So I have been tasked (they begged) to smoke ribs for someone at work who is leaving. We are having a luncheon as a farewell.
I have rubbed the ribs, and it will take 4 hours to smoke. I have a Cookshack, so can essentially set it and forget it. However, the timing is tricky.
I was going to smoke them the night before from 7 - 11…and then wrap in foil, insulate etc… And then go to sleep. Then bring to work at 8am, and let them stay wrapped until noon… Is this a bad idea?
Or I can wake at 3am and smoke them until 7am…but the sleep disruption gives me pause…
No chance you could go home at about 10AM to wrap and insulate (after putting them in smoker at 6AM)? I doubt the ribs will maintain an ideal internal temperature if you wrap and insulate for over 12 hours.
Be hard to do with clinic in the morning.
I thought wrapping in foil and aluminum pan, putting in oven at lowest setting over night but assume would over cook or dry it out.
I don’t have a cookshack, but I normally smoke them 3 hrs and then foil them, spray them with apple or pineapple juice, and finish in my oven for 1 - 2.5 hrs depending on rib type. I have then sprayed, foiled, towled, and coolered them for 8+ hrs without noticeable damage.
I humbly disagree with trying that option. They will dry out. Do you work at a hospital? Is there an oven available somewhere? If you do, I would smoke the ribs the night before and then wrap each rack in foil and refrigerate. Bring them to work on a sheet pan (still wrapped and bring some apple juice, beer, coke, whatever) with you. Around 10:00 or so, open each rack and put about three Tbs of liquid of your choice (no urine samples please) under the ribs and re-close each wrap. You can lay them in layers in your sheet pan at 300 degrees and rotate them once or twice if any racks are sandwiched from the heat. I have done this successfully more than once. You are not going to end up with competition quality texture-where the meat still has some pull from the bone-but most folks outside of competition either don’t know the difference or prefer ribs that pull easily off the bone without tug.
If you don’t have the oven option, your next best bet is to smoke the ribs from 3:00 to 7:00 am (assuming you are that dedicated to the cause) and then wrapping each rack in foil and then placing them in a picnic cooler topped off with layers of newspaper and dish towels and whatnot (kill as much free space in the cooler as you can) and they will easily stay warm enough that way til noon.
BTW, and I assume you know this, do not sauce them in advance. If you do sauce, bring it in a container and nuke in microwave to warm it up.
Hmmm. just about every BBQ’er I have ever known thrives on praise for their product. If you are truly free of that need (and being a doctor, you should be), you could just bring in some mediocre colds ribs and figure that you won’t be begged upon again.
Wish I had seen this thread before last night’s dinner. Nothing wrong with smoking them for a few hours the day before, then wrapping (with a bit of added liquid). At that point you should just put them in the fridge overnight, and put them in a 270 oven for another couple of hours to finish whenever you’re ready. One problem is that you really need to actively mop/sauce them during the finishing process, otherwise they’ll look (and taste) a little bland.
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