In Search of the Perfect Baby Backs on the Ironwood 885

[Aubie1]

A week ago, I had my first try with baby backs on the I/W 885. I will admit that ribs have never been my strong suit while egging since 2006. I have had some that were good and some that I would call average from the egg. My pork butts are a different story, they are always good (patting self on back).

I viewed the Meat Church baby back rib video,

prior to beginning the cook. One of my sons has an I/W 885 and swears by the info and steps in the video. One exception is that he uses a rib rack rather than placing the racks flat on the grate.

I prepped two racks and used different rub and sauce than what was used in the video. When wrapping, I used butter, brown sugar and honey only. I followed the temp and times indicated in the video. For me, the finished product was not edible. The ribs were way over cooked with a finished cook temp of 215+. Needless to say the meat was extremely dry.

I’m surprised that there was that much difference between the XL used in the video and my I/W 885 as far as the finished cook. The one difference I noticed was the racks in the video were place on the middle grate of the XL. The grate in my I/W 885 was in the standard position which is going to be a lower height than the middle grate in the XL.

I will make some temp and time changes and give it another go.

 

[Shedd]

I’ve always liked St. Lewis or Spare ribs the best. Until a few months ago I didn’t like ribs on my 780, I actually didn’t like anything on it. Then I realized it’s not the same as the smokers I’ve always used and had to cuss and fuss but I’ve found that I actually like the ribs on it much better than my past smoker’s. One thing I’ve found that really makes them better is not cooking directly on the grate because they don’t cook evenly. I raise them up a few inches with a drip pan with water and apple cider. This allows the smoke to circulate around the ribs as well as even heat. The liquids aid in keeping them moist. I prep my ribs with my own mustard bbq sauce coated with rub (I’ve been mixing Honey Hog with Holy Voodoo) then wrap in plastic wrap around 8-12 hours. After I get my Traeger to 225 I add my smoke box and tube, sprinkle more rub on then cook for about 3 hours, then I spread butter on foil, drizzle honey, add some rub and a little bbq sauce. I lay my ribs down onto foil (bone side up) and double wrap. I cook about two more hours (when bones start showing, I like them easily pulling off bone) I rarely put them back on to cook more but if I do I add more rub.
The Traeger can’t compete with my egg on pulled pork.

 

[BobbyQ]

I’ve done baby backs and St. Louis on my IW 650 using one of Matt’s recipes. Pretty much the only difference was the rubs and I use a lower temp like 250 or 260 straight on the rack. Not sure what could be going on with yours but mine are done in 5-6 hours. Nearly fall off the bone. I’m preferring St. Louis these days.

 

[Shedd]

I just cooked some pork belly burnt ends and two racks St Lewis ribs on my egg today. They all cooked steady at 225. 3 hours, then two hours wrapped, I took ribs off, they was falling off bone I probably could have pulled them at 41/2 hours. I always cook raised over a pan of liquid. I’ve found I don’t like to put my ribs after foil back on the grill, I just add a little more more rub so the moisture absorbs it and call them done.

 

[Aubie1]

Since posting this thread, I have completed two more attempts with the baby backs. The only thing I did different in the second cook was to reduce the temp to 250 and the times remained the same as my first attempt. The results were better but still not what I wanted. The finished temp was 208 – 210 and the ribs had good flavor but still a little on the dry side. The dryness was more noticeable the next day when I warmed the ribs.

For the third effort, I reduced the temp to 225 super smoke for the first 1.5 hours. Next, I bumped the temp to 250 for an hour. The ribs were meat up for the first 2.5 hours. For the third step, I again made a bed of brown sugar, butter and honey and wrapped the ribs with them going meat side down on the grate. At 45 minutes I flipped them with the meat side up for another 30 minutes. At the end of the 1.25 hours in foil, I unwrapped the ribs, sauced them and back on the grate for another 15 minutes. This batch was more along the lines of what I had in mind for good ribs. The finish temp was 202-203 when they came out of the foil. And to be honest, I could not find anything wrong with this batch. This now gives me a good starting point to make them even better.

 

[JPSBBQ]

For me 203 is my magic number. I do test them once in that ballpark. Fwiw, babyback ribs are much more difficult to get just right than their fattier counterpart. The margin of error is very small. Like I always point out, at least you get to eat your attempts! I’m a believer in 275 cooking personally it forces the meat fibers to tighten which makes them thicker. Once tightened and thick, you tenderize in your wrap. Result is plump juicy and tender ribs. That said, there’s plenty of good ways to get the results you desire.