Three Kinds of Ribs (good score too)

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Bearcarver

Gone but not forgotten RIP
Original poster
OTBS Member
Group Lead
Sep 12, 2009
45,279
18,182
Macungie, PA
I think I made a pretty good score the other day. I got 4 real nice Chuckies ($1.99 per), 2 Pork Spare Ribs ($1.59 per), and I couldn't pass up a little pack of my favorite Beef Spares to go along (Click on any picture to zoom in):

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Gonna break these down & freeze them individually for a later date:

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That's Better. Huh--What's that--"Smoke me---Smoke meeeee......"

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These guys aren't gonna have to wait:
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No waiting for these guys either:

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Trimmed and cut down Pork spares for first smoke (except for some I kept for Bacon on a stick):

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Pork Spares out of the smoker:

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My first helping:

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2 Days Later:

The rest of the Pork Spares after 2 days of curing,

and a load of Oak Bourbon Barrel dust in the "A-MAZE-N-SMOKER" :

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And I didn't want that "Bacon on a stick" to get lonely:

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Cured Bacon On A Stick:

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Beef Back Spares:

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Thanks for lookin',

Bear
 
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You got some good looking meat there.  The chuck roasts are quite good looking, versus the boney and fatty ones the stores often try to sell.  When ever I see one like that I like to grab it even if I don't know what is going to happen to it.  Might end up in curry, in chili, or as Yankee pot roast -- and now I might try smoking the next one.

I've never seen beef ribs like that -- they actually have some meat on them.  Our Safeway often has beef ribs that look like dinasour bones that have been dug out of a pit.  All the meat is gone -- probably scraped off into hamburger.
 
Nice Ribfest!  Nothing better than eating well! 
Thanks Doc.


 
How many times do I have to tell myself do not look when hungry
LOL---That's part of the fun--You love it!

Thanks,

Bear


 
You got some good looking meat there.  The chuck roasts are quite good looking, versus the boney and fatty ones the stores often try to sell.  When ever I see one like that I like to grab it even if I don't know what is going to happen to it.  Might end up in curry, in chili, or as Yankee pot roast -- and now I might try smoking the next one.

I've never seen beef ribs like that -- they actually have some meat on them.  Our Safeway often has beef ribs that look like dinasour bones that have been dug out of a pit.  All the meat is gone -- probably scraped off into hamburger.
The Chuck roasts around here are almost always real nice.

I was actually looking for a big old rack of Dinos, but all they had at Weiss' was that little pack of singles. I asked the butcher there, and he said they never do whole Beef Spare racks there any more. Guess I gotta try BJs.

Thanks,

Bear
 
 
Bear your camera skills are getting very good and are killing me with all these great smokes!  I passed on a beautiful chuckie the other day and I'm kicking myself.  I've checked the last two days and nothing as nice.

What type of vacuum sealer do you have?  I've almost got the Mrs convinced we need one.  
icon_mrgreen.gif
 
I was actually looking for a big old rack of Dinos, but all they had at Weiss' was that little pack of singles. I asked the butcher there, and he said they never do whole Beef Spare racks there any more. Guess I gotta try BJs.
I've never seen them at our BJs.  What I have seen are cryovacs of various boneless beef cuts (rib roast, top & bottom round, tenderloin, eye of round, etc.).  In pork they have spare ribs, picnics, boston butt, boneless pork loin and baby back ribs.

What I have never been able to grok is the fact that they ask $3.99 for their baby back ribs -- which if I understand it are what is left after you make a boneless pork loin from the side.  They sell the boneless pork loin for about $2.  Of course, if they cut it up into boneless pork chops, then they want $2.99 per pound.

It is our Safeway store that sometimes carries the big beef ribs.  When I look at them, what I see are ribs that are about two fingers wide and 12 inches long.  All white with no meat on them.

They also sometimes sell a product that they call Danish pork spare ribs.  These are packed ten pounds in a box, priced at $9.99.  Of course the picture on the box looks good, but you cannot see what is inside unless a box happens to break open.  If you get a look at them, what you see is a smaller version of what I just described for the beef ribs.  Both look like they went though a meat scraper before packing up the residue for anyone crazy enough to buy them.  I'll stick to my pork ribs from BJs at $1.89 or so, with a decent amount of meat on the bones plus that extra flap meat.
 
 
Bear your camera skills are getting very good and are killing me with all these great smokes!  I passed on a beautiful chuckie the other day and I'm kicking myself.  I've checked the last two days and nothing as nice.

What type of vacuum sealer do you have?  I've almost got the Mrs convinced we need one.  
icon_mrgreen.gif
I think I owed you a couple of "eye-openers".

Food Saver--Game Saver "Sport"

Bear
 
I've never seen them at our BJs.  What I have seen are cryovacs of various boneless beef cuts (rib roast, top & bottom round, tenderloin, eye of round, etc.).  In pork they have spare ribs, picnics, boston butt, boneless pork loin and baby back ribs.

