Pork Ribs -- Baby Back and Spare

[Marlene]

Yes there were three racks. Next time I'll invest in rib racks. I honestly think that must have been the problemm, not enough space on the grill. While I didn't expect them to be done in 5 hours, I expected them to be hotter to the touch than they were and to show at least a few signs of browning.

The ribs are in the oven and I can smell the smoke so they must have got some. Maybe we'll get dinner in the next half hour or so!

[ronnie_suburban]

I had a good rib run today. I ended up hot-smoking my ribs over a hickory-cherry blend for a little over 6 hours at about 210 F. After cooking, I did wrap them in foil to keep them warm but I didn't cook them any further.

The meat was tender but firm, and provided a slight resistance when being tugged from the bone. My wife and son both proclaimed them the "best batch ever" but that's because this was the batch which happened to be in front of them at the time.

A few pics . . .

3 slabs baby back loin ribs, brined, cut into half slabs, rubbed and smoked for about 6 hours.

A closer look.

The surface of the meat is crusted but still moist.

Here, you get a better sense of the additional meat provided by the loin.

Still moist inside and the smoke ring goes almost throughout.

The bone shows that the meat wasn't quite FOB, but it was perfectly tuggable.

=R=

[Marlene]

Here's what I started out with:

Rubbed:

After being wrapped in foil, in a 250 degree oven and then grilled for 5 minutes:

These were way too smokey for my taste. Ronnie's ribs look like I wanted mine to be like, but that didn't happen. I have no idea what went wrong, but so far, it may be a while before I attempt to smoke ribs again.

[snowangel]

Marlene, Ron, and Mike, today went from worse to worse, so I didn't participate. We had chuck eye steaks on the grill, with a small hunk of hickory that was residing in the Kettle along with a hunk of apple that just needed to be used. (BTW, Mike, congrats on the home improvement, my problems were all vehicle related.)

Marlene, I think mesquite is too strong. And, as I hope I've stated uptopic (or perhaps on my topic about our Cabin), too much wood can be a bad thing. I prefer to limit the wood with ribs because they are so thin and the bone to meat ratio os so high.

Sorry for bailing, but it has been a tough weekend.

Onward and upward to smoking on Easter. Although, smoking in between now and then might just be necessary for mental health!

[lancastermike]

Ron, your ribs look great. Great photography as well, I do need a new camera. Marlene don't give up on ribs yet. They are harder to have come out right than butt or brisket and I also think mesquite is evil stuff. Susan, sorry your weekend sucked.

I am eating lunch at work right now. Leftover ribs. Had them in the microwave just briefly to take the chill off. Now my office smells like smoked pork.

Tradition has us eating ham at Easter, not turkey. However, Maggie loves smoked turkey so I will be smoking. Only issue is we are going to Baltimore to see Etta James on Friday the 17. Will not be home till later Saturday which may cause some time issues.

[ronnie_suburban]

Thanks, Mike. I agree with you that Marlene shouldn't give up on ribs yet. I suggest that next time out, she smoke her preferred meat and also try another slab of ribs in addition. Really, as much as I've read about smoking foods, it's only through trial and error that I have approached results which make me happy and I still learn something new every time out. I remember one batch of ribs I made 2 summers ago, after bragging to my family about how good my ribs were. Well, these were barely edible. It was the only batch of ribs I've ever blown and it happened with a hungry audience standing by. They were way too salty and completely dried out and stringy . . . like bad rib jerky.

On a purely subjective note, I too dislike mesquite. I definitely prefer fruit wood when it comes to pork but do occasionally use hickory too because of how easy it is to source. If I were forced to use mesquite, I'd do so only with a hearty cut of beef.

Susan, sorry also to hear about your "lost" weekend. You are often my inspiration when it comes to smoking, so I'm very sorry you couldn't join in this time around.

As for Easter, I'm not sure what our plans are but if we're in town, count me in for any sort of on-line smoking collective which forms.

=R=

[snowangel]

Susan, sorry also to hear about your "lost" weekend.  You are often my inspiration when it comes to smoking, so I'm very sorry you couldn't join in this time around.

