I have been busy and haven't been posting much but got a quick cook in last Friday.
Baby Back Ribs
November 29, 2013
These Baby Backs were cooked on the pit to supplement dinner for our traditional, "Leftover Friday" meal, the day after thanksgiving.
My Kids, niece and nephews were extremely happy to see the ribs.
5 hours at 225°
I know I sound like a broken record but here's a few of my, I don'ts.
I don't like to foil my ribs.
I don't care for the excessive pullback due to the foiling stage. A little pullback is to be expected and is fine. Many folks dig the pull back, but to me it says, "Hey I was braised", and to me Braising ribs changes the texture of the meat too much.I have been playing with the foiling stage a lot lately and so far the best trade off I have found is to place the ribs in a steamer pan foiled for no more than one hour, during this hour, I keep the temp below 225°.
I don't use mustard either, mainly because I want to layer the flavors on my ribs, using mustard and heavily sugared rubs creates too much of an outer bark and that is not what I want in a rib.
I don't prep my ribs until the pit is being warmed up, I don't want any rubs sitting on my ribs for any length of time.
I don't like to run my pit when cooking ribs any higher than 225°.
As you read this article you will notice that there are many layers to my method of cooking ribs. I have found that layering the flavors really gives the ribs that awesome flavor that my family has come to love.
Another layer of flavor is to char the ribs slightly over direct heat, trust me on this it really does add to the flavor of the ribs, sadly I did not do that on this cook.
OK lets get started.
[h2]Rib Rub: [/h2]
The drippings are set off to the side and since the weather is fairly cold I can defat the pan right at the pit.
I defat the pan and set to the side for the final stage. What do I do with the grease, ha ha ha I am glad you asked. But first let me put it into perspective.
Have you ever come home and your neighbor has fired up the grill and thrown a piece of meat on the grill and is stinking up the neighborhood, so with a shit eating grin you walk into the house and ask the wife unit, "Hey Sweetie, whats for dinner"? She replies, "I made a quiche", well your heart drops and as you sit there and eat your quiche you can almost see your neighbor slicing into that piece of meat and smiling at you!
Well paybacks are a bitch... I take the grease from the ribs and plop it onto my hot fire box... man that smells good. I do a little at at a time to prolong the awesome aroma as long as I can.
See the rib starting to break at the bend, this is what you want.
Were looking for a little break in the meat along with a 90° bend, LOOKING GOOD!
I have to apologize for the next few pictures, I took them with my Droid as I was running around like crazy at this point and company was arriving so I was not too worried about presentation and photos, THESE FOLKS LOOKED HUNGRY!
Thanks for tuning in.
Baby Back Ribs
November 29, 2013
These Baby Backs were cooked on the pit to supplement dinner for our traditional, "Leftover Friday" meal, the day after thanksgiving.
My Kids, niece and nephews were extremely happy to see the ribs.
5 hours at 225°
I know I sound like a broken record but here's a few of my, I don'ts.
I don't like to foil my ribs.
I don't care for the excessive pullback due to the foiling stage. A little pullback is to be expected and is fine. Many folks dig the pull back, but to me it says, "Hey I was braised", and to me Braising ribs changes the texture of the meat too much.I have been playing with the foiling stage a lot lately and so far the best trade off I have found is to place the ribs in a steamer pan foiled for no more than one hour, during this hour, I keep the temp below 225°.
I don't use mustard either, mainly because I want to layer the flavors on my ribs, using mustard and heavily sugared rubs creates too much of an outer bark and that is not what I want in a rib.
I don't prep my ribs until the pit is being warmed up, I don't want any rubs sitting on my ribs for any length of time.
I don't like to run my pit when cooking ribs any higher than 225°.
As you read this article you will notice that there are many layers to my method of cooking ribs. I have found that layering the flavors really gives the ribs that awesome flavor that my family has come to love.
Another layer of flavor is to char the ribs slightly over direct heat, trust me on this it really does add to the flavor of the ribs, sadly I did not do that on this cook.
