Rib Cooking Without a Thermometer (How to Tell When Ribs Are Done)

🔥 Ribs Without a Thermometer — Trust Your Pit! 🔥

What happens when your pit thermometer breaks and you lent out your Thermapen right before rib day?
Most folks would panic … but not today.

In this video, I’ll show you how to make juicy, competition-worthy ribs on my kettle grill (Sidious) — no digital gear, no stress.

You’ll learn:
• How to control heat with vents and the “hand test” method
• How to fine-tune bottom vs. lid vents for steady temps
• How to read ribs by color, bark & pull-back
• My wrap method using JDQ Sweet + JDQ Spicy Rubs, 16-mesh pepper, and a BBQ Sauce + Dr Pepper glaze 🔥

➡️ Join The Smoker’s Guild — where beginners build confidence, share wins, and turn nervous BBQ into backyard bragging rights.
🔗 Join The Smoker’s Guild – Link in bio

🧂 Rubs Used: JDQ Sweet & JDQ Spicy + 16-Mesh Pepper
🍶 Wrap Glaze: BBQ Sauce + Dr Pepper (thinned for shine & tenderness)

💡 CHAPTER GUIDE
00:00 Intro & Story (Disaster?)
00:44 Seasoning the Ribs
01:03 Kettle Setup & Vent Control
01:57 Hand Test for Temp
02:35 Reading the Ribs
03:44 The Scratch Test
04:05 Wrap & Glaze
04:55 Check for Doneness
06:42 Slice & Serve
07:16 Join The Smoker’s Guild 🔥

🧤 Cooked On: Kettle Grill “Sidious”
🎥 Follow for More: @SillyBubbasBBQ on YouTube | TikTok | Instagram

#BBQ #Ribs #SmokersGuild #SillyBubbasBBQ #KettleGrill #NoThermometer #BBQForBeginners #JDQRubs #DrPepperGlaze #BackyardBBQ #LearnToBBQ #BarbecueTips #HandTestBBQ #PitTemperature #Thermapen #BarbecueCommunity
Rib day almost ruined by missing thermometers? No sweat! I’m showin’ you how to still make amazing **smoked ribs** with these **bbq tips**. Learn how to cook competition-worthy **bbq ribs** and master the art of **backyard bbq** — no thermometer needed to make great **bbq** and delicious **ribs recipe**! Don’t let anything stop you from learning **how to cook ribs**.

