We're having a party on Sunday and so I'm going to smoke 4 slabs of baby backs on Saturday and then want to reheat them in the oven so that when we get home from church they're ready to go.

I find that when I do the 3-2-1 method they're too tender and just fall apart. I'd like for them to have some sturdiness to them, if that makes sense.

Got any advice? Thanks!

Don't wrap with foil. Wrap with pink butcher paper and they'll come out firm and tender.

If you haven't bought them yet, consider going with St Louis cut spare ribs. You'll have to adjust cooking time, but, will hold up better than baby backs

Try 3-1-1. The time in foil, in my experience, has a huge impact on the tenderness. We tend to like falling off bone. But if you don't want that then reduce the time it steams in the foil. Also be careful reheating them. Do it slowly, and you'll probably want to have some moisture in there while reheating as well.

Combination of what has already been suggested. Do spare ribs instead, you'll never do baby backs again.

I actually do more like 2-1-1 with spare ribs, and sometimes the "1"s are shortened to 45 min. I usually do my direct on a gas grill and then move em back to the smoker. 9/10 times they come out tender, but not fall off the bone, and usually that 1 time they dont come out good is cuz I paid too much attention to the beer instead of the ribs.

Too tender or fall apart means overcooked, and not that they taste bad or burned or anything, but that they got too much heat and breaking down more than desired. I've never much liked the 3-2-1 method as if you are cooking at 250-275 degrees even spare ribs dont take that long to finish sometimes. At that 250-275 range spares are usually 5-6.5 hours, St Louis 4.5-5.5 and I dont like to mess with baby backs but they would be even less.

If you really like the taste of your ribs and everything else about them, do everything the same but back off on time, I'd think you dont need more than 5 hours and its probably even closer to 4. Or you could go up to St Louis or spare if you still want to smoke for 6ish hours.

nm

Curious why you guys don't like the meat to fall off the bone? I've always done st louis 321 style with some turbinado sugar and sauce at the end and everyone i've made them for has absolutely loved the taste and how the meat falls off the bone.

I like it to need a little pull to get the meat off the bone, rather than just fall off. I think the meat falling off under it's own weight means it's a little overcooked (as mine were yesterday). Mine were a little overdone because I wrapped/rested in foil for too long, as was alluded to above (no complaints from the eaters, though).

And my smoker must cook a little differently, because I can do St Louis ribs in 3.5 hrs @ 250: 1 hr meat side down, flip and cook 1 hr, wrap and sauce, back on for 30 min, pull and rest in cooler for 1 hr. They come out great every time. The only issue I've had is leaving them wrapped/resting for too long.

because there is supposed to be just a little tug on them.