Last Saturday I cranked up my weber charcoal kettle and put some ribs on. One rack I put a Chinese 5 spice-based rub on, and the other had a few odds and ends off the spice shelf added. I soak the racks overnight, usually in slightly salted water as I find the spice rub usually overpowers any marinade I have used. It keeps them juicy though. I did't have any water in the kettle for the smoke. The Chinese one was so big I had to cut it into two parts to fit on my 22". I did them at 110-130c for around 4 hours then rested them for about 45 min. I don't know if the photos will show up as I think noob photos are modded?
I have recently found a wee Polish shop here which sell ribs with a decent amount of meat on.
I used apple and oak chips and some rosemary stalks for smoke.
They were pretty juicy, the bite came off the bone easily and the bark had a bit of crunch too. My 3 hungover friends enjoyed them as much as I did. I sometimes put a sauce on for the last 30-40 min but left these dry.
On Sunday, I got a couple of 3-4lb pork shoulder roasts from the local supermarket and took the skin off. (I'll make crackling with that this week.) I did a couple of similar rubs as the ribs, and put them on the kettle at around 130c. I put boiling water in the drip tray for this smoke. The temp was up and down a bit; I'm still getting the hang of keeping a consistent temp for 6 hours or more. It was down to 100c at one stage (snoozed a bit on the couch) and after about 6 hours I probed them - still a bit low at 75ish, so we had to wait a bit longer. Eventually it got to 88c (around 7.5 hours, possibly because of the wind and drizzle) and I wrapped them in foil for around an hour.
I used a similar mix of wood as the ribs - not because it added a special flavour, it was just what I had. I sliced them to see how they looked inside, then sliced one up for sandwiches. It disappeared pretty quickly, (6 hungry lads made very short work of it) so I sliced the next one and realised it fell apart easily so I just pulled it apart. That disappeared too, which I was pretty happy about. One of the guys there had lived in Texas for a year and he said it tasted very similar and had a similar texture to stuff he'd eaten there, just they usually smothered it in sauce. I was pleased to hear that, as I've never eaten authentic US-style ribs or pork so I'm flying blind here. Still, I like what I make and my guests seem to as well, so I'm happy.
Next weekends plan is for some ribs to eat while I watch Scotland getting gubbed...
I have recently found a wee Polish shop here which sell ribs with a decent amount of meat on.
I used apple and oak chips and some rosemary stalks for smoke.
They were pretty juicy, the bite came off the bone easily and the bark had a bit of crunch too. My 3 hungover friends enjoyed them as much as I did. I sometimes put a sauce on for the last 30-40 min but left these dry.
On Sunday, I got a couple of 3-4lb pork shoulder roasts from the local supermarket and took the skin off. (I'll make crackling with that this week.) I did a couple of similar rubs as the ribs, and put them on the kettle at around 130c. I put boiling water in the drip tray for this smoke. The temp was up and down a bit; I'm still getting the hang of keeping a consistent temp for 6 hours or more. It was down to 100c at one stage (snoozed a bit on the couch) and after about 6 hours I probed them - still a bit low at 75ish, so we had to wait a bit longer. Eventually it got to 88c (around 7.5 hours, possibly because of the wind and drizzle) and I wrapped them in foil for around an hour.
I used a similar mix of wood as the ribs - not because it added a special flavour, it was just what I had. I sliced them to see how they looked inside, then sliced one up for sandwiches. It disappeared pretty quickly, (6 hungry lads made very short work of it) so I sliced the next one and realised it fell apart easily so I just pulled it apart. That disappeared too, which I was pretty happy about. One of the guys there had lived in Texas for a year and he said it tasted very similar and had a similar texture to stuff he'd eaten there, just they usually smothered it in sauce. I was pleased to hear that, as I've never eaten authentic US-style ribs or pork so I'm flying blind here. Still, I like what I make and my guests seem to as well, so I'm happy.
Next weekends plan is for some ribs to eat while I watch Scotland getting gubbed...
