That time a pitmaster at a little joint in Kansas City told me to skip the wrap on my ribs

I was at a BBQ spot in KC last summer and the pitmaster said wrapping ribs in foil was just making them mushy and that I should go naked the whole cook. So I tried it on a rack of spare ribs at 225 for 6 hours with no wrap and they came out with a perfect bark but they were a little drier than I like. Has anyone else tried the no-wrap method and gotten it to work better, or do you think wrapping is still the way to go?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph52922d ago

That 225 for 6 hours naked on spare ribs sounds like you were fighting against the clock. I used to be a foil-or-bust guy until I tried a 275 degree cook on some St. Louis cuts. Four hours no wrap, but I spritzed them with apple juice every 45 minutes after the first 2. The bark was solid and they stayed moist without being mushy. I get what @william816 is saying about spritzing being extra work but it only takes a few seconds per rack. The heat difference is key too running them hotter keeps the fat rendering without drying everything out.

william81622d ago

So is it really that big of a deal if your ribs are a little dry? I mean, yeah, bark is nice but if you're choking down dry meat what's the point? I tried no-wrap once and ended up spritzing them every 30 minutes just to keep them from turning into jerky. That just seems like extra work for not much payoff. Most folks you see winning competitions are wrapping at some point, and they aren't doing it for no reason. Maybe that pitmaster was just trying to sound cool and old school.

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