Christmas Party spare ribs platter

[raceyb]

ast night our neighborhood held it's annual Christmas party and ornament swap. It was a blast. What we do is ask every family to bring a desert or a dish and one gift bagged brand new tree ornament for each child or adult that wishes to play our ornament swap game. I'll explain how it works in just a moment.

First I wanted to share with my readers, I awoke at 8 am with smoking on my mind. I had 3 racks of pork spare ribs that I needed to trim and rub and get ready for my smoker. The temperature outside was a very comfortable low to mid 60's and there was little to no rain/mist. The forecast had called for an 80% chance of rain all day. Knowing that, I wanted an 8 hour window to smoke the ribs, in case something went wrong.


I trimmed the ribs to a St Louis perfection. If you have never done it before, here is a quick video from Youtube that demonstrates it. Negative, at least it isn't working in post preview. If anyone wants to watch, just go to Youtube and search for st. Louis style ribs.

I also tried a new rub from McCormick Grillmates called Barbecue. It has some wonderful ingredients in it and from now til December 31st, there is an instant savings of $3 at BJ's Wholesale club, bringing the price to $5.95, plus an additional BJ's coupon for any McCormick spice at $1.75 off, bringing my cost for a restaurant sized spice to $4.25. I bought 5 of them!. On the web they are $12.95.


After rubbing the ribs, I place them bone sized up and packed on some brown sugar and let that begin to melt in before sprinkling some rub on them again. I smoked them for 7.5 hours at an average of 220 degrees with hickory wood. I hope you enjoy the pictures. As always, click on a small picture for the full sized version.

 

[buffalosmoke]

Great looking ribs for sure! Nice presentation too!

I'm headed to BJ's later for some ribs and charcoal....I'll have to take a look at the rub you used.

 

[blue]

Those ribs in the first pic look like BBs.

Very nice presentation on the last pics.

 

[mr mac]

Next year send us your address so we can properly judge those beauties! Nice job!

 

[mph]

Those are some great looking ribs. They have a sheen to them. Did you sauce them or is that just from the new seasoning?

 

[jak757]

GREAT looking ribs - and as mentioned already, wonderful presentation. I have used the McCormick rub -- like it very much. But I paid much more for it -- good for you!

Thanks for sharing -- awesome Qview!!!

 

[raceyb]

The ribs were ready to come off the grill about an hour before the party, so I lightly sauced and wrapped in foil to hold.

To the person that said the first ones are BB's, yep, good eye. I didn't take any smoking photos as it poured all day long and I really wanted a grill shot. Good eye! :)

 

[fire it up]

Nice looking ribs, love that plate presentation too!

 

[chefrob]

nice job!!!

 

[bigtrain74]

Very nice job there Racey! I wish I was a co-worker!

 

[jirodriguez]

Great view.... nice smoke ring, beutiful presentation!

 

[Bearcarver]

Racey, Those ribs look soooooo good.

You must have been the hit of the party.


Thanks for showing,
BC

 

[raceyb]

I want to thank everyone for the nice comments. The ribs did go fast. I still have the tops all smoked up and in my freezer for some baked beans in the future. Even though it rained all day, I had a blast smoking them.

 

[pandemonium]

They look great!!! whats the secret to cutting them nice like you did? i always screw them up when i cut them.

 

[mballi3011]

Man those are some jammin ribs and the presintation is more than awesome.

Have to go out and keep up the fine work.

 

[raceyb]

A very sharp knife. I try not to slice cut, I push the blade through the meat. I am blessed to have a brother who knows I love to cook and he bought me a beautiful two piece Calphalon knife set last Christmas.

I also found that the meat will cut easier if you let it set up for 15-20 minutes (can be the real hard part, lol) I have also seen cleavers used to cut up ribs, same process, just push through the meat without sawing.

 

[pops6927]

That's called 50-50 cuts...

(one for meeee... one for them. one for meeee.... one for them.)

:ico n_mrgreen:

 

[bmudd14474]

Thats my kind of Christmas party there.

 

[pandemonium]

i agree i cant wait the hour before cutting that i read to do on here to let the juices redistribute, plus what would i want cold ribs for no deal!

 

[raceyb]

LOL... try this.... when you pull your ribs, lightly sauce if ya want and then wrap in foil and let sit for a bit, then cut. Just remember not to use a sawing motion, just push the knife right through the meat.