National Pork Board

Authority

Industry technical body

Territories

US

Primacy

primary

Commercial interest

advertising funded

Retrieved

2026-08-13

State

Read and citable

Original document

Gives 225–250 °F with 3–5 hours for loin back ribs and 5–7 hours for spareribs and St Louis-style. The spareribs figure is where BBQHQ found its cleanest genuine disagreement: Weber's chart gives 3–4 hours indirect low for spareribs of a stated weight. Two competent publishers, the same food, the same broad method, non-overlapping windows. BBQHQ publishes neither as the answer.

Culinary practice, Technical

• Explicitly not safety: A promotional levy body is not a food-safety authority.
• Explicitly not commercial: Funded to promote pork consumption.

• The National Pork Board gives 5 to 7 hours at 225–250 °F for smoking spareribs, and the same for St Louis-style ribs.

  Cooker:

  225–250 °F, about 107–121 °C.

  The source notes cook times vary with thickness.

  Where it applies:

  United States.

• The National Pork Board gives 3 to 5 hours at 225–250 °F for smoking loin back ribs.

  Cooker:

  225–250 °F, about 107–121 °C.

  'Loin back ribs' is the US trade term for what barbecue writing calls baby back ribs.

• The National Pork Board gives a target internal temperature of 185 to 190 °F for smoked pork shoulder, at which point it states the bone will slip easily from the meat, and expresses the time as a rate of about one hour and fifteen minutes per pound.

  Endpoint:

  185–190 °F, about 85–88 °C. Far above the 145 °F safety figure on the same publisher's grilling chart.

  Form:

  The duration is a RATE per pound, not a total, so it cannot be recorded as a duration without choosing a weight.

  The bone slipping free is a physical signal, not a temperature.

• Two competent publishers give non-overlapping times for smoking pork spareribs: Weber gives 3–4 hours over indirect low heat for a 2½–3½ lb rack, and the National Pork Board gives 5–7 hours at 225–250 °F. BBQHQ holds no basis for preferring either and publishes neither as the answer.
• Baby back or loin back ribs smoked at around 107–121 °C take roughly 3 to 5 hours. Weber gives 3–4 hours indirect low and the National Pork Board gives 3–5 hours at 225–250 °F.
• Smoked pork shoulder is taken to roughly 85–88 °C, far above any safety endpoint, and the National Pork Board's stated signal is that the bone slips easily from the meat.

If this source changes, these are the claims that need rechecking. That is the point of recording provenance per claim rather than per page.