Belatedly, here is my write-up. And again, I’d like to thank SMF, the volunteer organizers and judges, all of the contestants who made this contest so challenging, and especially Porter Road Meats for their generous prize donation!
I planned to smoke two types of ribs to hopefully differentiate my entry a little from the many excellent entries I knew would be coming into the contest. I had a 4 lb, 4-rib rack of beef chuck ribs from Restaurant Depot, so I trimmed them up a bit and injected them with 8 oz of beef bouillon mixed with a tablespoon of Mixon’s short rib rub recipe. I then coated them with a bit of Crystal hot sauce as a binder, and rubbed them with a healthy amount of the same rub. The baby backs were also trimmed, membrane removed, and a couple of bones removed so that I could lay them flat on my 18” WSM. I rubbed the bone side with homemade BRITU rub, and the meat side with Smokey Mtn Bourbon rub from Sportsman’s warehouse.
I fired up the Weber, using the Minion method with the charcoal, and added 2 lumps of oak, one of hickory, and one of mesquite. I wanted a lot of smoke when the beef ribs went on, and knew it would be down to a more modest amount of smoke by the time the pork ribs went on—just the flavor profile I was looking for. I filled the water pan.
The beef ribs went on meat side up at 11:20 am, smoker temp at 255F. At 2:45 pm I wrapped the beef ribs in butcher paper, turned them meat side down on the lower rack, and put two racks of baby backs on the top rack. Smoker temp holding at about 250F, beef ribs internal temp 167F. I added three lumps of cherry wood to the fire, to give the baby back ribs some color.
By 5:20 pm, the beef ribs were up to 190F internal. I’d raised the smoker temp to about 270F. I wrapped the pork ribs in foil, with honey, a bit of Blues Hog sauce, and brown sugar. I forgot to add the pats of butter I usually add, but I don’t think it made a lot of difference.
At 6:40 pm I unwrapped the baby backs and the beef ribs. Beef ribs up to 195F internal. Smoker had cooled to 240F.
7:20 pm I sauced the baby backs with 70% Head Country Original, 30% Sweet Baby Ray’s.
By a little after 8 pm, everything was done, although all took longer than I expected; over 8 hours for the beef ribs, over 5 hours for the pork . I sprayed with apple juice to keep the surface moist, rested them a bit, then cut a couple of single ribs to stack crosswise on the two-rib (beef) or four-rib (pork) mini-racks. I knew I needed to add some color contrast to the plate, so I’d planned on the short corn cobs in the back. My wife suggested the tomato-cucumber salad to further add color, and whipped it up while the ribs were resting. It really made the plate pop.
I didn’t take a lot of photos, but have attached a couple. This wasn’t a single-serving plate; one beef rib and one or two baby backs was a meal, which left us lots of yummy leftovers.
I planned to smoke two types of ribs to hopefully differentiate my entry a little from the many excellent entries I knew would be coming into the contest. I had a 4 lb, 4-rib rack of beef chuck ribs from Restaurant Depot, so I trimmed them up a bit and injected them with 8 oz of beef bouillon mixed with a tablespoon of Mixon’s short rib rub recipe. I then coated them with a bit of Crystal hot sauce as a binder, and rubbed them with a healthy amount of the same rub. The baby backs were also trimmed, membrane removed, and a couple of bones removed so that I could lay them flat on my 18” WSM. I rubbed the bone side with homemade BRITU rub, and the meat side with Smokey Mtn Bourbon rub from Sportsman’s warehouse.
I fired up the Weber, using the Minion method with the charcoal, and added 2 lumps of oak, one of hickory, and one of mesquite. I wanted a lot of smoke when the beef ribs went on, and knew it would be down to a more modest amount of smoke by the time the pork ribs went on—just the flavor profile I was looking for. I filled the water pan.
The beef ribs went on meat side up at 11:20 am, smoker temp at 255F. At 2:45 pm I wrapped the beef ribs in butcher paper, turned them meat side down on the lower rack, and put two racks of baby backs on the top rack. Smoker temp holding at about 250F, beef ribs internal temp 167F. I added three lumps of cherry wood to the fire, to give the baby back ribs some color.
By 5:20 pm, the beef ribs were up to 190F internal. I’d raised the smoker temp to about 270F. I wrapped the pork ribs in foil, with honey, a bit of Blues Hog sauce, and brown sugar. I forgot to add the pats of butter I usually add, but I don’t think it made a lot of difference.
At 6:40 pm I unwrapped the baby backs and the beef ribs. Beef ribs up to 195F internal. Smoker had cooled to 240F.
7:20 pm I sauced the baby backs with 70% Head Country Original, 30% Sweet Baby Ray’s.
By a little after 8 pm, everything was done, although all took longer than I expected; over 8 hours for the beef ribs, over 5 hours for the pork . I sprayed with apple juice to keep the surface moist, rested them a bit, then cut a couple of single ribs to stack crosswise on the two-rib (beef) or four-rib (pork) mini-racks. I knew I needed to add some color contrast to the plate, so I’d planned on the short corn cobs in the back. My wife suggested the tomato-cucumber salad to further add color, and whipped it up while the ribs were resting. It really made the plate pop.
I didn’t take a lot of photos, but have attached a couple. This wasn’t a single-serving plate; one beef rib and one or two baby backs was a meal, which left us lots of yummy leftovers.
