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Hi Doc:
I smoke my baby backs on a Big Green Egg with a plate setter and no water pan. The dome temp is 225°F-235°F and they cook for six to seven hours. They say the ribs are done when the meat shrinks up 1/4 inch on the bone, but my ribs don’t shrink. Is my temp too low? They take forever and I’m not a fan of using aluminum foil.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Yes, I’d say your temp is too low. The reading on the dome temp gauge is higher than the actual reading at the grate where the ribs are cooking simply because heat rises. If you use another temp gauge that can read at the grate level you’ll find about a 35°F difference so you need to have a reading up there of 260°F-270°F for good BBQing temp at the grate. You might even bump it up a little for ribs and I think you’ll find that they’re done in about 4-5 hours. The 1/4 inch shrinkage isn’t a very good way to determine the doneness of ribs, I find that squeezing them with my fingers works best or pushing down in to them with a toothpick feeling for the resistance. As my friend James Rice once told me, it should feel like soft butter.
Dr. BBQ
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