Smoked Baby Back Ribs on the Smokin-It

Here is a batch of baby back ribs on the smoker. I will be straight with you: ribs are the one thing I have not fully dialed in yet. I have only made them a handful of times, and unlike my pulled pork, where I can tell you exactly what I do every time, ribs still take me some practice to nail consistently. So I will share how I do mine, and then I dug up what a few credible sources recommend for time and temperature, since that is the part I am still working on.

In these shots I had moved the ribs over to the grill at the very end to sauce them and get a little char on the outside. I will be honest, I am not sure a sear like that is the textbook way to finish ribs after they come off the smoker, but that is what I was doing here, and they tasted great.

How I do mine

I use baby back ribs and the same loose, build-it-by-feel rub I put on my pulled pork: a good base of salt and pepper, cayenne, smoked paprika, a little brown sugar, and the cinnamon and clove I like. For wood I just rotate cherry, apple, and hickory, whatever I reach for that day. I wrap mine in foil partway through, which locks in the moisture and is the stage where they really start to get tender. For doneness, I will be honest, I mostly go by feel, by how the meat pulls and gives, rather than by a number. On my big roasts I lean on a Thermapen instant-read thermometer, but with ribs I am watching how they bend and tear more than the temperature.

What the experts say about time and temperature

Since I am still getting consistent with ribs, here is what a few credible sources recommend. These are the references I am leaning on to get better at it.

• Meathead at AmazingRibs cooks ribs low and slow at about 225 degrees and judges them with the bend test: lift the rack with tongs and give it a gentle bounce, and when the surface starts to crack, they are done. He says baby backs are usually worth checking around the three to four hour mark.
• ThermoWorks, the company behind the Thermapen, takes the temperature route. They note ribs are widely considered done between about 180 and 195 degrees, with a target near 203 degrees for the most tender, competition-style result, since holding them there lets the connective tissue break down.
• The structured 3-2-1 method, often shortened to 2-2-1 for leaner baby backs, is a good one to start with: a couple of hours of smoke at 225 degrees, a couple of hours wrapped in foil, and a final hour sauced, for around five hours total.

Where I land

Put it together and the picture is pretty clear: low and slow around 225, wrap them partway to get tender, and finish by feel and by temperature somewhere in that 195 to 203 range. I am still practicing to make mine come out perfect every single time, but honestly that is half the fun of it.

See the finished result here. And more from my smoker: pulled pork, homemade beef jerky, and the Smokin-It itself.