First St Louis Ribs

[caplanner]

New to Traeger and bought an IW 650 a couple of weeks ago. This was our third cook on the new grill. The brisket took 13 hours so I wanted to make sure we were going to have ribs for dinner so I started early, even though I didn't think the ribs would cook that long.

Did a 3-2-1 "type" cook with apple juice. Using the Traeger Gourmet pellets from Costco, and a Kinder seasoning. Did the 3 hours at 225 but increased the 2 hour cook to 275 about half-way through. Just put apple juice in foil wrap for this phase. Like I said, I was a little worried about the time. The 2 hour finished really early so I wrapped it all up in towels and let it sit for a while.

I've slow cooked ribs in the oven so knew generally it would take 3 hours or so. Didn't use a probe. Difference in the results is amazing though.

Cooked the baked potatoes at 225 since the ribs finished early. Cooked them until 210. vegetable oil and kosher salt.

Put bbq sauce on the ribs and cooked for about 20 minutes. Here's what I got:

still learning but happy with the results.

 

[Slimpicker]

Looks like you nailed it to me

 

[GrillMeister]

Nice work. You will get things dialed in for cooks as you progress. It took me a while to get the same results from my Traeger that I did with my Big Green Egg on Brisket, Ribs, & Pulled Pork. It just takes practice & experimenting with time & temps.

 

[RayClem]

Once you become an expert at ribs, you can determine the degree of doneness by feel alone. Until you become an expert getting a temperature probe to determine the internal temperature is a lot more accurate way of determining when to wrap your ribs and when to remove them from the grill.

I like leaving a external probe (not the Traeger probe, which might not be accurate) in my protein throughout the cook. Then when it gets close to final internal temperature, I check several places with an instant read thermometer. Poking the meat with the probe also tells you if it is tender. Always cook to internal temperature rather than based on a time and cook temperature.

The most recommended temperature probes seem to be the Fireboard and Meater probes and the Thermapen instant thermometer. However, they are rather expensive. There are less expensive alternatives that can get the job done if the others are outside your budget.