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[Bentley]

Only have bacon curing to go buy, but I have never seen the moisture go back into a belly once it is out!

I dry brine almost everything if I have the time. The salt will initially pull moisture out - the moisture gets mixed with the salt and get reabsorbed

[jacksdad]

Pork ribs do not need brining.  Birds brine very well but pork ribs have all that fat so no need. 

Fat has nothing to do with it. The only brining mentioned in this thread is dry brininig, which is done mostly to add flavor, and helps retain natural moisture.

Fat provides flavor and moisture.  We brine when this is naturally missing.  Not to mention ribs are too thin to handle a lot of salt. 


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[bregent]

Pork ribs do not need brining.  Birds brine very well but pork ribs have all that fat so no need. 

Fat has nothing to do with it. The only brining mentioned in this thread is dry brininig, which is done mostly to add flavor, and helps retain natural moisture.

Fat provides flavor and moisture.  We brine when this is naturally missing.  Not to mention ribs are too thin to handle a lot of salt. 


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I would disagree.  The amount of salt I add to anything is based on its weight, not its thickness. With ribs, because you get the entire profile (outside and inside) with every bite, getting salt on the inside may not be as important as other foods. Fat and moisture are two different things. Ribs have fat but not a lot of moisture. Salt helps retain moisture. It also helps tenderize.

[NewToQ]

Well I did ribs again today on the Woodwind. Using St. Louis cut from Costco. Rubbed them with 10 bones dry rub about an hour before putting them on and also removed membrane. Ran on low smoke (180) for an hour and 15 mins and also used a competition blend mojo brick on top of the heat shield (didn’t light all that well so next time will use on side of firepot). Also was running amazen products comp blend pellets. After hour and 15 bumped up to 275 and basted with 10 bones marinade every hour. Total time was about 5 hours until I took off. Ribs were so much better at 275 than previous cooks. Bark was a little too hard so will need to adjust something for next time. Also smoke flavor not what I was looking for but still need to try just hickory. Thanks for all the tips guys I think I am now on the right track!

[NewToQ]

With the better results I had at 275 do you suggest cooking all meats and not just ribs at this temp on a pellet grill?


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[Bar-B-Lew]

With the better results I had at 275 do you suggest cooking all meats and not just ribs at this temp on a pellet grill?


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I make almost everything in the 250-275 range

[NewToQ]

Well I thought after my last cook I was on the right track however today my St. Louis ribs were dried out and little smoke flavor. Using lumberjack char hickory and a tube in the back running left to right I ran on high smoke for an hour then upped to 275 for the remainder. All in 5 hours and spritzed with apple juice and cider mix starting at one hour mark every 45 minutes. No wrap. I got the ribs at Costco and have two racks left to cook. No idea what to do next...

[Bentley]

3 hours at 275°, bone side down, no Y for X before hand...Just 275° for 3 hours bone side down!  Mine are never dried out!  If there is not enough smoke flavor, pellets as a fuel for BBQ is probably not for you!  It is petty much that simple!

[Bar-B-Lew]

why are you spritzing

[NewToQ]

why are you spritzing

After about an hour the exterior looked very dried out and started to split which is why I spritzed.


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[Bar-B-Lew]

Do you have a way to check the temperature at the grill grate level other than what you are reading on the controller of your grill?  I suspect that it may be running hotter than the controller setting which may assisted in your problem.

[LowSlowJoe]

'lack of smoke flavor' , could potentially result on any pellet grill, depending on what your expectations for smoke level are.

What I don't get is too dry.   Only dry ribs I ever had on any pellet grill, were ones that just didn't have much fat content.   I've made ribs on a variety of pellet grills, and I can't say that any one of them was any less juicy than the others were, hard to imagine anyway that the pellet grill itself could be to blame for such a issue.

[NewToQ]

Do you have a way to check the temperature at the grill grate level other than what you are reading on the controller of your grill?  I suspect that it may be running hotter than the controller setting which may assisted in your problem.

Yep I was using the ThermoWorks smoke for grate temps. Actually held temp really well and I was quite impressed from that perspective for the lumberjack pellets


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[NewToQ]

'lack of smoke flavor' , could potentially result on any pellet grill, depending on what your expectations for smoke level are.

What I don't get is too dry.   Only dry ribs I ever had on any pellet grill, were ones that just didn't have much fat content.   I've made ribs on a variety of pellet grills, and I can't say that any one of them was any less juicy than the others were, hard to imagine anyway that the pellet grill itself could be to blame for such a issue.

Yep the smoke flavor I will continue to experiment with. Thinking using the Amazen Maze with wood chips on top of the pellets.


As for the dryness I have heard convection can tend to dry things out but not sure the validity of that. I hit the mark the last cook upping the temp to 275 but did the exact same thing this time around and drastically different results.




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[Bar-B-Lew]

I've never had a dry rack of ribs off any of my pellet grills and probably made several hundred racks over the years.  So, I don't believe convection has anything to do with it.  In fact, one could argue the opposite that the movement of smoke and air all around the grill helps to ensure a more consistent cook from location to location on the grill.

You may want to try getting a needle probe for your smoke and placing it in between bones on your next cook.  Somewhere between 190°-200° should get your a moist rack of ribs.  I  usually just go by the bend test after 3 hours and go from there.  If they don't move, probably needs another hour.  If they are starting to bend, probably 15-30 minutes longer.  Of course, all racks are not the same so you may have to pull a rack off sooner than others.