When selecting my spare ribs for the smoker I settled on these. The 4.5 refers to the total weight of each slab... before trimming.





I checked my thermometer to make sure the reading I was going to get in the cooker was accurate.



I trimmed one rack to a St. Louis cut by removing the portion of the rack you see below. This is leaving the small "grissel" bones in place to "munch" around. The real St. Louis cut has these removed. I perfer the look the finished rib has with these in place... a personal preference.



I also removed the membrane on the bone side of the rack to let my rub penetrate more and my guests from trying to chew though the almost un-chewable.



After sprinkling rub on both racks, I let them come to room temp. in a rib rack...

I filled a WSM a tad more than half full of charcoal.. and removed 50 ( I counted ) bricketts and started them in a chimney.



When they were white I added them to the ring and assembled the barrel... added the water pan and filled it with hot water... I added the cherries to give rhe reader some perception of depth... not for any other particular reason.



When the cooker reached 265 I closed the bottom vents and placed the racks in the cooker and added 2 slivers of apple wood for smoke. The wsm's temp fell to 225... I did nothing to the cooker and the temp slowly rose to 250 and stablized.



After 3 hours the temp had risen to just under 275 and I removed the ribs and wrapped in foil, adding a tablespoon each of honey and apple juice.



I left them in the foil in the cooker for 2 hrs. at whatever the cooker temp. fell to... this case 235




I took the foil off and glazed with 1/2 sauce mixed with 1/2 apple juice and put back on the cooker to which I had added a small piece of apple wood for a little more smoke. The heat set the glaze after 20 mins. and the ribs were removed to rest for another 10 mins. before slicing...




Epilogue: I would next time leave them in foil for 1.5 hrs. instead of the 2.0 hrs. ... and had long necks instead of cans.