On May 29, 12:18 pm, 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 used an offset smoker (Silver Smoker from Char Broil). I cooked
> with hickory briquettes (from Royal Oak) and soaked Hickory chunks.
> In the firebox, I put a pan of apple juice for some added moisture.
> The temperature in the smoke box remained between 200 and 300 degrees,
> depending on how recently I opened the box.
>
> 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.
>
> I cooked the ribs for 4.5 hours, and a half an hour before we ate, I
> lathered both sides with my barbecue sauce.
>
> 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.
>
> WHERE DID I GO WRONG??????

You let all the heat out when you opened up the grill every 30 min,
just when you built the heat back up you let it out. try going 1 to
1.5 hours in between the apple juice or just leave it out. you have
to give the heat and smoke time to work, and if these were spare ribs
you probably need to go 6 to 7 hours. I do baby back and grill them
for about 15 min per side and then smoke for about 3-4 hours and they
turn out great no sauce but a vinegar baste every hour or so..