spares with an interesting slather and a new rub

[tasunkawitko]

alright, folks - today i have two whole slabs of ribs that i will attempt to trim in the st. louis style (or something like it!). i will also be trying a great-looking slather and rub recommended by a friend:

TJ's barbecue slather

1 generous cup light brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 can of flat beer
32 oz. yellow mustard
2 tbsp your favorite hot sauce.

due to what i had in the pantry, i used dark brown sugar and about 4 or 6 ounces of honey mustard mxed with the regular mustard. due to an effort to stay married, i omitted the hot sauce and substituted worcestershire sauce. the resulting mixture was very intersting - sweet with a kick, but no heat.

here's the rub that i'll be using - it also looks great!

TJ's barbecue rub

1 generous cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp dry mustard powder (coleman's recommended)
1tbsp onion salt
1 tbsp celery salt
1 tbsp chili seasoning (from the envelopes you find in the gravy section)
1 tbsp seasoned salt (lawry's recommended)
1 tbsp black pepper

necessary substitutions with this rub were dark brown sugar, onion powder, chili powder and wite pepper.

resulting rub was very good!

we're removing the membrane now and then will trim the ribs. i hope to have meat on the grate by 1100 at around 240 degres. normally, i would have done all this last night (trim, slather, rub etc.) but that didn't happen this time.

i have no plans to foil these ribs.

for a mop/spritz, i was thinking of apple juice but have elected to go with my tried and true excellent mop: 1 cup dr. pepper, 2/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce and 1/3 cup olive oil.

i am still deciding whether i will apply a finishing glaze at the end; if i do, it will be 1/3 cup each of yellow mustard, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar, simmered on the stove until well-blended and and allowed to cool, then applied very lightly near the end and again right at the end.

my hosting site for pix is still down, but i will take pictures once i get meat on the grate. when things go back up (possibly today) i will post pix of the process at various stages and of course when they are finished!

 

[oneshot]

This does sound interesting.....Can't wait for the pics and final taste test.

 

[tasunkawitko]

alright, guys - meat on at high noon ~

i placed a planin-jane fatty covered with TJ's slather and rub at the "west" end of the smokng chamber (nearest the firebox) and then the brisket trimmings. in the center of the smoking chamber i placed the trimmed spares (this went fairly easily, thanks to the instructions on ths sticky!) and just past them i placed the trimmings from the flap.

SnP was heated to 250 at the time of placing the meat on. when i closed the lid, it went down to about 160, but climbed up rapidly and is holding at an average of 240 now, where i intend to keep it.

also, i am doing some experiments with heat efficiency, i ahve the smoking chamber covered with three folded, heavy blankets; also, i am using two bricks in the fire box and two at the opposite end of the cooking chamber. you can read more about it here:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=80353

this may seem like a waste of time on a high summer day, but up here in north-central montana, we have very old winters and it would be good to have some ideas on heat efficiency now in order to have a head start when it's cold.

 

[rivet]

Sounds like a winner taste-combo for those ribs! Keep us posted. Like the idea of the worcestershire sauce substitution for hot sauce....Mrs Rivet doesn't like heat either, but she does the taste of "woooster-sure" !

How'd the trimming go?

 

[tasunkawitko]

rivet -

trimming went pretty easily. they look almost like in the picture, but a little rougher around the edges. won't be long until they're just right!

one small deviation from the plan: seems like the kids have been busy wtih my soy sauce, so i will need to substitute teriyaki sauce for my mop - no big deal as i have done this before and the flavors are great!

 

[tasunkawitko]

sprayed my mop on everything at 1345 and rotated the fatty, which must be just about done. will let if go another half houor or so just to let it exude the fat!

everything looking great and smelling great - temps recovering well and maintaining well....

 

[rivet]

Sounding great! You're getting me hungry.............

 

[oneshot]

Hey Tas, I use a heavy moving pad over my smoker in the winter and it makes a big difference in the winter cold and wind!!!! It's a big one folded in half.

