Success also depends on the meat you start out
with. I cooked spares for our family july 4 cook
out. Bought medium spares that were vacuumed sealed.
Cooked them on my offset. They turned out,,,,um, ok.
This weekend I did a couple slabs of spare on the wsm.
I cut them in half so they would fit in a rib rack,
on the top rack. Cooked them at 250, at the top of the
dome for 5-1/2 hrs. They turned out perfect! Oh, they
were also fresh, not pumped up vacuume sealed ribs. A little
more expensive, but worth it.

jeff



Louis Cohen wrote:
wrote:

I posted a while ago regarding less than stellar ribs, and the latest
ribs are still nothing to write home about. I smoked 2 racks of pork
spare ribs today, and they were not bad, but certainly nothing
spectacular. So far, I've smoked ribs (In each instance, they were pork
spare ribs) once at app. 190-220 F for 5-6 hours, and another time
(today) at app. 200-250 F for 7-8 hours, and "grilled" 2 racks over
indirect heat- app. 300-325F for 3-4 hours. Each time, I removed the
tough membrane, and applied a dry rub the night before. Today's ribs
were ok, but the best ones were the ribs I "grilled" over indirect
heat- for those, I didn't use the SFB in my Char-Griller. I put the
charcoal on one side of the main body, and the ribs on the other. The
ribs I smoked today were not as tender as I had hoped they'd be, and my
wife's favorites were the ones I "grilled" over indirect heat. OK- all
you rib experts- HELP!! What am I doing wrong? What works best for you
for ribs? Do you smoke ribs, or "grill" them over indirect heat? How
can I get those ribs to fall off the bone? Thanks again for your help
and advice! I appreciate all your responses and help!

Jim

Cook at 220-240°. Spares should take about 4-5 hrs. At 4 hrs, check if
you can easily tear the ribs apart with your finger tips. If not, let
them go longer and check every 20-30 minutes (or more often if they seem
really close).