←

I love smoking meat. Really, really love smoking meat. You have no idea how sad I was not to participate!

[ChefCrash]

Too cold to smoke in Mid Michigan. Made spare ribs in the oven.

The rubbed slabs must lean against each other to fit in the pan, the domed lid is high enough to cover them.

Cooked at 300 for 4 hours. They were falling appart when I placed them on the sheet pan to brown under the broiler.

[snowangel]

Too cold to smoke in Mid Michigan. Made spare ribs in the oven.

It's never to cold to smoke meat! I've had to dig my way to the Weber, but I do it, and it's mighty rewarding.

[Musable]

Last time it was the first time smoking a turkey, this time it's the first time smoking ribs.

We picked up some spareribs yesterday, and today they went into a simple brine (salt, water, tabasco) for about an hour. Once out, one slab received a coarse-ground prepared mustard massage before all three slabs got the rub - made up of salt, brown sugar, paprika, onion powder, cayenne, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, black pepper, mustard powder.

Then it was on to the smoker. These guys spent about 4.5 hours in the hickory smoke. They came off looking pretty darned nice, and the family enjoyed them with some homemade sauce.

[ronnie_suburban]

Beautiful ribs, Musable. They look absolutely delicious.

=R=

[ChefCrash]

Beautiful ribs, Musable.  They look absolutely delicious.

=R=

←

Ya.. what he said. Could you pleeeaase tell us: What kind of smoker you use? Detail what you did? I want to get in to smoking. I want to do it the easy sure way.

Shhh...The smoking police, aka snowangel, is watching!

[Musable]

Thanks, guys.

If you really want to see the detail-details, have a look at the entries from yesterday in my blog (link in sig) - pictures galore, since I'm trying to learn more about my camera and the new flash I got last week.

The hardware is a Smokin' Pro with a side firebox from CharGriller. It's quite large, and temperature control is still an issue, since I've only smoked on it twice now. It was also colder yesterday (60-ish and windy) than it was when I did the turkey (80-ish and no wind), so I wound up doing three more chimeys yesterday throughout the smoking time along with the replenished wood, and this naturally had something to do with it. Last time, I just had to chuck some charcoal directly on the fire without firing it first. Next up on the smoking front is cold-smoked bacon, which should be interesting, since keeping the fire banked won't be as huge an issue. I figure I'll break in the grill side with some trout or snapper or something. It's a nice little rig, and I'm quite pleased with it thus far except for the peeling paint just about the lid on the firebox. It's the steam, of course, but I figured since we seasoned it so well, we'd have avoided that for awhile. Now I need to get some paint and take care of that on a day we're not actually using it.

For this, we had considered mesquite, but to me, there's always a sot of oiliness associated with mesquite that I'm not particularly fond of - or maybe I've just had bad mesquite experiences in the past. Either way, I stuck with hickory. Maybe when I can eat again, I'll do a test run with some mesquite and then one with hickory so we can compare them side by side.

[twobrain]

thats a lot of bone exposed... lot of shrinkage... probably coudl have cooked it shorter at 300 degrees... or about 4 hrs at a lower temp

Too cold to smoke in Mid Michigan. Made spare ribs in the oven.

The rubbed slabs must lean against each other to fit in the pan, the domed lid is high enough to cover them.

Cooked at 300 for 4 hours. They were falling appart when I placed them on the sheet pan to brown under the broiler.

←

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never brined ribs before... but this is a good explanation of brining...

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/brining.html

and i think theres a topic in EGCI

and there are a few good reads on rib prep here

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html

....

i usually get the cyropack at costco, trim the ribs kansas city style... sorta look like baby back ribs... and save the trim for soups

just throw a rub on and smoke at around 250 until the bones are showing about 1/2 inch and pull away clean

[snowangel]

Not forgetting for a moment that I missed the March ribfest, a nice rack of spareribs jumped right out of the meat counter and into my basket at the market today.

Ribs tomorrow.

[Marlene]

We're doing ribs today as well, although grilled, not smoked!

