OK, last night I watched a video on YouTube that did a comparison cook.
They took 3 filet mignons & 1 was room temp, 1 was refrigerated, & 1 was frozen.
They cooked them exactly the same & took them to the same IT. The takeaway was that the frozen steak was more tender & juicy than the other 2, and the room temp steak was a bit dry & chewy. So I thought why not pull out a rack of ribs from Wild Fork Foods that I had in the freezer & put it in the smoker frozen. I thought if this works it would sure be a lot more convenient if you had a spur of the moment idea to smoke something. No thawing out, just fire up the smoker & throw it on right out of the freezer. Now I know your saying that there won’t be any flavor from the rub cause I’m putting it on a frozen piece of meat, but you’d be wrong. There was plenty of flavor! So here we go!!
Here is the rack I have:
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And here it is out of the cryovac, notice these ribs DON'T have that big piece of loin meat on top.
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I put mustard on the ribs, because I thought the S&P wouldn’t stick to frozen meat. And S&P is the only seasoning I used.
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Went on the Lang sitting around 250, with mesquite & hickory splits.
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Two hours in.
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Checked the temp & the IT is around 160 degrees.
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Another few degrees & into the foil they go. It's Valentines Day & Judy likes her ribs FOTB, so today we wrap them.
I'm using a combo of Apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, honey, bbq sauce, and butter.
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OK, meat side down, and since it a cold day down here we decided to do the foil part in the oven, so we could heat the house up.
And yes I left the membrane on, because IMHO, the ribs retain more juices.
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Out of the oven. nice color!
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Now to sauce them & then onto the gasser at around 600 degrees to burn the membrane off & set the sauce.
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All done & ready to slice!
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Man o man, just look at that smoke ring!!
I only had the ribs in the smoker for about 3 hours, so the conclusion that I have come to is the meat takes on a lot more smoke when it's cold.
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Judy said they were the best ribs she has ever had. I agree, they were very good. And there was a noticeable difference in the tenderness & juiciness.
Have at it girl!!
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We ate a few ribs at the cutting board, but finally made up a couple of plates & sat outside to enjoy our Valentines dinner. Judy made our favorite coleslaw, and some handheld cherry pies ( I do like extra icing on mine )
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Well as I have said throughout this thread, I was amazed at how tender, juicy, and what a smoke ring that I got from a totally frozen piece of meat.
I can't wait to try this on some other cuts!!
Thanks for looking guys & I hope you all had as wonderful a Valentines Day as Judy & I did!!
Al