I've made baby back ribs three time now on my new 22.5. To get them "tear" tender takes about 5 to 5 1/2 hours. They are really delicious, but so dark in color. I'm pretty much just using the Basic Baby Back Ribs recipe from this site, with vents at 33% for most of the cooking time. Any suggestions to keep the tenderness and tone down the dark color? Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Chet Hansen:
I've made baby back ribs three time now on my new 22.5. To get them "tear" tender takes about 5 to 5 1/2 hours. They are really delicious, but so dark in color. I'm pretty much just using the Basic Baby Back Ribs recipe from this site, with vents at 33% for most of the cooking time. Any suggestions to keep the tenderness and tone down the dark color? Thanks!

What rub are you using? Are you using water or sand in the pan? Is there any bitterness to the flavor of the ribs?

You can foil your ribs with your choice of juice to braise them in. This way you still get tender ribs but it speeds up the cooking process, thus reducing the darkness of the bark (not on smoker nearly as long). Once tender put them back on the smoker to firm them up a little.

Search "foiling ribs" within this forum and you will see lots of post on this.

This is the rub I'm using, the one posted on this site:

Magic Dust
2 Tablespoons paprika
1 Tablespoon kosher salt, finely ground
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1 Tablespoon granulated garlic
1-1/2 teaspoons mustard powder
1-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

I'm using water in the pan.

The flavor of the ribs is spot-on. It's just the color. They almost look burnt, but don't taste that way.

Thanks for the foiling suggestion. I'll try that.

Foiling will certainly help as Chris suggested! But I'm curious why they are black and there's no bitterness.....first two things I think of when I hear 'black meat' is either soot from either green wood or improper airflow or burnt sugar, but both of those problems would give you bitter meat........

The combination of spritzing with apple juice, and the use of a wood like cherry have caused some of my ribs to come out pretty dark on occasion. Then add a sweet sauce like KC masterpiece, and your ribs could almost look a little burnt.

Tim

Starting with dark ingredients as major components in the rub (the chili powder and paprika, the black pepper), which darken further during cooking (the chili and paprika anyway), especially when smoke particulates adhere (they can be dark too) can cause this. The color can be so dark it looks black but no bitterness is discerned - because nothing has burned and the smoke was neither too much nor improperly combusted. Changing the rub recipe (I recently did this for a comp team that had the same problem) or the wood type and/or quantity can make a big difference. Foiling, as noted, is another option.

I would also look at the type of sugar you are using. Since sugar types have a different burn points, switching to one like a "raw" type might help.

Honestly you should take a picture next time. What you think of as too dark, may in fact be fairly normal.

Thanks for all the posts. I do have pictures. How do I attach them on this site?

Turbinado sugar has a somewhat higher melting point but other than that the melting, caramelization and burn points for table sugars are the same. Regardless, at cooktemps lower than the lower 300s caramelization (where one begins seeing color) is not an issue.

Posting pics.

Saucing for more than 10 minutes in the smoker can turn them real black too.

quote:

Originally posted by Chet Hansen:
Thanks for all the posts. I do have pictures. How do I attach them on this site?

You need to upload your photos someplace on the web. I suggest picasaweb.google.com for that purpose. Then view your photos online and copy the full address of each photo from your address bar.

Then as you are posting to the forum, click the green-colored icon to the right of the envelope icon. Paste the photo's URL there and your photo will be displayed in the post, where you choose to put it.

That is the way my ribs end up a lot of the time. They are perfect IMO as you get a nice crispy bark.

quote:

Originally posted by James Trapp:
That is the way my ribs end up a lot of the time. They are perfect IMO as you get a nice crispy bark.

Crispy bark is the only way to go.