British BBQ Society Forums

Hi all, I am going to attempt my first Low N Slow bbq on saturday, I am going to be using ribs in a rub that I have made myself but I am unsure of how long to smoke the ribs for and whether I should be wrapping them in foil?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks! Chris

Last weekend i did 4 racks of babybacks at 250... 2 hours unfoiled and 1.5 foiled. I just put some sauce on them at the statt and when i foiled them.

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Wrapping certainly speeds up the cooking time and is the method we use. However, you can over cook them very easily if you don't keep an eye on them. Having said that everyone apart from competition judges seems to prefer fall off the bone meat - I prefer more of a bite.
My method is done on touch and feel but is roughly 2 hours smoke, 1.5 hrs wrapped with American mustard and BBQ sauce then grill with fresh sauce directly over the flame until it is at the consistency I want to serve it at.
There are several methods best to experiment and see what works for you.

bunter wrote:Hi all, I am going to attempt my first Low N Slow bbq on saturday, I am going to be using ribs in a rub that I have made myself but I am unsure of how long to smoke the ribs for and whether I should be wrapping them in foil?

Will you be cooking babyback/loin ribs or Spare/belly ribs?

This will make a big difference in the amount of time they'll take to cook.

Good meaty Spares, 250F 2.5h in the smoke, 2 in foil with a bit of light brown sugar and a foil marinade.

When they come out of the foil try a bend test on them, should bend to 90 degrees easily. If done, Sauce then return to the smoker for 20 mins.

Decent babies will be 2 and 2, skinny babies, 2 and 1-1.5. Bend test is your friend again.

Thank you everyone for the fantastic advice, the ribs are just normal pork ribs, nothing too flash or expensive for first run using the new smoker.

One other question I have is regarding the coals, I plan to use a charcoal starter with lumpwood charcoal, what happens when they start to burn out? If the smoker temp is supposed to be 225-250 dgrees inside, if I add new coals then surely the temp will go up and this will interupt the cooking process?

Sorry if this seems a bit of a stupid question but I just want to get things right from the start

Thanks! Chris.