at least 30 minutes to the cooking time.
I'll peek in the top vent with a flashlight, looking for the meat pulling back on the bones. That's all I need to know.
Cooking time is somewhere around 5 - 8 hours, (irregardless of pounds of ribs in the smoker) depending on ambient temperature, wind and the temperature I maintained in the smoker.

[curtis rosche]

Jeff, you mentioned about using foil or a can with wood chips on a grill without a smoker, Just fill it up and stick it above a burner? Just got a new grill in the fall but no smoker. I have tons of wood for smoking though. Does it work decent enough to be worth the effort?

[Shawn Pixley]

Smoker - 125 degrees F for 4 hours, 175 F for an additional hour... I prefer apple wood.

[Rich Engelhardt]

let us all know how that lecture of yours goes over on Valentines Day
Oops ... yeah,,,LOL! Forgot about the Valentines day . {insert:red face}

My wife's a good sport about this topic (ribs). It's an ongoing thing. She freely admits she can't do ribs like her mom can.
Even my sister in law, who's an otherwise spectacular cook, admits she can do ribs like my mother in law.

[Jeff Erbele]

Jeff, you mentioned about using foil or a can with wood chips on a grill without a smoker, Just fill it up and stick it above a burner? Just got a new grill in the fall but no smoker. I have tons of wood for smoking though. Does it work decent enough to be worth the effort?

Curtis,
Yes and yes.

You can smoke with a grill. Some grills might work better than others.

Factor built and homemade smokers typically have at least one air inlet vent and one exhaust for air flow. Usually they are adjustable to regulate air flow. Grills may or may not have that capability; charcoal more likely, gas fired grills probably less likely. Still you can make smoke in grill and use it to smoke foods.

I have three grills. The one I use most and routinely is a Weber gas with flavorizer bars, which are inverted V-shaped stainless steel pieces. The keep the burners free of everything, grease drippings, food, carbon, gunk and junk. They also get darn hot being directly over the flame. The Weber flavorizer concept is that meat & fat drippings hit those hot bars causing it to burn, make a little smoke and create the char-grill taste. The concept works well. Those bars replace the lava rock found in many grills.

That is where I set my ad-lib, homemade, fabricated smoker box, on the bars above the flame and below the grill grates.

You can use whatever you like to hold the wood chips, chunks or sawdust; any type of tin can that fits or modified to fit, or several smaller one. They don't have to be level or perfect in any way. You can lay them side ways between the bars, or however you can make them fit. Even a couple of layers of heavy duty aluminum could work. You could buy a cheap metal pie tin, or down grade the worst one in the pantry. (No teflon, porcelain coated, baked enamel or glass)
if you have a smaller cast iron frying pan would be great.

This isn't rocket science; its more of an understanding of combustion and trial & error. The principle is a combination of enough heat to get the wood smoking but not burning with a flame, while limiting the oxygen. You don't want a camp fire. :)
You want im-perfect combustion which makes a lot more smoke, and it produces it for a longer time.

Limit the O2 however you want. A small tin can inside a larger tin can, with the unopened ends facing out, the chips inside; poke a few nail holes or drill them for some O2, but only a few small holes. Or cover your smoke box, can or pan with tin foil.

It is a common practice to soak the wood chips or chunks in water, so they don't burn as easy. My theory it is a waste of time, first the soaking process and then taking longer to boil off the moisture in the wood to get it smoldering. My thinking is it will never really produce much smoke until the moisture is gone. Try it if you want. If it works better, go for it.

You may have to reload your wood chips if you use a small container, or put a couple of them under the grate, one with dry wood, the other with wet wood as a time delay, the wet wood starting to smoke later, extending the smoking time without having to open the grill as often.

Typically most hardwoods, fruit and nut trees works fine, each producing a unique flavor. Softwood has sap or resin which produces undesirable results. Use nothing with paint, resin, varnish, glue, treated, etc. in or on the wood. Grape vines work.

Google smoker wood chips

See Page 2 of this article:
http://bbq.about.com/cs/cookingtips/a/aa051097.htm

[curtis rosche]

I've got one of these hooked to the gas for the house
http://www.napoleongrills.com/products/p500rsib-gas-grill/

I'm deffinatly gonna have to try smoking some meat in it