Had my rub come off in the foil wrap today. That was a first. Smoked 4 hours unwrapped between 250 and 275 with peaks and valleys. Probed tender and wrapped with butter and honey. Pulled off to glaze and found most of the rub on the bottom in the liquid. Thoughts?
by clheinz57
15 Comments
Don’t wrap
Bark wasn’t set plus you essentially steam them when wrapping which can also cause loss of bark.
Don’t wrap. But if you do, use butcher paper instead of aluminum foil. Or do a foil boat.
I smear a light coat of mustard on mine before using my rub it seems to help bind it but wrapped meat will lose some rub
Don’t wrap ribs during the cook. Glaze and wrap to hold/rest them when they’re done.
Buddy got me onto that Garlic Jalapeño, it can be put on anything. So good.
I did ribs today as well, take a look at my post (about to add pictures of the finshed ribs after this reply).
I cooked at 300 the entire time, after an hour I put a squeeze of the old blue squeeze butter across both racks, and an hour later I wrapped in foil with Heath Riles Butter Bath mixture (1/4 cup powder, 3/4 cup apple juice per rack) about an hour later i pull them out check them in the wrap, little bend test with some probing to see where they are at and they get sauced and back in for 10/20min before cutting and serving.
Perfect competition style ribs.
edit: When I wrap I don’t put meat side down, I use to but like having bone side down now feels like it tastes better that way and the ribs looks better when they finish.
First, they still look awesome!
Second, wrapping baby backs is really for competition cooks, who by definition are folks who are bored at how well their cooks turn out without the crutch, are looking to make problems to fix, and are showing only a few perfect ribs. Even when done perfectly, wrapping ribs only improves the look, not the taste (and certainly not the pull), and creates a host of issues to deal with given you are now fighting steam. As others said, just don’t wrap your ribs.
Also, you might be putting to much rub on, my team mate doesn’t think thats a real thing but in our last comp of the year he did the ribs and there was so much rub on them (we only use 4 rubs 2 on the top, 2 on the bottom) when it came time to sauce the rub was mushy and not set, he said it was because of the moisture from injecting but i’ve done ribs 2 times at home the same exact way but with the amount of rub I like using and they have been perfect.
https://preview.redd.it/mtrkg18mtj1e1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb6ae74aee2c83cf13e3af198e381eee6051c388
My wrapped ribs from today
If it’s for home cooking and I’m in a time crunch where I’d wrap what I did was just switch to party ribs.
Butcher paper is my preferred material to wrap with since foil holds so much moisture. But I’ve also just gone with no wrapping and had good results
Bark was not set, and you wrapped too long. You can return ribs to the pit to firm up the bark. [https://i.imgur.com/jh56Ude.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/jh56Ude.jpg)
after I wrap I apply more rub during the rest before I put the sauce on and back on the smoker to set the sauce
*
Don’t foil wrap, there is cooking paper specifically for this keeps them just wet enough but not steaming the ribs