[snowangel]

I got a late start because it was absolutely pouring. I can do the smoking part in the rain, but starting the chimeny had to wait until a break in the showers.

Holding steady at almost 225. Struggling to keep the temp up.

[rooftop1000]

I threw cation to the wind yesterday with some country style ribs and some big fat beef ribs. I fired up the weber and whacked some (slivers-planks) off the load of cherry wood a friend dropped in my driveway last week. I soaked the wood a little while the meat got its rubbing and then loaded it all in. The smoked seemed a little funky to me and I wondered if we were having spaghetti for dinner As I added more wood that had soaked longer it smelled better and better. After 3 hours I went to make the brown suger rub but it was hard as a rock so I mixed it with some vinager and nuked it all to melt and dipped the pork in the slurry. The beef got a finish with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and the pork a few more dips.

Took everything off at 3.5 hours or so. The beef needed another hour but there are so many left over they will get it in the oven tomorrow....

Cherry wood good

tracey

[snowangel]

I hate smoking when it is pouring rain.

Edited to add: Fire goosed up so we eat before the kids go to school tomorrow. My most recent attempts at ribs have been vexed.

[lancastermike]

I find ribs to be the most difficult item to smoke with any consistency. The other week I made some real good ones. I'm not really sure why, however. Next time, who knows? The rain sucks when smoking, but I hate the wind worse.

[ronnie_suburban]

The rain sucks when smoking, but I hate the wind worse.

←

Aye. The rain, I can block with my patio umbrella. But the wind, she's nobody's bitch!

Edit to add: tracey, cherrywood has become my current fave.

=R=

[Marlene]

Grilled ribs tonight, rubbed, and wrapped in foil on the grill for 1 and 1/2 hours then on the open grill for 5 minutes a side. One of the things I'm rapidly coming to understand is that I like a "wet" rib rather than a "dry" one. Next time, some sort of mop is in order.

Rubbed with Klink's dry rub:

Done:

[snowangel]

Some not so great photos of the ribs, smoked for quite some time in the trusty Kettle with applewood.

These were the best ever, and I think that the applewood was a real plus. I typically use hickory, but a pickup load of split applewood arrived on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago, so...

I took these a bit further than I normally do because Paul needed me to help him bleed the brakes on my car. I snatched them, wrapped in foil, and stuck in a barely warm oven. The rain but the fire out, so there was no recrisping, which was actually very good.

Although I have recently cured and smoked my own bacon, which is hands down the best bacon I've ver had, there is something unbelievably succulent and sensual about uncured, "naked" smoked pork. It speaks to me.

I smell like smoke. My family is happy and sated. I will wakt tomorrow morning and the sun room (right off the deck where I smoke the meat) will smell faintly of smoke, as will my pillow and sheets.

Yum. My husband finds this very beguiling.

[jmcgrath]

For this, we had considered mesquite, but to me, there's always a sot of oiliness associated with mesquite that I'm not particularly fond of - or maybe I've just had bad mesquite experiences in the past. Either way, I stuck with hickory. Maybe when I can eat again, I'll do a test run with some mesquite and then one with hickory so we can compare them side by side.

←

Mesquite can get downright nasty. I prefer pecan over hickory. It's a slightly more subtle version of the same smoke flavor. A mesquite fire for grilling works fine, but I don't let it anywhere near my pit.

Jim

[hwilson41]

Mesquite can get downright nasty. I prefer pecan over hickory. It's a slightly more subtle version of the same smoke flavor. A mesquite fire for grilling works fine, but I don't let it anywhere near my pit.

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Agree completely. I grew up in Texas, and Mesquite was discovered sometime around 1970 or so. Before then, it was a noxious weed tree, best burned on sight if you could figure out how to get it out of the ground. In general, the flavor is waaay too strong if you're truly smoking. Hickory is good, but for a gentle smoke, Pecan is the wood of choice. Pecan is in the same family as Hickory, but a gentler flavor. Adding a little fruitwood (Apple, etc.) doesn't hurt either .