Smoking meat is a bit of an undertaking. To give rib meat that tender, juicy flavor you want takes a few hours of smoking time. For the first cook time, you'll smoke the ribs for 3 hours. Then that's followed by 2 hours, and then a final hour of cooking. Altogether, it takes 6 hours of smoking time, and before that, you need to let the meat rest for 1 hour.  Although it's time-consuming, smoking meat is worth it for the amazing texture and incredible layers of flavor that you get. The good news is once the meat is in the smoker, you can leave it to cook for the next few hours. I usually save recipes like this one for the weekend when I'll be at home to manage the smoker.