Its Confession time...I have sinned against the gods of BBQ and have repented and atoned! My regular practice in cooking side ribs was to simmer them on the stove until a nice even grey (I'm pausing typing now to let the shocked cries of outrage die down), then grill until dry and cover up with sauce. I was young, I didn't know any better, I was wrong...
Worse than that, thinking that it was some tough job to do by hand, I'd get the butcher to cut the ribs a couple of times on the band saw, producing pretty much randomly sized fragments.
And then I found the light!
and started to read up on how to trim the ribs, strip the membrane, make a nice rub, and smoke them to make them tender and tasty instead of bleached-of-life pieces of rubber.
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OK, after that preamble, I bought a MES last month and have recorded the prep of a nice Saturday dinner.
I trimmed back the ribs, removed the membrane and separated the riblets then split to fit my MES rack:
Coated them with the Ranch House rib rub recipe from "Weber's Charcoal Grilling - the art of cooking with live fire" cookbook:
Rub
2 tablespoons Lawryâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]sÂ[emoji]174[/emoji] Seasoned Salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure chile powder
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning
¼ cup yellow mustard
Used the mustard to coat the ribs first, the added to rub mix. Left them to rest after rubbing in the cold cellar overnight (at 34°F - it's cold down there!). Added a good sprinkle of brown sugar on top of the rub about an hour before putting them into the smoker (and touched up a few areas without enough rub to keep them happy):
And set out for the 3-2-1 smoke I'd read about here! Preheated the MES smoker to 240°F for an hour before putting the ribs in. Added a small chunk of sugar maple and some apple wood chips a few at a time as it smoked. Basted at 2 hours with a mix of apple juice and cider vinegar. Pulled at 3 hours to wrap:
So far so good...I'll have to add the rest of the story later on when I get the rest of the photos ready!
Cheers,
Worse than that, thinking that it was some tough job to do by hand, I'd get the butcher to cut the ribs a couple of times on the band saw, producing pretty much randomly sized fragments.
And then I found the light!
________________________
OK, after that preamble, I bought a MES last month and have recorded the prep of a nice Saturday dinner.
I trimmed back the ribs, removed the membrane and separated the riblets then split to fit my MES rack:
Coated them with the Ranch House rib rub recipe from "Weber's Charcoal Grilling - the art of cooking with live fire" cookbook:
Rub
2 tablespoons Lawryâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]sÂ[emoji]174[/emoji] Seasoned Salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure chile powder
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning
¼ cup yellow mustard
Used the mustard to coat the ribs first, the added to rub mix. Left them to rest after rubbing in the cold cellar overnight (at 34°F - it's cold down there!). Added a good sprinkle of brown sugar on top of the rub about an hour before putting them into the smoker (and touched up a few areas without enough rub to keep them happy):
And set out for the 3-2-1 smoke I'd read about here! Preheated the MES smoker to 240°F for an hour before putting the ribs in. Added a small chunk of sugar maple and some apple wood chips a few at a time as it smoked. Basted at 2 hours with a mix of apple juice and cider vinegar. Pulled at 3 hours to wrap:
So far so good...I'll have to add the rest of the story later on when I get the rest of the photos ready!
Cheers,