Expert: BBQ Woman - 11/21/2009

Question
Hi, I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I've been having regarding smoking pork ribs.  I have only been smoking meats for about a year now (usually poultry or pork butts)and normally the meats turn out really good.  However, every time I try to smoke St. Louis style pork ribs they turn out really greasy.  I've tried trimming away as much of the fat as I can, but they always come out of the smoker covered in orange grease and are hardly edible.  To give you an idea of what my set up is like, I'll walk you through it:

I always buy a St. Louis style rib rack and trim them up, cutting away as much fat as I can.  I always remove the membrane before I apply my rub, as well.  The night before I smoke them I will coat them in yellow mustard and apply a rub to them, then they go back in the fridge overnight.  When I get up the next morning I take the ribs out of the fridge and let them set at room temp for about thirty minutes to an hour while my smoker heats up.  

I light my smoker, which is a Perfect Flame vertical gas smoker.  I fill the water pan with water, add a few blocks of hickory to the wood pan, and place the ribs on one of the higher racks once the smoker gets to about 225 degrees F.  I usually try to smoke them for about 4-5 hours at this temp, but sometimes I have trouble keeping my smoker at a stable temp, so it flucuates a little (I don't know if that's part of the problem or not, but I just try to keep a close eye on the temp throughout the process).  I try not to open the smoker very often, but about every 45 minutes to an hour I'll quickly open the door and spray a mist of water over the ribs to try and keep them moist.  

Once they reach about 165 degrees internally, I pull them out of the smoker and let them rest for about 10-15 minutes to let the juices redistribute.  I then cut them up and serve them.  Usually they are so greasy at this point that we don't end up eating very many of them (which is really unusual for my wife and I, because we love ribs!)  We usually don't do a sauce of any type, either, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.  

I've tried a few other things to try to remedy the problem, as well, but nothing seems to have worked so far.  It's becoming really frustrating because the process of smoking ribs can be really long and costly (especially if they come out poorly!).  Any advice you could pass along to me on this would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,
Joe  

Answer
Hi Joe,
I hope some of my ideas will help you. St. Louis ribs are more fattier than baby back ribs yet they are also more meatier. Usually when you buy St. Louis ribs look for the smaller 4 pounds or less per rack as these tend to come from younger hogs. When you bring them home trim them really good. I use a small paring knife to really trim them as much as possible.

You have mentioned that you have tried various methods and I was wondering if you tried brining your ribs? You can use any brine recipe you wish but the general rule is 1/2 cup kosher salt to 2 quarts of liquid. 1/4 cup brown sugar. The liquid can be anything you want from water to apple cider or apple juice as some recommendations. Soak your ribs in the brine overnight. The next day you remove from the brine and rinse the brine off of the ribs. I sometimes at this stage will try to remove any more visible fat from the ribs but the brine tends to really help remove fat all by itself.

I would place a pan with water or cider underneath my ribs and slow cook using indirect heat until done. You can do this ahead of time for gatherings. I sometimes smoke/slow cook my ribs the day before a party and refrigerate them. The day of the party fire up the grill and finish off the ribs by simply browning them and using a wet mop moments before serving which is optional.

I hope some of my ideas work for you.
Good luck!
Regards,
Misty