Cooking ribs the same way for 5 years until a neighbor stopped by

I always wrapped my ribs in foil after 3 hours on the smoker, thinking that was the only way to keep them moist. Then my neighbor Mike told me he never wraps his and showed me his bark after 6 hours, and I felt like an idiot for missing out on that texture all this time. Has anyone else switched methods mid-cook and had a total "why didn't I try this sooner" moment?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_lewis220d ago

Did he at least offer you a bite of that crusty bark as proof, or just leave you questioning your whole existence? I mean, I switched from foil to butcher paper halfway through a cook once and felt like I'd been cooking with a blindfold on for years, so I get the shame. Honestly though, your ribs were probably still better than whatever Mike's been serving himself anyway.

milarodriguez20d ago

Yeah @vera_lewis2 is totally right, butcher paper is where it's at if you want that bark without drying out the meat. I switched from foil mid-smoke last summer and it was like a whole new world of ribs opened up for me.

parkerbrown20d ago

Respectfully, I gotta disagree on that one. Butcher paper is fine for some things, but it's not a magic fix for drying out meat. If your ribs are drying out in foil, you're probably cooking them too long or at too high a temp, not because you wrapped in the wrong material. I've done plenty of cooks with foil and still got a solid bark. The trick is not to wrap too early and to let the meat breathe a bit before you seal it up. Butcher paper definitely lets you keep more crust, but it also lets more moisture escape, which can be a problem if you're not careful with your cook. To each their own, but I'll take foil for a more forgiving wrap any day.