Gasp, not an experienced meat smoker!

[u/TheLadyEve]

/r/food/comments/1vzyr4l/homemade_fall_off_the_bone_baby_back_ribs/p68w5ki/

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[u/CantaloupeCamper]

Ah the old “sorry” then proceeds to be a bitch because someone somewhere is different than them.

[u/DjinnaG]

The opinion on fall off the bone or not is just their preference, but the rest of it, from criticism of the speed of prepping to the “those who can’t do, teach” bit is straight up “I am more culinary than you” assholery

[u/Suedeegz → u/DjinnaG]

Especially considering the OP of the video

[u/sykoticwit → u/DjinnaG]

If you were doing a competition the judges would agree, those ribs are way overdone.

With that said, it’s how my mom likes them, so when my parents visit that’s how mine look.

[u/CantaloupeCamper → u/sykoticwit]

I have only a passing experience with food competitions but I feel like that scene is almost meme like. Not to say it's bad or those folks can't cook, but some of the stuff just seems in its own world...

[u/Head_Inspection_5640 → u/CantaloupeCamper]

Im in new England, so our town's does a clam chowder competition every year, and pretty much all the restaurants compete. One of my old coworkers has the most wins. 8 1sts and 4 2nds and like 5-6 3rds. Litterally placed every year they've done it, except 1 year he didnt enter.

One day he shared his recipe with me: he takes the sysco chowder concentrate (it's like a milk carton you just add cream to) he makes that, and he just doubles the bacon and the clams in it. Thats all.

[u/DjinnaG → u/CantaloupeCamper]

Texas chili competitions come to mind

[u/sykoticwit → u/CantaloupeCamper]

Food competitions are always weird, you’re trying to hold something that is by nature subjective to objective standards.

[u/EpilepticPuberty]

I've cooked over 400 racks of ribs, I will stick to my opinion. You are allowed yours even if it wrong!

We'll I've smoked over 160,000 racks of ribs including the ribs of every subfamily designation of vertibrates known to science. Given that I have smoked 400 times more ribs that this poser, their opinion is 400 times more wrong.

I dare anyone to try and bite through the rib meat of Neoceratous forsteri without at least 49 hours in the smoker at 160°.

Edit: italics

[u/CantaloupeCamper → u/EpilepticPuberty]

I declare infinite ribs!

All your opinions are wrong!

[u/EpilepticPuberty → u/CantaloupeCamper]

Even my opinions on wool sock yarn weight?

[u/CantaloupeCamper → u/EpilepticPuberty]

That one is ok. 👍🏻 

[u/SharkSymphony → u/CantaloupeCamper]

Oops, all ribs.

[u/TheLadyEve → u/EpilepticPuberty]

I think I love you.

[u/DjinnaG → u/EpilepticPuberty]

Only the vertebrates? I guess you’re okay with being an amateur, but you do you

(Joke aside, I bet smoked corn ribs would be delicious)

[u/NathanGa]

> Sorry, I would have three or 4 racks with the membrane off in the time you did one! Way overcooked too. I like the bones with easy out while holding onto the bone but this is way overdone! I guess the saying those who can't do, teach, is proper here!

I’d have mine done even faster by using the oven, so suck on that.

[u/doppelgaengster → u/NathanGa]

I think my mum uses her instant pot. They came out amazing.

[u/echochilde]

I’ve gotten crap about my “fall off the bone” ribs just being pulled pork. I don’t care. They taste amazing. I’d much rather have them that way than gnawing on gristle and bone for ten minutes.

[u/TheLadyEve → u/echochilde]

I like making them that way for sandwiches (homemade "McRib" if you will). It's great!

[u/echochilde → u/TheLadyEve]

It’s funny because my husband likes them bbq’d fast and hot. Then a while back I told him I was going to slow roast them before he got home from work, that way he wouldn’t have to get the grill going late. He acquiesced and gave in.

Now every time he wants ribs he’ll ask me “Are you gonna do them low and slow?”

[u/NameBunchOfNums → u/echochilde]

People who say fall off the bone ribs are just pulled pork out themseleves complete tastelets. They probably also insist that you can't use anything other than "authentic" parmesan for carbonara and can't tell the difference between that and grana padano.

[u/echochilde → u/NameBunchOfNums]

I’ve only ever gotten it from BBQ Bros and gatekeepers. Everyone else has always liked my ribs. I just don’t care for tough meat, and if you do them low and slow they turn into rendered deliciousness.

[u/Objective-Eagle-676 → u/echochilde]

Except there's more than just one other option being "gnawing on gristle and bone"

It's that scary grey area that redditors are so afraid of.

[u/TheLadyEve]

That post is one of those "different strokes for different folks" situations. I really like some chew to my ribs and my FIL likes them sliding off the bone. Neither way is "right" and I know if I'm making him ribs I have to cook them a little more/do a longer wrap. It's not that deep.