 

[tasunkawitko]

hey, oneshot - those thick blankets do help a lot - if i ever get the chance for getting my hands on a moving pad, i'll grab it - right now, things look pretty red-necky but they work very well. i am noticing along with the bricks and these blankets, i am recovering temps very well and using less charcoal than ever - still maintaining a good, hot small fire, so things are great.

basically, i am keeping everything banked up against one side of the charcoal basket, taking up about half the space available. i am putting a couple of apple sticks in on the opposite side now and then to pre-warm and let out a little smoke. if the smoker temps die down to a certain point (below 145), i simply push the pre-warmed sticks over into the fire and put two new ones in to pre-warm. every now and then, i add 5 or 6 briquettes, and it's all good - working very well today.

the fatty was great, along with some hotdogs that we also threw on. since it was just sausage with nothing rolled into it, it was a bit dry due to my extra-long cooking time, but it still had great flavors. the new slather and rub (with an occasional spritz of mop) were outstanding and need no embellishment. i am sure that they could probably be improved, but i can't think of how as everything melded together very well.

the ribs are coming along and i am seeing some light pull-back from the ends of the bones. i am assuming the brisket pieces (which i cut in half from each slab for a total of four brisket pieces) will be done at the same time as the larger racks of ribs. i've decided not to worry about the finihsing glaze this time, so that i can evaluate the pre-slather and rub. i have tried a couple of the flap ends (otherwise known as pork candy?) and they are great ~ the meat is a little chewy still but a little more time over some slow heat will take care of that for the main ribs and brisket pieces.

so far, so good! no big issues and my temperature controle experiemnts seem to be working well.

RIVET!! come on up ehre, there seems to be plenty for dinner! i found some balck-eyed peas (in a can!) and am thinking of making them up as a side.

 

[rivet]

Hey Tas~ sounds like you have things under control, bud. You definitely learned that firebasket and have it burning your way-as it should be. Good deal!

On that black-eyed peas invite...man I am almost there! Black eyed peas are my favorite, canned or not- all good and healthy for you too. When I'm in a rush, I pop open a can of black eyed peas, pour on a couple shakes of tabasco and eat them right outta the can. Nothing better!

If I have a plastic spoon, so much the better....no clean up

 

[tasunkawitko]

well, the after-action report is mostly positive - here goes ~

brought everything off at 1700 - mrs. tas decided ribs were adventurous enough for one night, so no black-eyed peas tonight. instead, we made some pasta in a creamy parmesan sauce similar to alfredo.

color on the ribs was great, maybe just a bit dark but no complaints. the brisket ends were very dark but i am attributing this to the brown sugar in the rub. will go back to turbinado sugar in the future to combat this. the ribs were pulled back from the bone but probably not as much as they should have been.

flavor was great - the pre-rub slather and rub worked very well together and i am glad that i elected to go with the worcesterhsire over the hot sauce. great melding of sweet, tangy and savory flavors. mrs. tas had no complaints about everything tasting like an ashtray, so i am assuming the smoke (hickory in the briquettes plus the occaisional apple sticks) wasn't out of control ~ there was plenty of juciness and tenderness and overall i count these as a success.

a few bad points. which i will consider learning experiences. even though the internal temps of the ribs were in the 175-180 range, there was still a lot of fat and connective tissue that did not break down and render. in hindsight, i should have gone maybe another half-hour or 45 minutes. secondly, these were (forgive me, folks, but they were all i could get at the time) injected ribs, so they were a little TOO pink and a little hammy tasting. this wouldn't have been bad, but the texture was a little mushy and in spite of the internal temps the texture made them seem a little under-done, even though they weren't. also, because of the injection, mrs. tas did complain that they were too salty - i tend to lean toward salty food, so i didn't see anything wrong, but i do trust her judgement in this. with this in mind, i'd suggest ground or crushed celery seed rather than celery salt (and also onion powder over onion salt, etc.), and will definitely avoid injected ribs whenever i can in the future.

that aside, these were great! the pre-rub slather and the rub are a definite success and with them, no finishing glaze or sauce is necessary, although one can certainly use either or both if they choose. i did get a pic of them on the platter after the smoke and will post it when i can. thanks to all for sticking with me on this and i of course look forward to any opinions, suggestions etc.

 

[tasunkawitko]

guys - sorry it took so long to get this posted!

here's how they looked when finished and on the platter. the trimmed spares are obvious and the briskets are sticking out form underneath:

 

[beer-b-q]

Sounds great to me...

 

[rivet]

Wow, that's some fine looking meat, Tas~ Great Job!

Better late than never!

 

[mballi3011]

Now if you change out the hot sauce with whooooster sauce do you think I could add the hot sauce and the whoooster sauce together. No really But that is some more than good looking ribs either st louis or memphis I don't care where their from I want some . Great job TasunkaWitko.