[Music] Yes, it’s rib day. These ribs are going to impress family, friends, maybe even my mother-in-law. I can’t wait to get these ribs on the pit. Oh no, Billy Bob still has my meat thermometer and my pit thermometer crapped out. No, [Music] you know what? I got this. I know I can make this work. And with a little bit of help, you can too. Let’s make it happen. [Music] I’ve got no way to tell temperature. Not the pit, not the meat. All I have is my grill and my charcoal. But let’s make this work. What I can control is this rack of ribs. Let’s get this excess meat and fat taken off. And you know what? I’m going to score the membrane. I’m not even going to worry about taking it off. I’ll use a light coat of 16 mesh pepper, JDQ sweet, and a little JDQ spicy. Now, I’ll just pat this in and prepare my pit. To start with, I’m going to light six to eight charcoal briquettes in my chimney. We’ll be using a twozone setup. Coals around most of the perimeter of my pit and ribs over the water pan for indirect heat. I’ll even add water for moisture. Once the coals in the chimney are glowing hot, I’ll add them to one corner of the unlit charcoal. As you can see, I have plenty of charcoal and wood here for a long cook, up to 8 hours if needed. At this point, I’ll get my grate on and also my lid. And so, this pit should come up to good cooking temperature in about 15 minutes or so. To start with, we’ll open our lid vent to 75% open. This will allow a good amount of air to come in, but not too much. Our bottom vent should be 100% open for a good amount of air flow at the start of our cook. As the heat starts to build, I put my ribs on the cool side of the pit. Now, here’s our built-in thermometer, our hand. Hover your hand over the water pan side of the kettle. If you can keep it there about 3 to 4 seconds before it’s too hot, you’re sitting right around 250 to 275°. If it’s hotter than that, close the lid vent a bit and give it 15 minutes to settle. After your grill passes the hand temperature test, adjust the bottom vent to 25% open. And this should be a good temperature for ribs. Make sure your lid vent stays over the ribs opposite the fire so the heat is forced to flow across the meat. Use that same hand test to fine-tune your top vent and control your temps. At about 1 hour into the cook, I’m looking for color, and I saw plenty of it. These ribs are cooking beautifully, so I decided to flip the ribs over so I could get even color on both sides, including those little bitty rib tips that I put up there for a nice snack. Again, there isn’t a thermometer for my grill or my meat in sight, and I don’t need it. I’m looking for a mahogany color in my ribs, which means I’m right on target. I left the ribs meat side down for about 30 minutes for even cooking. Then, I pulled out my daughter spray bottle, which I stole, and gave the ribs their first spritz of Dr. Pepper. At this point, I’m happy with the color, and so I flipped the ribs back over to continue cooking. And notice that exterior or bark or crust. It’s beautiful. It’s mahogany. The fat is rendering nicely. These are going to be great ribs for the family. Also, notice we’re about 3 hours into this cook. And look how much more charcoal and wood is left. More than enough to complete this cooking session. Once that crust or bark is locked in and the colors right, one way to ensure the ribs are tender enough for your family is to wrap them in aluminum foil. But before I do that, I perform the scratch test, which means if you can scrape your finger across the meat without rub smearing off, then it’s time to wrap them in foil for tenderness. The goal is to keep that wonderfully flavorful bark intact. This is exactly how your ribs should look before foil. They’re bending slightly, the color is a rich mahogany, and the rub doesn’t scrape off, which means the integrity of the bark will stay intact. Now, there are a lot of different things you can put inside of your foil wrap. Some people put apple juice and other things. In my foil wrap today, I decided to use some of my barbecue sauce thinned out with my Dr. Pepper spray. I used the same process on the bottom side of the ribs, making sure the sauce and spray were evenly distributed. I then wrapped them very tightly in aluminum foil. I do this because I don’t want any steam inside this foil pouch. I would like to braze these ribs so they keep that awesome flavor and the juices inside. I then put the ribs back on the pit, meat side down, and I’m going to check them about every 30 minutes. I’ll move this little morsel out of the fire, keep the lid vent on the opposite side, and keep cooking. Yeah, who needs a thermometer? Not me. After about 30 minutes, I’ll open that foil and check for pullback and tenderness. I grab the bones with both hands. Notice I’m wearing cotton liners under my gloves because I’m trying to see if the bones twist or break free because when they start to give like that, you’re right where you need to be. And these ribs weren’t quite ready yet. So, back in the foil they go for another 30 minutes, wrapped tightly until they’re nice and tender. At this point, it’s all about patience and trusting the process. 30 minutes later, I decided to recheck these ribs. You can tell the outside of the foil that it’s been cooking quite nicely. And look at those bones. You see even more pull back on the bones. More of the meat’s exposed. And notice when I twist the bones, it breaks free. These ribs are tender and they’re at the point now where we can glaze them. I then took the ribs out of the foil, put them back on the grill, meat side down, just to firm up a bit. About 5 minutes later, I applied my barbecue sauce, which I warmed up to avoid streaks of sauce once it sets. It’s a good habit to then leave your ribs on the cool side of the pit for around 10 to 15 minutes so that your sauce has a chance to caramelize and shine like a new penny. That twozone fire worked like a dream. And notice we even have coals left to cook with despite these ribs being on for around 6 hours. After 15 minutes, the sauce had a chance to bake in a bit on the ribs to complement that awesome color. And talk about awesome color. Look at these ribs. The color and tenderness of these ribs say it better than I can. So, just know if you’re in a bind like me with none of your typical tech on hand, know that you can absolutely produce mouthwatering results following these tips. Now, it’s time to slice the ribs. I put a thin layer of sauce on the board because I don’t want that crust to smear off when I slice. And these sliced effortlessly, so tender, so juicy, the perfect rib in my opinion. In fact, look at that juice and that smoke ring. This is on a kettle grill, folks. No thermometers, nothing in sight. Just good old heat and smoke. And look at the lacquer on these ribs. I don’t mind if I do. So tender, so good, so delicious. Perfect bite marks, which means perfect tenderness. To all the beginners out there, this is what we do inside the Smoker’s Guild. We face the setbacks, share what works, and turn barbecue into something we love. Are you ready to cook with confidence? Join the guild. The links in the bio. Let’s make it happen.