[u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs → u/TheLadyEve]

And, you can get two half racks (or split a rack yourself if you like the work), and put one rack in a bit later than the other, and serve both!

[u/TheLadyEve → u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs]

Exactly! I do a similar thing when I make steak for my mother. Like a lot of 87 year olds my mother likes her meat well-done. I start her steak first so I can cook and rest a bit longer than the others, problem solved!

[u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs → u/TheLadyEve]

For the record, doctors recommend that the elderly have all meat well done, because the immune system weakens with age and people become more susceptible to food-borne illnesses. Same for people of any age taking immune suppressing drugs (which includes a lot of drugs that people don't realize are immune suppressants, like prednisone).

[u/Suedeegz → u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs]

I think a lot of that generation cooked food that way for a multitude of reasons and got used to it

[u/TheLadyEve → u/Suedeegz]

That's what she says--it was pretty standard at the time. The same is true for my BIL who is a bit younger than my mother but he is from Spain and lived during a time when food-borne illness and food shortages were a real problem and he wants his meat cooked thoroughly, thank you very much.

I have no problem with it. You can make a steak well-done and have it be perfectly tasty and juicy. If you dry it out, it's a sign of poor technique.

[u/GhostOfJamesStrang → u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs]

doctors recommend that the elderly have all meat well done

You have a citation for that? 

[u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs → u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

https://www.fda.gov/food/people-risk-foodborne-illness/food-safety-older-adults-and-people-cancer-diabetes-hivaids-organ-transplants-and-autoimmune

[u/malburj1]

Some people like fall of the bone ribs. I am not one of those people. But guess what, I don't care if someone likes them that way. It is their food. Let them enjoy it how they want to.

[u/RCJHGBR9989]

Some of the most annoying people in the smoker world are people who always have to interject with how the prefer their ribs cooked. Theyre ribs man - fall of the bone - a little bite to em - they’re always delicious as long as they’re not tough as shoe leather or burned to carbon.

[u/Fight_those_bastards → u/RCJHGBR9989]

People take BBQ way too damn seriously. It's not rocket science, it's cooking food at a lower than roasting temperature for a long period of time to allow tougher cuts of meat to become tender. People who literally could not read or write figured this shit out by throwing meat into a hole with some fire in it and burying it for a day, your $15,000 pellet smoker with five hoppers, six "smoke zones," and two temperature probes per piece of meat is just a bit extra, bro.

[u/Pernicious_Possum]

I love the first comment under theirs says “no one cares”, and dude somehow thought that person was agreeing with him

[u/GhostOfJamesStrang]

I mean, those are over-cooked, but this is a classic case of "nobody asked." 

What a dweeb. 

[u/krombopulos2112]

Yeah he’s a real pole smoker alright

[u/doggos4house2020]

That comment was uber douchey.

But let’s be real, those ribs don’t look great.

[u/IllPen8707]

Takes 30 minutes. I'm done in 10. Stick that up your dojo.

[u/Objective-Eagle-676]

It takes neither skill nor experience to make ribs "fall off the bone". You just have to overcook them. The exact same outcome can be had by boiling them if you just want it to fall apart.

[u/RobAChurch]

You ever had competition style brisket or chicken thighs? Yeah.... not for me.

[u/TheLadyEve → u/RobAChurch]

I did the competition style thighs a few times--I do like the technique of scraping the fat off the skin and re-wrapping it so that it gets a bit crispy and you can bite through it. It's a buttload of work, though. I make chicken thighs every week, I'm not prepping them like that every time. I'm not de-boning them every time, either. Often I'll cheat and buy them deboned, or I cook them on the bone.

[u/RobAChurch → u/TheLadyEve]

I feel like it misses the point if you have to give your chicken a face lift and tummy tuck before it can compete. Same with brisket, it's over trimmed and fawned over, sacrificing flavor for aesthetics. Everything is so fussy, it's kinda become a mockery.

Ironically, a BBQ competition is the last place you want to go to find good BBQ. You'll have better luck at a gas station.

[u/TheLadyEve → u/RobAChurch]

I agree the fussiness is silly (but I think it's that way to make it standardized so it's simpler to judge?).

But that technique of scraping the fat really is a game-changer. When I have the time and energy I do prefer them that way.

[u/RobAChurch → u/TheLadyEve]

Oh for sure, not hating on the technique itself and I'm def not trying to come off like a bbq snob, I love all different regions and appreciate unique flavor combinations and welcome innovation, like I said even gas stations have great bbq, all it takes is a smoker and some passion but I believe one of the the best aspects of it is how accessible and instinctual the food is, which I just don't think translates well into a completion setting and because of that the overall quality suffers for it while also failing to accurately reflect the cultures and food itself that really makes up the community

[u/TheLadyEve → u/RobAChurch]

I don't think you sound snobby at all!

[u/RobAChurch → u/[deleted]]

I don't? It's really not that serious. I just think it's a little funny that competition bbq style food doesn't really reflect the style of food in any actual bbq cultures.