Cheated and the Ribs were still great !

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robbo

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 11, 2007
8
10
Marseille France
I had gone to the butcher and bought two racks of babybacks. My wife froze them right away and a week later thawed them out overnight and asked me if I could smoke them for lunch that day. I thought 'No Way!'. These need to be smoked for 4 hours or so and I would have had to get started by 6 or 7...so I cheated.
I remembered a friend always boiled his ribs before throwing them on the grill. I know sounds barbaric. I checked a couple of websites and wound up boiling them for 30 minutes in water with a couple of tablespoons of Jeff's rub. Then rubbed them down good with more rub and then smoked them for 2 hours.
I may have put a bit too much rub on, cause they was hot! But oh they were good!
Not sure if anyone else has ever admitted to cheating, but a little smoke covers a multitude of sins.
 
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Did you save the rib soup?
 
Absolutely nothing wrong with cooking the ribs that way. Ribs benefit greatly from braising. Its just another path to take.

I have cooked ribs in the oven before. This was before I had a smoker. They were very tasty but lacked that nice smokey flavor.
 
Around here, you should have started "Forgive me father, for I have sinned."

But, admission is the first step you have a problem.

I have had some great ribs this way, and I've had some really bad ones that were boiled. So, if you though they were good, who cares.

Just don't make a habit of it
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I don't boil them myself, but I'm glad it worked out for you. It's all in the taste.
 
I would have opted for braising them in the oven. Rub em up & lay on a sheet pan and pour a little beer over them. Then cover and braise @ 300o for about an hour then into the smoker for a couple of hours @ 250o. This method won't cook all of the flavor out of the meat and you can use the juices left in the pan in your sauce.
 
Yep... I'm with Icruz here for sure. Boiling just destroys meat. Admittedly you did not boil them that long, but it's the least advisable way to get ribs done quicker. Well, other than a blow torch I suppose ;{)
 
yep boiled ribs with a touch of liquid smoke applied . just the way i like em
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just kidding if they were good then they were good .ive never personally boiled ribs but i may have eaten some and not known about it.
 
LOL!!!! Might make a good broth to add vegies too.

You should have told her that a smoke has to be thought out and planned, but they sound great for tomorrow. On the other hand, the rule at my house is If Mama aint happy....... so you may have been saving your hide. On the other hand( i ran out of hands, someone lemme barrow one) NO QVIEW=DIDNT HAPPEN, maybe it was just a bad dream that seemed a lil too real, not tthat im defending a rib boiler. lol
 
well now someone else has admitted it (opens closet door and steps out) ;-)
I think I've mentioned that ribs are stupidly expensive in england.
One of the discount supermarkets ordered a load of 750g (1.6 lb) bags of mini rib racks in for the bbq/ season. They had them in 2 flavours. bbq and hot.
And they were £2.50 a bag - And believe it or not but that's the cheapest ribs I saw this year. Yep $2.8 a pound is the cheapest ribs I saw this year by quite a margin.
So I've been buying them.
Now someone made a very stupid mistake at the rib factory. The Hot ribs are so hot that the merest touch of the marinade on your lips is like supping napalm. I suspect a decimal point was misplaced the wrong way when they were weighing out the chilli - plus they left the chilli seeds in as well - and used an oil based marinade. So: chilli oil, chilli seeds and something seriously concentrated that has to be some sort of chilli extract. They are totally inedible.
The bbq flavour ribs sold out, hell we ate loads, they were really good. I checked the marinade ingredients and I couldn't fault them - the hot ribs did not sell - at all, to anyone more than once.
three weeks after they pulled the bbq selection from the stores they still have loads of the hot ribs in the freezer.

They are now down to £1.49 per bag. Just over £0.9 a pound. $1.60 per lb.
So I've been buying them on mass and re-processing them.

I wash them thoroughly in the sink to remove the liquid napalm, it's oil basde and a real pig to shift. I've now got 9lbs of defrosted ribs (I do them in 6 bag batches). I normally do any weird kitchen stuff at night when the rest of the household is in bed, so getting them straight on the grill or smoker is out. So I've been boiling them, draining them, remarinading them and vacpacking them for quick access on the grill.
Given that even after numerous washes and boiling there is still a minute amount of napalm left I've been using a marinade that's esentially: sugar, honey, soy sauce, garlic powder, a little finely choppped ginger (it's practically a mousse lol) and some chinese five spice. Very heavy on the sugar. Makes a real thick coating marinade that really does the trick.

And damn we've eaten a lot :-)
Got another 7 bags to process tonight. Nobody else in the area is buying them lol
To be honest I doubt it's as good as slow cooking in the smoker - but it's every bit as good as you'd get from a normal bbq/grill. And you have the added advantage that once defrosted all you do is caramelise the outside on the grill and eat.
Cuts cooking time right down.
I intend to do some more 8oz fatties at the weekend so I'll throw a pack or two of the re-processed ribs in as well and see what they come out like.

But on a boiling meat in general rule. Pretty much all the meat in chinese restaurants is boiled before going in the wok. It cuts down on dish preparation time and tenderises the meat so cheaper cuts can be used. It's one reason the chinese developed such strongly flavoured food - okay I've never tasted decent chinese food in either the states or canada - but trust me, in england, they really lay on the garlick and spices :-)

Pic below of the re-processed ribs, they are hiding behind the shrimp and scallop kebabs. I only had smallish shrimp so stacked them 2 at a go :-)
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ya me too.....will never admit to doing it either, well maby before in my embryotic days of a griller....sorry i didnt know any better
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but now

with the powers invested by the great smf members i shall reserve that thing for dogs and hockey pucks "burgers" from now on.
 
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