Wrapping Ribs: What Temp, How Long, and Other Queries

Ribs are a great choice for entertaining because they are inexpensive, versatile, and delicious. They also take less time to cook than other cuts of meat.

The problem is that cooking them correctly can be tricky. If you don’t follow the proper steps, you risk ruining your ribs.

There are several ways to cook ribs. Some recipes call for direct heat, such as grilling or broiling. Others require indirect heat, such as baking or roasting. While some recipes call for both methods. 

In this article, we’ll discuss what temperature and the timing for cooking your ribs. Alongside any other queries you may have about wrapping your ribs, to ensure you get perfect results every time.

Wrapping Your Ribs

The first step in preparing ribs is to wrap them. This will protect the meat from drying out while it cooks. Wrapping your ribs will ensure that they stay moist during the entire cooking process.

You should use butcher paper or aluminum foil. When using butcher paper, make sure to fold it over on itself so that it doesn’t stick to the ribs.

Fold one end up and then roll it back down onto the ribs. Make sure to leave enough room between each rib so that there isn’t too much pressure when rolling. Once you’ve rolled the butcher paper around your ribs, tie it off with string or twine.

The aim of wrapping your ribs is to get your ribs to their optimal temperature as quickly as possible. After 2 hours, you may want to consider removing the foil or paper, so you don’t dry the meat out. 

What Does Wrapping Your Ribs Do?

It is known that wrapping your ribs in paper, but particular foil, will help them to cook much quicker. This is because the heat is trapped with the ribs, and this helps the ribs meet their optimal temperature much quicker than if they weren’t wrapped at all. 

As the ribs are wrapped, they cook much quicker and become a lot more tender as well. There are a couple of methods that use wrapping your ribs that help add more flavor and provide you with tender and delicious ribs every time.

The Texas Crutch method is when you wrap your ribs during the smoking or roasting period. This helps to speed up the cooking time.

Alongside that, there is another method where you smoke your ribs during the first couple of cooking hours. Which allows for the smokey flavor to really get into the meat. Then wrap the ribs up and continue cooking. 

For the final hour, you should then unwrap the ribs. This is known as the 3-2-1 method. The 3-2-1 method is very popular among beginners as it is simple to do and control. 

Should You Be Wrapping Your Ribs?

 Cooking ribs can take a very long time, and sometimes this can be the factor whether you should be wrapping your ribs or not.

By wrapping up your ribs, this will reduce your cooking time, but also cause your ribs to create steam. This can sometimes cause your ribs to develop a mush-like texture. 

However, to stop this texture from developing, it is suggested that during the final hour of cooking you should remove the foil.

It cannot be denied that some chefs don’t like wrapping their ribs due to this effect, but there is no denying that it does massively reduce the cooking time when you are short of time. 

That being said, if you have enough time, then we would recommend you cook your ribs unwrapped. By leaving them unwrapped, they will have a much more appealing texture and taste delicious. 

Do You Need To Wrap Your Ribs To Be Grilled?

As we have just mentioned above, leaving your ribs unwrapped when you can is the best thing. When it comes to grilling, if you need to wrap your ribs, don’t do it straight away.

If you wrap your ribs while they are still raw, then they won’t benefit and take on any of the smoky flavor that the grill will provide the ribs. Which is why a lot of people normally grill their ribs to get that smokey flavor.

When it comes to grilling, the Texas Crutch method is the best choice here. You should begin by putting the ribs on the grill, then after three hours remove the ribs and wrap them in paper or foil.

While you are wrapping up the ribs, you can add more ingredients to the ribs such as a sauce or chili to add more flavor to the ribs. Then, once the ribs are all wrapped up, add them back onto the heat until they are cooked. 

Once the internal temperature of the ribs reaches around 150 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, this is the best temperature to remove the ribs from the heat.

When the ribs are at the temperature, this is known as the stall stage, and the wrapping will help your meat to continue cooking. Thus getting the ribs to cook quicker, so you can eat them much sooner. 

Ribs In The Oven: Do They Need To Be Wrapped?

Some cooks like to cook their ribs in the oven, yet the same principles about wrapping your ribs are applied here as they were grilling.

Except you can wrap your ribs from the beginning of the cooking process if you wish as you don’t have to worry about your ribs not getting that smokey flavor. As that doesn’t apply in this situation. 

Depending on how much time you have and the size of the ribs you have, set your oven to either 250 or 275 degrees Fahrenheit. A pack of 3 pound baby back ribs cooked at 250 degrees will take 5 hours, while at 275, they will take only 3 or 4 hours.

While a 3 pound rack of spare ribs cooked at 250 degrees takes 8 hours, compared to 275 which only takes 5 hours.

We would suggest that halfway through the cooking time, that is the time to take the ribs out of the oven and wrap them.

This way the ribs get some time to get a nice brown coloring and develop a good texture. Then, by wrapping them up halfway through, you are helping the cooking process along. 

Once they are wrapped and placed back in your oven, you should continue to cook them until the ribs have reached an internal temperature of 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then at the last stage, remove the foil and add a glaze or sauce, then continue to cook until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 198 degrees.

What Temperature Should You Be Smoking Your Wrapped Ribs To?

When it comes to smoking your ribs that have been wrapped in butcher’s paper or foil, it can be smoked to any temperature between 225 and 275 degrees Fahrenheit. 

It is known ribs need to be cooked slowly, to help them achieve the right texture that is appealing to eat. Therefore, we suggest setting your smoker or grill to around 225 degrees.

However, if it is a cooler day or a windy day or your appliance runs on the colder side. Then it may be worth upping the temperature to 250 degrees to make up for this difference. 

When Should You Be Wrapping Your Ribs?

The best time to wrap your ribs is once they reach 150 to 160 degrees. As at this stage, the meat will stall at this temperature. 

