Seems that of all the meats available to smoke, pork certainly is the most varied in terms of how folks deal with it. Pork needs help since it tends to be more dense and flavorless unless its helped by smoke, heat, seasoning and/or sauces to give it some character. It seems every region has its own way of dealing with this so recipes abound. As such my family and I set out to find out which general direction produced the best result for our pallets. As an immediate disclaimer I must say that this by no means covers anywhere near the variety of possibilities nor am I endorsing our final selection as anything more than what we like. We're from Texas and as you can immediately summize we prefer meat that isn't overly sauced, just well smoked and rubbed.
The challenge involved four different people who have various notions as to what they like. The tasting was done blind with no particular order to the choosing of the ribs, other than myself knowing how each was prepared. In setting this up I was limited to a choice of four different preps from two slabs of St. Louis cut pork ribs (which is our rib of choice). As to the cooking hardware;
WSM 18" smoker (my go to model)
combination of Royal Oak charcoal & apple wood chunks
temperature was monitored at +-225 for the duration
We chose to use the 3-2-1 method of cooking the ribs for each particular slab. As I will describe below, only one of the slabs was left unwrapped so it really was a straight 5 hour cook since at that time frame it was clearly finished.
We began by dry brining the slabs in kosher slat for about 1 1/2 hours. After that;
we added pepper to one (effectively now salt & pepper) and Goode Company Pork Rub and pepper to the other. (Goode Company is a local BBQ joint in Houston who favors mesquite and sweet so his rub has both profiles). Slabs were rotated in the cooker from the top to the middle grill and back so the cooking would be approximately the same for each.
After 3 hours one slab with only salt and pepper was left to cook nekkid for 2 more hours (5 total). The other 3 were wrapped in foil as follows;
Slab #2 - w/salt/pepper seasoning - small amount of apple juice added to the foil
Slab #3 - w/rib rub - again apple juice added to the foil
Slab #4 - w/rib rub - about 2 teaspoons of butter, 4 tablespoons of dark brown sugar and apple juice to the foil
At the 5 hour mark the nekkid slab was removed and foiled while the other 3 were sauced as followed and smoked for an additional hour;
Slab #2 - my personal sauce which starts with a base of Woody's Cookin' Sauce and adds a bunch more. It's savory and slightly sweet.
Slab #3 - same
Slab #4 - Sweet Baby Rays with a touch of my sauce to give it a much sweeter profile
Here are the slabs as they sat resting prior to cutting and tasting;
And here they are cut. Each had a real nice finish, a reasonable smoke ring and excellent tenderness with good "bite".
AND THE WINNER !! It was unanimous (which I never expected) that #3 clearly won. It seemed the nekkid ribs lacked depth of flavor. Never having been wrapped they were tender and smokey but took on a jerky like density (maybe a tad over cooked). Slab #2 was basically the same but sauced and wrapped gave it a little more character but no where near as much as slab #3 that had the Goode Co. rub giving the bark a much more pronounced flavor. Slab #4 probably was the #2 choice but everyone recognized the sweetness note and being true Texans we prefer to let the meat do most of the talking !!
All in all it was a fun and flavorful experiment and one that confirms (at least for us) what style rib we will continue to eat, the way it is seasoned and prepared and the method of cooking that makes them lip smacking good. Hope you enjoyed reading this, try the challenge for yourself, its well worth the effort. HAPPY SMOKING Y'ALL !!!
The challenge involved four different people who have various notions as to what they like. The tasting was done blind with no particular order to the choosing of the ribs, other than myself knowing how each was prepared. In setting this up I was limited to a choice of four different preps from two slabs of St. Louis cut pork ribs (which is our rib of choice). As to the cooking hardware;
WSM 18" smoker (my go to model)
combination of Royal Oak charcoal & apple wood chunks
temperature was monitored at +-225 for the duration
We chose to use the 3-2-1 method of cooking the ribs for each particular slab. As I will describe below, only one of the slabs was left unwrapped so it really was a straight 5 hour cook since at that time frame it was clearly finished.
We began by dry brining the slabs in kosher slat for about 1 1/2 hours. After that;
we added pepper to one (effectively now salt & pepper) and Goode Company Pork Rub and pepper to the other. (Goode Company is a local BBQ joint in Houston who favors mesquite and sweet so his rub has both profiles). Slabs were rotated in the cooker from the top to the middle grill and back so the cooking would be approximately the same for each.
After 3 hours one slab with only salt and pepper was left to cook nekkid for 2 more hours (5 total). The other 3 were wrapped in foil as follows;
Slab #2 - w/salt/pepper seasoning - small amount of apple juice added to the foil
Slab #3 - w/rib rub - again apple juice added to the foil
Slab #4 - w/rib rub - about 2 teaspoons of butter, 4 tablespoons of dark brown sugar and apple juice to the foil
At the 5 hour mark the nekkid slab was removed and foiled while the other 3 were sauced as followed and smoked for an additional hour;
Slab #2 - my personal sauce which starts with a base of Woody's Cookin' Sauce and adds a bunch more. It's savory and slightly sweet.
Slab #3 - same
Slab #4 - Sweet Baby Rays with a touch of my sauce to give it a much sweeter profile
Here are the slabs as they sat resting prior to cutting and tasting;
And here they are cut. Each had a real nice finish, a reasonable smoke ring and excellent tenderness with good "bite".
AND THE WINNER !! It was unanimous (which I never expected) that #3 clearly won. It seemed the nekkid ribs lacked depth of flavor. Never having been wrapped they were tender and smokey but took on a jerky like density (maybe a tad over cooked). Slab #2 was basically the same but sauced and wrapped gave it a little more character but no where near as much as slab #3 that had the Goode Co. rub giving the bark a much more pronounced flavor. Slab #4 probably was the #2 choice but everyone recognized the sweetness note and being true Texans we prefer to let the meat do most of the talking !!
All in all it was a fun and flavorful experiment and one that confirms (at least for us) what style rib we will continue to eat, the way it is seasoned and prepared and the method of cooking that makes them lip smacking good. Hope you enjoyed reading this, try the challenge for yourself, its well worth the effort. HAPPY SMOKING Y'ALL !!!
