Bilz wrote:
> Yesterday was a beautiful day for a barbecue. I am new to barbecue,
> but I have been very successful so far by following directions and
> having good results come out. So I invited 10 friends over, and
> barbecued up some spare ribs... and they were so tough and chewy that
> they were almost inedible.
>
> Here is what I did:
>
> I soaked the ribs overnight in apple juice. I then cured the ribs
> with a dry rub for 4 hours.

I rub my ribs just prior to putting them in the pit.

> I used an offset smoker (Silver Smoker from Char Broil). I cooked
> with hickory briquettes (from Royal Oak) and soaked Hickory chunks.

I wouldn't soak wood chunks or chips.

> In the firebox, I put a pan of apple juice for some added moisture.

Adding moisture for what purpose? It won't make or keep the ribs from losing
moisture, if that's what you are thinking.

> The temperature in the smoke box remained between 200 and 300 degrees,
> depending on how recently I opened the box.

That's a pretty wide variation of temperature. It indicates a poor cooking
environment.

> Every 1/2 hour, I opened the smoke box to liberally spray the ribs
> with apple juice. I flipped the ribs, and rotated them so they had
> equal time close to the fire box.

Every time you opened your pit, you needed to increase the amount of cooking
time by as much as 20 minutes. Multiply the number of times you opened by 20
minutes and that is how much longer it needed on in the pit.

> I cooked the ribs for 4.5 hours, and a half an hour before we ate, I
> lathered both sides with my barbecue sauce.

I think you need to focus on the taste of the meat, and be less concerned
with soaking, spraying and lathering; good spare ribs don't need all of that
stuff. If you want, just glaze 'em as they come out of the pit. Based on
what you've said, you probably needed double the time in the pit.

> They TASTED pretty good, but they were so tough that they could barely
> be ripped apart. Overall, they were so tough that it was an
> unpleasant experience.

The collagen and other connective tissue didn't have a chance to break down,
and that's what you really want to accomplish. Time doesn't indicate that
the meat is done, tenderness does.

> WHERE DID I GO WRONG??????

Covered above. Don't worry, it takes time to learn. Try this, it'll give you
some help:
http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2/toc.html

--
Dave
www.davebbq.com