By Dylan Clay
While most recipes for ribs these days involve wrapping in either aluminum foil or butcher paper, wrapping isn’t necessary when smoking ribs – or any cut of meat for that matter.
This style of rib is called a “no wrap rib” – While I don’t find there to be much of a difference in taste and tenderness, some people swear by them.
People will give you so many answers to this question but they all really boil down to one thing – the bark.
If you’re someone who likes a crunchy, pellicle-like bark on your ribs, then not wrapping your ribs is likely your preference.
The reason for this has everything to do with what wrapping does to the exterior of the meat. Wrapping with foil (and using liquids) as well as wrapping with butcher paper will soften the bark to some degree.
Ribs are also not a thick cut of meat and do not have a tendency to stall, meaning wrapping isn’t really used for the purpose that most people use it for – which is to speed cook time.
The reason people wrap ribs is because it combats the moisture wicking properties of the meat – i.e. the meat sweating. This is in a similar vein to human physiology, we sweat in order to cool our bodies down.
Meaning, the sole purpose for wrapping ribs is to speed the cook time.
When someone wraps with aluminum foil, they’re doing so because it’s a non-porous material; Meaning, it effectively traps moisture and heat.
While butcher paper is porous, it still works to trap moisture and heat.
Lots of people also use the wrap as a way to introduce liquids like apple juice or apple cider vinegar, as well as sugars like honey or dark brown sugar.
These liquids can further speed cook time as they have a better heat carrying capacity than air – effectively braising the meat.
This is pretty hard to give a straightforward answer as every rack of ribs is different. Something like your smoker temperature will also have a big impact on cook time.
In every instance though, not wrapping your ribs will take longer than wrapping.
For example, if we look at my recipe for baby back ribs on the Weber Kettle I wrapped them with aluminum foil and they took 5 hours and 30 minutes until they reached tenderness.
In that recipe, the smoker was around 225-250F the entire cook.
Looking at the timestamps on my photos for the ribs in this article, the baby back ribs took 6 hours and 10 minutes.
In this case, the smoker was around 250-275F the entire cook.
The main reason I bumped the temperature was because it was 10F outside and actively snowing.
I also know that by bumping the temperature by 25-50F, it will help to push past any sort of evaporative cooling the ribs might be experiencing.
So in my case, even with increasing the temperature, they took 40 minutes longer to finish.
From experience, I’d wager to say that’s about average – usually wrapped ribs will be done about 45-90 minutes faster.
In my opinion, they don’t taste markedly better. However, my Dad would disagree with me.
I smoked these ribs for Myself, my Mom, and my Dad; Without my Dad knowing what I did, he commented that they were wicked good. For someone who doesn’t give out compliments often, that means he liked them.
My Dad is someone who lives for the crunch. He enjoys different textures in food, i.e. a crunchy exterior bark followed by tender meat. Lots of the content on this website is with him in mind.
However, when I asked my Mom, she said they tasted about the same as always; Bite off the bone, smoky, and tender.
In terms of my own opinion – the difference is negligible. I’d wager to say they’re a tad more “barkier.”
Granted, unlike most folks, I also don’t wrap early. I wrap my ribs at around 175-180F. Where-as a lot of articles teach people to wrap early at around 150-160F.
Meaning, my style is a little bit softer due to the foil trapping moisture and softening the bark, but not nearly as soft as wrapping early.
To smoke no wrap ribs, you’ll need the following:
With baby back ribs, there isn’t a lot of preparation to do. All I did for these ribs was remove the membrane.
I have a way more in-depth article on that topic, found here.
To condense that article:
1. Use a butter knife to lift the membrane from the back of the ribs. Then use a spoon to continue to lift the membrane.
2. Once lifted end to end, use a paper towel to grip and rip the membrane horizontally along the ribs.
3. Discard the membrane in the trash.
If you’re smoking spare ribs and you want to trim them to a St. Louis Cut, here’s my how-to guide.
A big qualm I have with lots of rib recipes is that they borderline assault the meat with dry rub/spices/sugar; It gets to the point where you can barely taste pork.
This is the same reason I don’t liquid wrap my ribs – I’m not a bbq competitor and I’m actually going to eat the entire rack of ribs.
Rather, I just use kosher salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
For this article, I combined:
I then applied that to both sides of the ribs.
The reason I opted to use 16 Mesh black pepper is because it really helps to create a crunchy bark. You can also use significantly more of it without the “peppery” taste being problematic.
Since we’re smoking no wrap ribs for the purpose of the bark, we might as well use ingredients that further enhance the bark.
My goal when smoking no wrap ribs is to be between 250-275F pit temp. The higher temperature will also help to push past any sort of stall the ribs experience.
Once my Weber Kettle was at around 225F, I adjusted my vents and put my ribs on the grates. Since it was colder outside (10F), I had the bottom vent 1/4 open and the top vent completely open.
I then put my ribs on the smoker.
I then added a chunk of pecan and a chunk of cherry wood to the fire and put the lid on. In my opinion, cherry wood works best with pork ribs.
I then added new wood chunks every hour for 3 hours; That’s about how long wood chunks will last and about how long ribs will take on smoke.
This is the best part about smoking no wrap ribs – all you’re waiting for is for the ribs to be tender.
Whenever I wrap ribs, I’m primarily looking at the color of the ribs.
Since I don’t use paprika in my rub, I like to look for a deep red mahogany color. Usually when they’re ready to wrap, the internal temperature is also at around 175F – 180F. ‘
In this article, I waited up until the point I was happy with the bark and took temperatures just because I was curious; These ribs were 175F.
However, since we’re not wrapping, we don’t have to care about any of these qualities.
I also don’t believe in spritzing the meat. In my opinion, it does very little in the grand scheme of things. If anything, isn’t spritzing potentially softening the bark, the opposite of our goal?
With ribs, I always use the same tests to tell when they’re done. I have a more in depth article that looks at these factors but the short of it:
The bend test picks the ribs up at about the 5th rib. You then allow the other ribs to bend. If the ribs are bending at about a 45 degree angle, they’re done.
Here’s what ribs look like at around 175F:
Here’s what ribs look like when they’re “done”:
As you can see, there’s way more of a bend.
Next, you can do a tear near a bone in the center:
If the meat cleanly pulls away from the bone, the meat is likely done.
Next, you can probe between the bones with your probe or a toothpick. If the probe/toothpick glide through like hot butter, they’re likely done.
Lastly, I rarely use temperature to tell me when ribs are done, just because some can finish at 190F and others can finish at 205F.
These ribs were probing 201F when I deemed them done.
Once you take the ribs off the smoker, they’re technically resting.
I allowed these ribs to rest for 15 minutes. This allows the juices to gelatinize and will allow you actually hold the bones in your hands.
When you’re resting, you DO NOT need to tent them with foil. This will only build up moisture and soften the bark.
While you’re resting, you can also sauce your ribs with your choice of barbecue sauce. I had Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey BBQ Sauce in my refrigerator, so I used that.
Optionally, you could also return these to your smoker to glaze for 10-15 minutes.
After resting and saucing you can slice between the bones and enjoy!
Thanks for this article. Just what im looking for! Appreciate it.
Happy to help Scott!
Great recipe my friend. Love the ribs. I like a little barbecue sauce so after I left the ribs rest, I put my sauce on a little let him rest some more and away we went
Happy to help Ace!