Second time smoking the ribs in my MES 30 and voila! Success. First time the family was polite and liked them but the rub was too spicy and the bark too thick. I set out for another style this time.
First, I used a rub recipe that I found online but right now is lost within the deep recesses of our kitchen. I prepared two racks: here's one of them now after sitting all night in the fridge.
Here's what the two racks looked like when I put them in the smoker:
Next, instead of using my beloved AMNPS, I used a combo of hickory wood and cherry wood chips.
Note the still clean water in the water tray.
I used the 3-2-.05 method because it was getting late and the family was hungry. I added more wood chips just about every hour, a little heavier on the hickory over the cherry. I had preheated the smoker to 225 degrees and it typically stayed there, except after opening the door and when the temp controller cycled.
When I wrapped the ribs in foil, instead of pouring in foil juice or apple juice, I tried an experiment. My beloved wife bought me a bottle of Korean BBQ Sauce and I slathered that on the top rack and then enclosed it in foil. I left the lower rack naked before I enclosed it in foil. For these two hours I didn't use any more wood chips. After 2 hours when I unwrapped both racks, I glazed the top rack of ribs with more of the Korean BBQ Sauce. Then I glazed the lower rack with my beloved wife's homemade BBQ sauce that she got from a recipe similarly hidden within the deep recesses of our kitchen. I finished them off without wood chips. The glaze on both racks of ribs never burned. When I took them out, they looked like this:
I got almost no bark and I got the "wet" look I was after. My experiment had been what would be the taste difference between ribs that had been basted with BBQ sauce before being wrapped in foil, and ribs that were basted after being removed from the foil. As it turns out, my favorite ribs were the ones with the wife's BBQ sauce glaze on them (the lower of the two). They had a brighter, sweeter, more intense flavor, but both racks were delicious. I seemed to be able to taste the rub better beneath the Korean BBQ sauce, instead of them being better blended together with the wife's BBQ sauce. And I also got the texture they wanted, even though they didn't fully pass the bend test, as far as I could tell. But as Chef JimmyJ taught me, they were "bite off the bone" tender, not "fall off the bone" tender.
This time, I preferred the result using wood chips to the ribs I smoked over hickory wood pellets last time. I think I overused the pellets then. Next time I'll go back to the AMNPS and use either a hickory/applewood combo or maybe just applewood, as seen on TV. I also have oak pellets which might make their way into the mix. I've learned that 3 hours is just about the limit to apply smoke, in my opinion.
Also next time, I'm going to try a bourbon-based BBQ sauce and mop from "Smoke and Spice". Not to worry: I know where that book is at all times in our kitchen.
First, I used a rub recipe that I found online but right now is lost within the deep recesses of our kitchen. I prepared two racks: here's one of them now after sitting all night in the fridge.
Here's what the two racks looked like when I put them in the smoker:
Next, instead of using my beloved AMNPS, I used a combo of hickory wood and cherry wood chips.
Note the still clean water in the water tray.
I used the 3-2-.05 method because it was getting late and the family was hungry. I added more wood chips just about every hour, a little heavier on the hickory over the cherry. I had preheated the smoker to 225 degrees and it typically stayed there, except after opening the door and when the temp controller cycled.
When I wrapped the ribs in foil, instead of pouring in foil juice or apple juice, I tried an experiment. My beloved wife bought me a bottle of Korean BBQ Sauce and I slathered that on the top rack and then enclosed it in foil. I left the lower rack naked before I enclosed it in foil. For these two hours I didn't use any more wood chips. After 2 hours when I unwrapped both racks, I glazed the top rack of ribs with more of the Korean BBQ Sauce. Then I glazed the lower rack with my beloved wife's homemade BBQ sauce that she got from a recipe similarly hidden within the deep recesses of our kitchen. I finished them off without wood chips. The glaze on both racks of ribs never burned. When I took them out, they looked like this:
I got almost no bark and I got the "wet" look I was after. My experiment had been what would be the taste difference between ribs that had been basted with BBQ sauce before being wrapped in foil, and ribs that were basted after being removed from the foil. As it turns out, my favorite ribs were the ones with the wife's BBQ sauce glaze on them (the lower of the two). They had a brighter, sweeter, more intense flavor, but both racks were delicious. I seemed to be able to taste the rub better beneath the Korean BBQ sauce, instead of them being better blended together with the wife's BBQ sauce. And I also got the texture they wanted, even though they didn't fully pass the bend test, as far as I could tell. But as Chef JimmyJ taught me, they were "bite off the bone" tender, not "fall off the bone" tender.
This time, I preferred the result using wood chips to the ribs I smoked over hickory wood pellets last time. I think I overused the pellets then. Next time I'll go back to the AMNPS and use either a hickory/applewood combo or maybe just applewood, as seen on TV. I also have oak pellets which might make their way into the mix. I've learned that 3 hours is just about the limit to apply smoke, in my opinion.
Also next time, I'm going to try a bourbon-based BBQ sauce and mop from "Smoke and Spice". Not to worry: I know where that book is at all times in our kitchen.
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