Country Style ribs Q-view

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

bigsteve

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Feb 15, 2009
1,298
12
South West Florida
Took today and tomorrow off. My county has decided to leap into the 19th century and install sewers. Was supposed to connect today, and abandon the septic system tomorrow. Plumber hit a snag, so hopefully they'll finish tomorrow. Since the Gulf isn't warm enough for snorkeling yet, figured I'd have a nice dinner waiting for mamma when she gets home from work.

Last night. All schmeared up with Mustard and coated with Meatheads magic dust. Other half is already in the fridge:



After 2 hours of holding down the fort at 220*. They are 158*



Here comes the Calvary:



I'm mopping them in 50/50 Cherry juice and Bacardi gold. Wood is hickory. I put Onions and Apple with some of the mop and water in the water bowl. Potatoes are Nekkid. Corn is schmeared with butter and basil/garlic seasoning.

More later...........
 
Looking good Steve!
PDT_Armataz_01_34.gif
 
looking great, steve - the cherry juice and bacardi sounds pretty wonderful.

as a floridian, perhaps sometime you could try a 7-up/bacardi or orange pop/bacardi mop sometime and report on results?
 
Maybe lime soda instead of 7-up. And Orange juice instead of Orange soda.

If I ever get around to trimming my fruit trees, I'll have Orange, Grapefruit, and Tangelo wood to season. Have a kumquat tree too. I'll burn some and smell it before commiting food to it.

I'm off tomorrow. Maybe I'll work on the trees a little. Although my back fence is over grown. I really should work on that.
 
lime pop? now that sounds good. as far as i know, we don't have that available here. would be great to see some play on the different citrus options available that are unique to your location.

one thing that facinates me with florida is all of the tropical/caribbean options that can be used in cooking. keep in mind that, according to many, barbecue originated in the caribbean islands!
 
and you could very well be right, sir!

i think with all the different things going on, and all the locations where people lived and cooked with fire, AND simply the fact that low, slow cooking just makes sense for tough cuts of meat (which is the only meat all the "regular" people would see, assuming they were lucky enough to even see that), i think barbecue sprang up in a lot of places!
 
Everything looks GREAT! Not sure where you are on the Gulf, but the water is IMO the perfect temperature right now in the St Pete area. I surfed all last weekend in just board shorts.
 
Done and ready to eat



This was not my best effort. Mamma has always made the baked potatos before now, and I wasn't sure how to tell when they were cooked enough. They were cooked through, but not done enough. Meat had been in the freezer forever. I pulled it at 185*. It was just about falling off the bone (which we like) and tasty. But it was kind of dry. Last ones I made were larger and had more fat. They were fantastic. Next time I do a batch of scrawny ones, I'll foil them early and braise them. Truth be told, if I had made ribs like these on my gas grill a few months ago, I would have thought they were great.
icon_lol.gif


The corn came out perfect though.
 
I live in Sarasota. Gulf temp is 72. I thought it was colder. That's still too cool for my tastes. I bought some new snorkeling gear that I want to try out before our cruise in a couple of weeks. I could probably manage a short swim to try them.
 
steve - try a little olive oil (or any cooking oil) in your mop. use a hand blender just before you mop so that the oil gets mixed in well, or keep it in a jar and shake it good nust before you mop. this will replace the fat that isn't there in scrawny ribs and also seal in the juices. i do this and have never had a problem with dry smoked meat, even deer, which has NO fat.
 
Thanks for the tip. It makes sense. Now I'm starting to wonder if the alcohol (Rum) might have actually dried it out some. What do you think?

Most any of the Pork I've smoked so far has had decent fat in it. This was the first thing I made that tasted dry. And still, it was quite edible.
 
i don't think the alcohol would have had a chance to dry it out because it cooks off pretty fast on hot food, leaving behind the glaze of the stuff that isn't alcohol - but it is possible. even if so, a little rum or other alcohol in a mop is a great idea for depth of flavor. the oil in the mop should take care of problems, even if that is causing it.
 
Looks great!!!

Last C/S ribs I made were very dry too. Been holding off making more until I figure out why. I'm pretty sure I overcooked...but I may be wrong.
 
Hey big Steve dude, those look really awesome!!! Nice job!! Love pork ribs mmmm!

re baked taters: That's one thing I'm pretty good at. 200 F in the center is perfectly done. I like to rub them with olive oil and coat a bit with sea salts before baking makes the skin taste awesome too :-)

Man you have all those kinds of trees in your yard? That must be really cool!
 
Next time I'll try the potatoes like you mentioned. Trees? 1 Kumquat, 1 Grapefruit (REALLY big) 1 Tangelo, 2 Orange. Had another Grapefruit tree that blew down in a tropical storm. Pinetree and some palms too. Last summer there was a Bald Eagle sitting pretty in the pine tree. He looked so strong and elegant, until 4 Sparrows ran him off.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky