On May 29, 1:57 pm, wrote:
> 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..

Thanks for the info. All of the apple juice was to keep the ribs
moist. I did ribs once before, and they were a bit dry. I was
actually following a recipe in the "BBQ Bible" cookbook. It told me
to spray the ribs down every half hour. I will try again without ever
opening the pit.

What temperature is a good one to maintain?

Someone also suggested that I bake the ribs in the oven at 250 in a
braising bag for 3-4 hours before putting them in the smoker. Anyone
with experience with doing something like this?