Went to buy two racks of baby back ribs today but the butcher only had spare ribs. The plan is to have them for dinner on Wednesday. The difficult part is that I won't be able to fire up the grill until about 3PM, which would put the done time somewhere between 8PM and 9PM.

Does anyone have any recommendations for what I could do to not screw this up? Should I wrap them in foil, put them in the oven, and set a delayed bake in the oven at 200°F for roughly 3 hours, then finish them on the grill?

Can I start to cook them today or tomorrow for 3 hours on the grill with wood chunks, refrigerate them, and then rewarm them on Wednesday?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Posted by RonFNSwanson

1739 mi from the University of LSU

Member since Mar 2012

24369 posts

Posted on 8/12/19 at 12:52 pm to McVick

quote:
Can I start to cook them today or tomorrow for 3 hours on the grill with wood chunks, refrigerate them, and then rewarm them on Wednesday?

Do it like this, but cook them all the way through and reheat to serve.

And if you aren't gonna smoke the whole time, do it first. Smoke absorbs easier in the beginning.

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Posted by SmokedBrisket2018

Member since Jun 2018

1544 posts

Posted on 8/12/19 at 1:49 pm to McVick

quote:
Can I start to cook them today or tomorrow for 3 hours on the grill with wood chunks, refrigerate them, and then rewarm them on Wednesday?

Do this for sure.
Keep them wrapped when rewarming.
Rewarm on very low heat in your oven, like 200-225.
Spare ribs have more fat than baby back so you should not have to worry about them being dry as long as you don't overcook them for the initial smoke.

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Posted by McVick

Member since Jan 2011

4634 posts

Posted on 8/12/19 at 2:00 pm to SmokedBrisket2018

Thanks Ron and Smokedbrisket!

I'm prepping them now and will fire up the Weber today. I plan to do 3 hours unwrapped followed by 2 hours wrapped in foil, then freeze/refrigerate immediately while wrapped. Then, when I am home I can pull them out and rewarm in the oven for an hour or so at a low temp. This should help me out a lot for Wednesday.

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Posted by McVick

Member since Jan 2011

4634 posts

Posted on 8/14/19 at 7:47 pm to McVick

Wanted to update to say the suggestions worked out well. After slow cooking them with hickory on the grill I wrapped them in foil and finished the two hour cook in the oven at 250°, then put them in the fridge. Today I pulled them out, lit the charcoals, let them cook in the foil for 25 minutes, unwrapped them and finished on the grill (with sauce) for another 25 minutes. The ribs turned out tasty enough for seconds.

Many thanks again to Ron and Smokedbrisket. If I have the time I'm cooking a rack of ribs and eating the same day, but this method worked out well enough given the circumstances.

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