What I have never been able to grok is the fact that they ask $3.99 for their baby back ribs -- which if I understand it are what is left after you make a boneless pork loin from the side.  They sell the boneless pork loin for about $2.  Of course, if they cut it up into boneless pork chops, then they want $2.99 per pound.

It is our Safeway store that sometimes carries the big beef ribs.  When I look at them, what I see are ribs that are about two fingers wide and 12 inches long.  All white with no meat on them.

They also sometimes sell a product that they call Danish pork spare ribs.  These are packed ten pounds in a box, priced at $9.99.  Of course the picture on the box looks good, but you cannot see what is inside unless a box happens to break open.  If you get a look at them, what you see is a smaller version of what I just described for the beef ribs.  Both look like they went though a meat scraper before packing up the residue for anyone crazy enough to buy them.  I'll stick to my pork ribs from BJs at $1.89 or so, with a decent amount of meat on the bones plus that extra flap meat.
 
Yup, my wife used to buy pork chops, until I noticed how much they make just for slicing a loin. But my favorite in that realm is still curing & smoking the Pork Loin (like Canadian Bacon), but slicing it thicker, into Boneless Smoked Pork Chops (like in my signature below). Even my non-smoke meat loving wife loves those!

Now that I have my big MES, I'm gonna soon be on a Big old Beef Ribs hunt! Farmers "Hide Your Cows!"

Bear
 
Dang it Bear that is sweet! I've never seen good looking beef ribs like that either. Most of the ones I have seen are mostly bone. I also agree that you're upping your game on the mad camera skills!
 
Bear, those are about the best looking ribs I've seen in a long time.  The cured ones look especially good.  Thanks for the great pictures.
 
Thanks Squirrel,

On the pics, I must have just got lucky. Didn't think I did anything differently.
icon_rolleyes.gif


Bear
 
Bear, those are about the best looking ribs I've seen in a long time.  The cured ones look especially good.  Thanks for the great pictures.


Thanks Bassman,

They tasted great too!

The cured ones were melt in your mouth, like a very tender ham, with a bit of a Bacon flavor.

I got my info for the "Bacon on a stick" a combo of many, including Pops & SmokinD.

I only made a few adjustments.

Now that I know how great it is, I will be doing some Full racks that way.

Bear
 
Hey John what the heck are you doing to me? I been gone for a few days and you go off on a smoking tangent. Those look great man - just shot you an email at home on the good news we got from Paul.
 
Aloha Bear!!!

I am intrigued with your Bacon on a Stick.  So.....its a slab of ribs cured with what one would normally cure belly pork with;  then  cold smoked for a few hours?  Assuming its cold smoked, how do you prepare it for the table?....Bring the meat temp up to 155? 
 
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"Bacon on a stick" came from one of my posts, it is simply slabs of fresh pork ribs cured with a salt-sugar-curing salt pickle just like you'd cure bacon or ham for a few days, then smoked at regular temp (225°) using the 3-2-1 method.   http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/96273/bacon-on-a-stick     A nice variation to regular smoked ribs, plus a certain amount of naturally occurring nitrites develop in the pork from wood smoking during the initial start of smoking anyways, so it's a natural to expand it throughout the entire slab with curing.
 
Aloha Bear!!!

I am intrigued with your Bacon on a Stick.  So.....its a slab of ribs cured with what one would normally cure belly pork with;  then  cold smoked for a few hours?  Assuming its cold smoked, how do you prepare it for the table?....Bring the meat temp up to 155? 
Yup--What Pops said:

I used his post, which is the one that first got me interested, but he doesn't use TQ, or dry curing, so I did some more searching. I found a few others, including one from Dennis (SmokingD). So after questioning Pops & Dennis, I came up with the way I did mine, which is almost exactly like "SmokingD" did his.

I cut the ribs into easy to manage pieces (2 pieces almost exactly 1 pound each).

Rinsed these pieces off with cold water, and dried them well.

Rubbed each with 1/2 ounce (1 TBS) TQ & one TBS of Brown Sugar.

Put them each in their own zip lock bag, along with any TQ that fell off while rubbing them.

Put them in the fridge at 37˚/38˚ for about 48 hours, flipping each package at the halfway point.

Then I rinsed them off good under cold water, and soaked them in ice water for 1 1/2 hours, changing the water once.

Then patted them real dry, and sprinkled with CBP, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Then into the smoker at 230˚ for only 2-2-1, along with my Beef Back ribs, because these Pork rib pieces were pretty thin, and the Beef ribs were already cut apart.

Normally I would have used the 3-2-1 method.

I checked them when I took them out, and they were at about 170˚ internal Temp.

This recipe was mostly from information from "Pops" & "SmokingD".

All of my recipes & step by steps are from compilations of anywhere from two people to as many as ten people, and a lot of searching. I pick the parts where everybody agrees, and throw out the parts that are not in line with most of the others. This method has not failed me yet.

Thanks,

Bear
 
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