Quick Tip For Better Smoked Ribs

If you've ever smoked ribs you know that keeping them moist and juicy is critical to the final product.
I'd like to pass along something that I learned from a championship barbecue competitor and professional chef last year when I was competing at the American Royal.

He walked up to me and my partner at about 4:00 AM while we were prepping our ribs and told us how
he gets his ribs to look plumper and have a meatier and juicier texture. It was so simple that we couldn't believe it had never ocurred to us. He told us that when you place your ribs in the smoker, (bone side down of course) lay them out flat and straight, and then push each end of the slab towards the middle, which will kind of squish the bones together. It shortens the slab a bit, but you'll immediately see how much meatier and plumper they look.

I really believe this resulted in a much more attractive slab, as well as meatier and juicier one. The judges must have thought so too, because those ribs took 4th out of nearly 500 teams!