Experimentation Time (Live Updates w/ Q-View)

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burgerbob

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Feb 18, 2016
109
120
Nebraska
I'm smoking some spare ribs for the first time, I've done plenty of baby back ribs previously but have never done spare ribs.  After trimming the ribs and removing part of the breast bone I had a good piece of meat leftover that didn't have any cartilage in it.  I didn't want to throw this away so I figured I could do an experiment with it.  I just put everything on at 11 a.m. CST. 

First the ribs.  I trimmed them up and did a thin layer of yellow mustard on them then sprinkled on a pork rub that I like to use.  It's Kosher salt, turbinado sugar, paprika, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, and cayenne pepper.  I'm planning on doing these the same way I do my other ribs.  Smoking at 225 for one hour then spritz and continuing with a light spritzing every 30 minutes or so.  I'm not going to foil them as I've abandoned this method after doing my last rack of ribs without foil [thread="248261"]Abandoned 3 2 1 Method​[/thread]. Once the bend test starts showing me that I'm getting close to being done I'll crank the temp of the smoker up and sauce the ribs (family prefers it this way) then do 30 minutes on each side to help caramelize the sauce a bit.

Experimental meat.  This is where I'm going to have some fun.  I did Kosher salt, coarse pepper and fresh thyme from the garden on this.  I folded over the piece of meat and have wrapped it in bacon.  I'm planning on smoking this until an IT of 150 or so.  Depending on what time this gets done I may need to wrap in foil and put in a cooler until I'm ready to sauce my ribs.  When it comes time to sauce the ribs I'll sauce the "mystery meat" with a blueberry BBQ sauce (below).  If anyone has any tips or suggestions for me with this piece of meat I'm more than happy to hear them.  I'll give updates as this progresses and let everyone know how it turned out.  

I'm going to quarter this recipe as I don't need this much sauce and it appears as though this is for 2 - one pound tenderloins.
  • 2 pint(s) blueberries
  • 2/3 cup(s) honey
  • 1/2 cup(s) ketchup
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced  
  • 1/2 cup(s) chopped shallots
  • 1 tablespoon(s) grated fresh ginger
  • 2 teaspoon(s) fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon(s) dry mustard 
Bring sauce to boil over medium heat then reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens, about 45 minutes.

The ribs and the extra piece of meat before being wrapped in bacon


Bacon wrapped "mystery meat"

 
Last edited:
Threw the extra rib meat wrapped in bacon back on the smoker for 15 minutes before pulling both and putting sauce on them. They're back on the smoker at 275 degrees with sauce on them. Forgot to take a picture of them after being sauced but here's what they look like before. Update on the blueberry BBQ sauce, tastes ok but I accidently added too much ginger and it's thicker than I wanted. Had to microwave it for a little bit to get it back to a good consistency.

Here's both of them before saucing.

 
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All in all it was a pretty good rack of ribs.  Not so sure I like the pecan wood for ribs, I think I prefer the sweeter taste of the apple wood. Maybe just less of pecan and doing a hickory/pecan blend next time.  I normally do apple/hickory blend of wood but thought I'd give this a try since I do enjoy the pecan with a pork butt.  Anyways, the blueberry sauce was a big hit and I'm planning on doing a pork loin with that as the sauce here soon so I can do an update on that.  The leftover rib meat that I had dubbed the classic "mystery meat", was good in flavor but was a little tough.  It wasn't dry at all and actually had really good moisture but it could have been kept on longer.  If I were to do that again I would have kept it on for an IT of 185 or so rather than 150 like today.  

Here are the pictures after it was sliced up.  Ribs were about perfect tenderness and barely needed any pull from the bone.  Very happy that I experimented last time and went with the no foil rule, I definitely prefer those types of ribs.  

The leftover rib meat with the blueberry BBQ sauce


 A few of the ribs, these ones didn't have quite the smoke ring as the others did.  Maybe it was the camera, I don't know.
 
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That is a nice smoke!  
points1.png
  Those ribs look great!

Mike
 
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