Spares and Baby Backs Smokin Al's Way with QView!!!

So I did my first set of spares and baby backs cooking to temp rather than using time for ribs.  I have to say Smokin Al's way has produced my favorite ribs to date!  First pics and then a little write up.

Spares.  The black splotches are from the baby backs dripping onto these spares



baby backs





Heatermeter dashboard at end of cook


The quick facts:

• Meat: 5.27 pounds of Spares and I think 3 pounds of Baby Backs
• Smoker Temp:  225F
• Total Cook Time: 3 hours for spares 4 hours for baby backs (they were on a higher rack)
• Smoke Applied for:  3 hours for spares (full time) and 3.5 hours on baby backs, smoke applied via AMNPS (filled 2 rows to, this burned slowly)
• Wood Used for Smoke: I did 50/50.  Half was 100% Lumberjack Hickory pellets and the other half was Pit Boss Competition Blend (Maple 50-60%, Cherry 20-25%, Hickory 20-25%)
• Seasoning: Sea Salt, coarse Black Pepper, dehydrated Onion, granulated Garlic, and Kashmiri Red Pepper powder (in place of paprika)

The Goal:

To do my first rib smoke using Smoking Al's temp based approach as well as seeing how the kashmiri red pepper flavor would work out in place of paprika.

The Trim:

• I trimmed Spare Ribs by removing breast plate bone
• I removed the Flank/Skirt flap meat from the bone side of the Spare ribs
• I removed some excess fat from the Spare ribs
• I removed the good meat on the breast plate bone and combined with the flap meat so I could smoke it as a ball of meat, I don't like throwing away good meat or trying to save for later
• I just removed some silver skin and tough skin and a little fat from the Baby Backs
• I removed the membranes from both sets of ribs

The Seasoning Details:

• Salt, Black Pepper, Dehydrated Onion, Granulated Garlic, and Kashmiri Red Pepper powder (instead of paprika)
• 2-2.5 parts Black Pepper, and 1 part everything else.  It is easy to over salt ribs so it is not even parts salt and pepper for me on ribs

The Cook/Smoke:

The cook was pretty straight forward.  I inserted 2 probes as best I could into the spares and 1 into the baby backs.

I was concerned that I might not be positioning the probes well so I went with multiples, I find that I usually get at least 1 out of 3 probes placed properly. 

• Temp was 225F, so there would be enough time for applying smoke
• Spares were on lowest rack
• Baby backs were on next rack up above the spares
• I did not wrap I just cooked to temp much like Smokin Al does (he goes 195F) but I chose to go to 198-199F across the probes for the spares
• I did not wrap and I cooked the baby backs to an IT of 200-203F across the probes
• I applied double smoke burning two rows of the AMNPS at once and this applied a great amount of smoke for 3.5 hours
• The spares cooked in about 3 hours
• The baby backs were on a higher rack so were taking longer, once I pulled the spares I upped the temp to 275F so the baby backs would hit temp since they had gotten enough smoke to satisfy my tastes, I knew they had from the spares taste
• When either set of ribs hit my desired temps I probed with a tooth pick to ensure they were done, this worked well to prove they were tender and the toothpick went in with no resistance 

The Results:

• Best ribs I have made to date and might be the best I've ever had.  They were amazing!  To date the best I have had were at Franklin's bbq but he uses Oak wood and I like the flavor my woods are giving.  He also uses heritage pork where mine came off the meat counter at the dreaded walmart because I had to stop in there for others stuff today.   In any case my ribs today were close enough to be arguably the best I've ever had.
• The Kashmiri red pepper was awesome.  It has a little heat to it but is more like a paprika with some heat than anything else.  Has a little different flavor than paprika but is a good complimenting flavor and the little bit of heat is nice.  It was a good replacement but may be too much spice for others but here in TX we often don't mind some kick to our BBQ and other food.
• The tenderness was great in both cases of the ribs.  They were both bite off the bone but the Baby backs were a bit more tender and more the way I like it.  To compare, the spares were pure bite off the bone and the baby backs I could wiggle the bone away from the meat by grabbing the bone and using a fork in the other hand.  I would imagine that 204-206F would the beginning of fall of the bone ribs.

Lessons Learned:

• I like the super tender bite off the bone texture at 200-203F so I will be shooting for that temp in the future as it seems to me to be the end of the bite off the bone texture and soon after that temp you will enter the realm of fall of the bone but not mushy texture
• The Kashmiri Red Pepper (KRP) was a successful paprika replacement and adds a little heat, I may reduce my black pepper amount when using the KRP
• Doubling up on the smoke was the right way to go with the quick cook, though I think next time I will try a blend of 70% Pit Boss Competition Blend and 30% of pure Hickory pellets.  50% Hickory along with the bit of hickory in the Pit Boss blend is approaching the edge of my hickory limit
• The time to cook a rack of spares or baby backs in my setup is taking 3-4 hours.  I had to do them at 225F to ensure they got enough smoke time before being done.  This is probably due to my tweaks to make my smoker more heat efficient
• My new solid shelf "mod" seems to be reducing my cook times.  Without getting into too many details on it, I think it is really making my smoker more efficient and cooking things faster but more observation is needed.  I'll post about it in detail if/when I come to some solid conclusions on it
• I think I can add ribs to my list of meats I can cook on multiple racks and finish at almost the same time.  I don't think I could do 2 briskets at the same time and have them finish within an hour of one another but ribs, chicken parts, and turkey parts seem to have no issue to this point
• I basically used Aaron Franklin's spare rib trimming approach but I kept any scrap meat and balled it up, seasoned, and smoked it rather than throwing it away.  I liked how the ribs came out with his trimming approach so I will be using it from now on with my tweak to not throw away good meat
• On a side note, attempt #3 today at replicating Rudy's BBQ Sause got much closer and I think I may have my version nailed down by attempt 5 or 6.  I figured out today I was missing a little Oregano.  My guess is they are using Mexican Oregano or maybe Marjoram
• I have found that Smokin Al's technique is now my go-to for ribs, thanks Al!!!

Well that is about it.  I hope this helps people with Al's approach especially if they want to get more tender or if they want firmer.  I haven't found many people give much detail on their texture using Al's approach but they sure do find it to be awesome just like I have!