By pulling them at 155, they will continue to cook up to between 160 and 165. If you don’t pull them til 170, you might end up with a truly dry dry-rubbed rib. If you want to get them falling off the bone, you need some additional moisture like a mop and pull them at 160 or 165. But mop defeats the purpose of the dry-rub. Also, collagen or not, the meat pulls away from the bone willingly in my trials.

Thanks for the feedback,
DC

Foil definitely makes them juicier. You’re creating a steaming effect. For dry-rub ribs, I like the meat to fall off the bone but not the rub. I fear the foil could make a gooey — yet delicious — mess. I like foil if your’re going with wet ribs.

As for over-smoking, you can do that. But it ain’t easy. You’d have to continually add wood.

Also, have you ever tried grilling them wrapped in foil for the majority of the cooking time? I find they stay incredibly juicy this way. Your thoughts? I’d like to try smoking them for the full 3 (or so) hours but I worry about the smoke flavor overpowering everything else. Is it possible to over-smoke? Thanks,

Josh

The only spice I pay a little extra for is really nice peppercorns. Try some nice tellicherry versus some Durkee preground and you’ll agree. And you don’t have to use as much because it’s so much more potent.

Great sounding recipe.

Old Bill’s Rib Marinade

This recipe is for 2, 5 pound slabs of pork ribs. If you are only doing 5 pounds, then cut the quantities in half, more or less. This is not rocket science, just good eating. Likewise, double the quantity for more ribs.

2, 5 lb. pkgs. pork ribs
1 small onion
1 small green pepper
1 stalk celery
6 cloves whole, peeled garlic
1 cup bottled lemon juice
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ cup soy sauce
gallon zip-top
plastic bags

Turn the ribs bone side up. Get the point of a sharp knife under the silver skin covering the ribs. Remove as much silver skin as possible. Cut the ribs into one or two rib pieces.

In a food processor with the chopping blade installed, pulse the onion, pepper, celery and garlic until well mixed and juicy. Add the lemon juice, Worcestershire and soy sauce. Pulse again to mix. Careful, your processor’s bowl may be pretty full by this time, so watch for leaks.

Put about 1/3 of the ribs into a plastic zip-top bag and add about 1/3 of the marinade. Repeat for the rest of the ribs. Make sure that the top is tightly closed, then refrigerate the ribs for up to 24 hours, turning every once in awhile. The longer, the better, but 24 hours is about max.

Grill until done all the way through. Make sure they are done!

Pig.

Wild Bill

A word about the ingredients: Use the cheap stuff. No one really cares, unless Emeril is coming for the cookout. Your taste buds don’t really know the difference anyway.

Discard the marinade after use since it has been in contact with raw meat.