Thank you. I think the McFatties were a little on the salty side because they started that way and I had salt in my rub. Next time, I'll omit the salt in the rub for these things.
Ribs seemed a little hard on the outside and a little chewy, like they may have been overdone. What I was trying to experiment with is to avoid foil to see what happens. Bill was so kind to show me what it can do (make really tender fall of the bone ribs). I thought I could improve on that and I did. They are now dry, overcooked, a little tough. Just like what I'm used to
I definately did not oversmoke them. I tasted the left over brisket that we cut off the ribs from a few weeks ago. I foiled the ribs but not the brisket and the 5 apple chunks gave it a pretty intense smoke (for what apple can do), strong, but not offensive like the time I over did the hickory the week before. I didn't really have a chance to taste the ribs I cooked a few weeks ago, so I have no reference for how much smoke they absorbed in the 4 hours they weren't in foil (compared to the brisket that I left on..and on..and on all unprotected). This time I used 3 large chunks of cherry and a few medium chunks of apple.
That said, these ribs could have used a little help, like be taken off sooner, get some sauce on sooner, apple cider spray a lot sooner, foiled (even for a little bit).
Now, the bark (can I say that about the ribs?) did seem to be more tough than when we used foil, but this may be a bad thing.
Amy ate a rib and thought it wasn't bad, and she doesn't like pork a whole lot, so I took that as a compliment.