- The first is the mop, the mop is to penetrate the meat, the soy, Worcestershire JD mix penetrates the meat and flavors below the surface of the meat and starts the formation of a thin crust.
- The second is the rub, this gives a nice flavor and penetrates the meat slightly and mixes slightly with the mop.
- The third is the building of the glaze, this is a surface flavor, once you have a little bit of a crust on the ribs you can add your surface glaze, this will not absorb into the meat.
- The fourth is done by adding a slight char to the ribs, I highly recommend experimenting with this.
OK lets get started.
- Pit up to temp. Established a large coal base.
- The ribs are rinsed, silver skin is removed, blotted dry and brushed with an equal parts of Soy, Worcestershire and Jack Daniels. I added an equal part of teriyaki to this cook but usually don't add the teriyaki.
[h2]Rib Rub: [/h2]
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons white pepper
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon dry mustard, such as Coleman's
- 1 teaspoon course black pepper
- 5 teaspoons seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- Rib rub is added sparingly and the ribs go onto the hot grate bone side up. After a half hour or so the ribs are flipped and mopped several times before the foiling stage.
- OK now onto the part I would like to skip.
- Ribs are staggered in the pan, BONE SIDE DOWN! At this point I don't worry too much about the heat dropping I actually prefer the pit temp to drop to 200° during this hour of hell.
- Now for all you folks that add liquids to your ribs, it's not needed, leave it alone, there is a beautiful mix of flavor from the ribs, rub and mop. Put that beer down or better yet drink that beer. Give the kids that apple juice, DON'T BOIL YOUR RIBS!
- Look what the rib fairy left behind, beautiful drippings!
- I like this so much I had to show another photo, but you get the idea.. I hope!
The drippings are set off to the side and since the weather is fairly cold I can defat the pan right at the pit.
- Once the ribs are removed from the ... you know what, they are placed bone side up and hit with their first bit of glaze on the bone side.
- The Ribs are flipped bone side down and I will start building my glaze over the next 1 - 2 hours. The glaze was Cattleman's, two tablespoons crushed garlic, and an ounce of Jack Daniels.
I defat the pan and set to the side for the final stage. What do I do with the grease, ha ha ha I am glad you asked. But first let me put it into perspective.
Have you ever come home and your neighbor has fired up the grill and thrown a piece of meat on the grill and is stinking up the neighborhood, so with a shit eating grin you walk into the house and ask the wife unit, "Hey Sweetie, whats for dinner"? She replies, "I made a quiche", well your heart drops and as you sit there and eat your quiche you can almost see your neighbor slicing into that piece of meat and smiling at you!
Well paybacks are a bitch... I take the grease from the ribs and plop it onto my hot fire box... man that smells good. I do a little at at a time to prolong the awesome aroma as long as I can.
- Look at that pig honey in the lower right of the picture below Mm Mmmm!
- I almost forgot to mention, the rack of ribs in the front were done with a sweet and sour glaze, the glaze was good but not as good as the cattleman's mix, I think I may try incorporating the sweet and sour into one of my glaze recipes as an ingredient not a standalone glaze.
- OK now lets see if they are ready just to note, I use time only as a guide and the bend test is the only way I use to determine if the ribs are done.
- This was right at the 5 hour mark.
See the rib starting to break at the bend, this is what you want.
Were looking for a little break in the meat along with a 90° bend, LOOKING GOOD!
I have to apologize for the next few pictures, I took them with my Droid as I was running around like crazy at this point and company was arriving so I was not too worried about presentation and photos, THESE FOLKS LOOKED HUNGRY!
- The ribs cool a bit and are added to the drippings with a cup or so of my preferred barbecue sauce. I guess you could say this was yet another layer.
- For parties and large gatherings where the ribs will sit out a bit, I usually serve as the picture above shows, but when doing ribs fora smaller group and will be devoured immediately, I will serve like the photo shows below.
- I had to laugh at the smoke ring... many moons ago when I first started smoking, my family would not eat the pink meat because they thought it was raw. So as you can see by the pics below, this meat was cooked from the inside out, "WOW", I'm magic!
Thanks for tuning in.
