I’ve been wanting to try making some ribs like how Johnny Trigg does. I’ve watched him on BBQ pitmasters, and read about his method on SMF as well as you tube videos. So I gathered up all the ingredients and got started. I know it’s not exact to his method, but I followed most of what I’ve read and improvised when I needed to with whatever made the most sense to me and my tastebuds!
I tried to find the rack of STL spares with the most marbling. Meijers didn’t have a great selection, so I just got the heaviest they had and figured it would give me the most meat/fat to work with. I had to trim a lot of fat and some meatier pieces to remove some bone shards. (I saved all the meaty pieces to smoke too. I cooked them like some little rib meat burnt ends.) I’ve read Johnny uses rib tickler. I found a recipe for it on SMF, but I couldn’t leave anything alone. I tweeked it to my liking. It turned out great. Some sweet up from with good heat on the back side. After a Worcestershire binder and a healthy dusting of rub I wrapped with plastic wrapped and let rest in the fridge for a couple hours.
Next I went and got the smoker started. I loaded up the basket with a hickory split, some apple wood chunks, and kingsford original ( I prefer royal oak but the kingsford was on sale for $4 a bag ). I kept my temps pretty steady around 250. I put the ribs and trimmings on for about 3.5 hours and have them a spritz every hour with ACV and apple juice.
At this point I cut the rack in half so I could try a couple different ways of doing this. I double wrapped one half with brown sugar, more rub, parkay squeeze butter, honey, and a wide strip of tiger sauce - all on each side. On the other half rack I substituted agave nectar for honey to try the different flavor. I put them back on the smoker for another hour and 15 minutes. I didn’t follow exactly to Johnny Triggs cook times because I could see these ribs were pulling back on the bone before wrapping. So I didn’t leave them wrapped the full time.
I also put the rib trimming burnt ends back on in a foil pack with some brown sugar, honey, more rub and parkay, with some open pit sauce. They came out so good. Very juicy and tender. Sorry no pics of those. I shared with the boss lady and we ate them up too fast.
After unwrapping, I brushed some sweet baby rays sweet and spicy on the half rack with honey. That is usually my go to sauce. Then I put some cheap open pit sauce on the half with agave nectar. I wanted to try a vinegar based sauce with that half. I gave both a light dust with some rub too. They all went back on for about a half hour to firm up.
After taking them off and cutting them up some were a little closer to falling off the bone than others, but all bit through nice and easy. Both ways cooked had a great taste. They had plenty of smoke, some heat from my rub, and very very sweet. These were definitely some of the best ribs I’ve ever cooked or eaten. They also had a beautiful smoke ring.
The agave nectar and open pit half were quite a lot sweeter than the honey and sweet baby rays and honey. That may be good to remember for a competition, but probably not how I’d do them for my own preference. Even the sweet baby rays half were a little sweeter than how I will make them in the future. I will probably put more heat in them next time around. Over all I was pleased other than that I ran out too fast lol. I don’t know if I did Johnny Trigg any justice, but they were very good. I will do his method again.
Q views coming soon!
I tried to find the rack of STL spares with the most marbling. Meijers didn’t have a great selection, so I just got the heaviest they had and figured it would give me the most meat/fat to work with. I had to trim a lot of fat and some meatier pieces to remove some bone shards. (I saved all the meaty pieces to smoke too. I cooked them like some little rib meat burnt ends.) I’ve read Johnny uses rib tickler. I found a recipe for it on SMF, but I couldn’t leave anything alone. I tweeked it to my liking. It turned out great. Some sweet up from with good heat on the back side. After a Worcestershire binder and a healthy dusting of rub I wrapped with plastic wrapped and let rest in the fridge for a couple hours.
Next I went and got the smoker started. I loaded up the basket with a hickory split, some apple wood chunks, and kingsford original ( I prefer royal oak but the kingsford was on sale for $4 a bag ). I kept my temps pretty steady around 250. I put the ribs and trimmings on for about 3.5 hours and have them a spritz every hour with ACV and apple juice.
At this point I cut the rack in half so I could try a couple different ways of doing this. I double wrapped one half with brown sugar, more rub, parkay squeeze butter, honey, and a wide strip of tiger sauce - all on each side. On the other half rack I substituted agave nectar for honey to try the different flavor. I put them back on the smoker for another hour and 15 minutes. I didn’t follow exactly to Johnny Triggs cook times because I could see these ribs were pulling back on the bone before wrapping. So I didn’t leave them wrapped the full time.
I also put the rib trimming burnt ends back on in a foil pack with some brown sugar, honey, more rub and parkay, with some open pit sauce. They came out so good. Very juicy and tender. Sorry no pics of those. I shared with the boss lady and we ate them up too fast.
After unwrapping, I brushed some sweet baby rays sweet and spicy on the half rack with honey. That is usually my go to sauce. Then I put some cheap open pit sauce on the half with agave nectar. I wanted to try a vinegar based sauce with that half. I gave both a light dust with some rub too. They all went back on for about a half hour to firm up.
After taking them off and cutting them up some were a little closer to falling off the bone than others, but all bit through nice and easy. Both ways cooked had a great taste. They had plenty of smoke, some heat from my rub, and very very sweet. These were definitely some of the best ribs I’ve ever cooked or eaten. They also had a beautiful smoke ring.
The agave nectar and open pit half were quite a lot sweeter than the honey and sweet baby rays and honey. That may be good to remember for a competition, but probably not how I’d do them for my own preference. Even the sweet baby rays half were a little sweeter than how I will make them in the future. I will probably put more heat in them next time around. Over all I was pleased other than that I ran out too fast lol. I don’t know if I did Johnny Trigg any justice, but they were very good. I will do his method again.
Q views coming soon!
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