The reason the temperature stalls at this point is that as the ribs cook, they are losing a lot of moisture. As a result, this is why cooked meat weighs a lot less than what it weighed when it was raw.

This is due to the fluid and moisture within the raw meat will begin to make its way to the surface as the ribs cook. Once the moisture reaches the surface, it then evaporates. 

Thus, as this liquid is evaporating, it also lowers the surface temperature of the ribs.

Then eventually, this effect will keep the internal temperature of ribs steady for a certain period of time.

It won’t stay at this temperature fever, once all the extra liquid on the surface has been evaporated then the temperature will begin to rise once again. 

However, by wrapping the ribs, this traps any moisture that is trying to escape. This then prevents the cooling effect that was taking place, and thus the temperature will begin to rise quickly again.

The stalling stage is very common in larger cuts of meat, but it also happens with ribs too. By wrapping your ribs is the one way to get past this stage and for your ribs to be cooked much quicker. 

How Long Should Ribs Be Wrapped For?

This answer can vary depending on the type of ribs you are trying to create. However, the standard response is around 2 hours.

Yet when it comes to the total cooking time of ribs, this all depends on the weight of the ribs themselves. No matter the cooking time, 2 hours is normally more than enough time to wrap your ribs for. 

Although, it doesn’t matter how long you leave your ribs wrapped, as long as you unwrap them for the final hour minimum of the cooking time.

This is because it will add more smokey flavor to your grilled ribs and will improve the overall texture of your ribs as well.

Will Wrapping Your Ribs Make Them More Tender?

Ribs are the kind of meat that needs to be cooked for a long and slow period of time. This allows them to get tender. 

By wrapping the ribs, this allows them to reach the desired optimal internal temperature of 195 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit much quicker.

Thus, the meat itself should be tender to easily slip off the bone. It can be argued that wrapping the ribs will make them more tender, however, you can still achieve the same effect by not wrapping the ribs as well. 

Wrapping Your Ribs In Butchers Paper Or Foil

Butcher paper is much more breathable than foil, so it doesn’t stop smoke reaching the meat while it is wrapped up. Alongside that, the paper will also absorb some evaporated liquid too. 

Foil is a much more popular choice when wrapping ribs, as it is known to trap the heat in well. This is due to being much less breathable. As a result, the cooking time is much shorter with foil than butcher’s paper. 

To wrap your ribs, you wrap them both in paper and foil in the same way. Your foil or paper should be twice the length of the ribs, and place your bids in the center.

Fold the longer ends over in the center and close up the top and the bottom of the ribs, by tucking the paper or foil under the ribs. 

Added Ingredients To Your Wrapped Ribs In Foil 

Some chefs like to add brown sugar when they are wrapping their ribs. The sugar will add more flavor to your ribs, and will caramelize on the outside of your ribs. A great way to add another boost of flavor and an interesting top texture. 

Alongside brown sugar, you could also add certain liquids to your wrapped ribs as well. Beer, apple juice, chicken stock and cider vinegar are all popular choices. 

Smoking Ribs: Wrap Or Not To Wrap

It is up to you whether you wrap your ribs after smoking or not. Some people like to wrap their ribs after smoking to get the ribs to their ideal serving temperature, as they are resting.

You should always let your ribs rest for 15 minutes minimum before you serve them. However, don’t let them sit for longer than an hour. 

Although, a lot of people prefer to smoke without wrapping their ribs at all. If you have plenty of time, then leaving  your ribs unwrapped is a much preferred method.

This is because you get a more intense smokey flavor and the texture is much better as well. Making the ribs more enjoyable to be eaten. 

Wrapping Your Ribs Recipe

All recipes differ on the types of ribs that you use and their weight. This mainly affects the cooking time. In this recipe we are using the beginners favorite’s 3-2-1 method using spare ribs.

However, you could use this method with baby back ribs. The difference is that the cooking time will only be 5 hours, and you should wrap the ribs 2 hours in cooking. 

Ingredients

• 2 racks of spare ribs
• 1/2 cup yellow mustard
• 3 tbsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

Directions

Step 1

Preheat your smoker or 225 degrees.

Step 2

Combine your dry ingredients together to create a rub.

Step 3

Remove any membranes from the ribs and pat them dry.

Step 4

Coat the ribs with the mustard and the rub you created. 

Step 5

Place your ribs onto your grill. The bone should be facing down. Close your grill lid and cook for 3 hours. 

Step 6

Remove the ribs from the grill and wrap them in foil or butcher paper. If you used foil, you should double wrap the ribs. However, you only need one layer if using butcher’s paper. 

Step 7

At this point before you close up your ribs you could add a glaze, honey, or some liquid to your ribs. The bone side should be facing you on the foil or paper. At this stage, you can also add brown sugar or melted butter to your ribs too. 

Step 8

Make sure you have created a tight seal on your ribs, so none of the liquid will escape. Then place the ribs back on the heat, you need to close the lid to your grill. Then let the ribs cook for another 2 hours. 

Step 9

After 2 hours, you need to unwrap your ribs and put them back onto the grill once again. This time you will be cooking the ribs either 1 hour or until they reach 195 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the last 30 minutes, you could brush your ribs with a sauce like BBQ for added flavor at this last stage. 

Step 10

Remove your ribs from the grill. Let them rest for 5 minutes and serve.

Conclusion

You don’t have to wrap your ribs for them to be devious. However, wrapping your ribs is handy when you are short of time and need to hurry the cooking process along once they reach 150 to 160 degrees. Although, you should ever wrap your ribs for longer than 2 hours, otherwise the texture of the ribs will be ruined.

We hope this article has provided an insight into wrapping ribs. Now you know how to produce perfect ribs to impress your friends and family. 

Thanks for reading!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYC9FDQhbM4