Expert: John Langenfelder - 1/12/2009

Question
Hi John,
    I do alot of smoking and my pork butt always comes out good, but I seem to have a problem with ribs.  They never come out very tender.  I have had some that are "fall off the bone" tender, but I just cant get mine that way. I love ribs, but am getting discouraged and am ready to give up...it seems like I have tried everything.  I do the large slabs of pork ribs, as I like these the best.  I remove the skin from the bottom side of the ribs....have tried dry rubs....have tried marinating them, etc.  I use the fire box on the side smoker.  I smoke them for approx 6 hours.  Should I smoke them for alot longer?  I start a small charcoal fire and when it dies down, I add my wood chunks...I DO soak mine.  Is it best to make a small package of the wood chunks wrapped in foil, or to add them directly to the fire?  John, any advise that you could give me to help me to achieve the "falling off the bone" tender ribs, would make me happy as heck!  Thank you, John and Happy New Year to you.

Answer
Ray,

it sounds like you are doing everything right.   Just remember that "falling off the bone" is not to be taken literally.  Rib meat should pull off the bone easily and the bone should be grey and have a little moisture on it that evaporates quickly.  That's the sign of a good rib.  I assume that you use spare ribs and that you cook the entire spare rib, not making St.Louis style ribs.  Ribs will take longer that way and meat on the bone could be overdone while the breast bone side is underdone.  Try doing the ribs St. Louis style.  That is you cut the ribs at the cartilage between the rib bone and the breast bone.  You can find this by feeling for a hard bump which is the joint or cartilage between the rib bone and breast bone.  When you cut here (slightly hard but the knife should cut through), you'll have a rather straight cut that narrows at one end.  The result is a cut that resembles baby backs.  5-6 hours should do it.  Once the meat shrinks away from the bone about 1/2 inch, they should be nearly perfect.  I don't soak my wood chunks as I don't see a need to waste good water (or beer or whiskey).  Also, while I like the smell of a wet forest after it rains, I don't like my meat to taste that way. I make a full charcoal fire and just add wood chunks to get smoke.  You don't need more that 2-3 hours of wood smoke as the ribs will only absorb so much.  I use wood as soon as I put the meat on.  You don't mention what temperature you are at, so I would try for a constant 225-250 degrees. It sounds like you start a charcoal fire and then use wet wood to keep it going.  This could be part of the problem.  Maybe the temperature is just not getting there.