Practice is well under way with this past weekend being baby back ribs. After last year's poor showing it was time to make some changes in the ribs so I basically changed everything! New rub, new cooking vessel, higher cooking temperature, different glaze…everything is different! Overall the results were good but I am still not getting the color that I want on the outside of the ribs….so I will take one more attempt at this before I settle on a technique.
The rub has been simplified big time! I had to much going on in there so I took it all apart and almost cut my ingredients in half! I think this rub is much better with far less spice competition going on in your mouth. Now I am not ready to unleash this rub to the public just yet. I fear that once the news got out to my 21 followers that they may all try to hit this Blog at the same time and knock it over (crash the server). I can say that there is, as always, a decent amount of brown sugar. The newest additions are all-spice and crushed red pepper flakes. I like this one a lot because it is sweet and spicy.
Last year we used the Redneck Green Egg to cook on. The concept is good. The vessel holds the temperature at a good steady 210o temp. The problems I have with it are that it is difficult to get additional wood down to the fire and they are not very well insulated. I am not totally given up on the trash cans though….but for now I am back to using the Weber. Yes the Weber comes with some space concerns. I can only fit a MAX of 3 slabs on the Weber at a time. I will probably do 6 slabs in order to get the good final turn in ribs from the middle of the slabs. This may force me back to the trash cans, then using the Weber as a hotter, finishing vessel in the last 10 minutes of cooking….more practice is needed here for sure. To turn the Weber into a smoker I wrapped 2/3 of the bottom rack in heavy duty foil and then constructed a brick wall near the open part of the bottom rack. I added about 20 brickettes to the rack (not lit) and then about 20 more to the chimney to light. When those were lit I poured them onto of the unlit coals. I put my wood on that, closed the top cooking grate side and put a bread pan full of water and apple juice above the fire. This helped to keep the temp down and provide some humidity to the smoker. It stayed at a pretty consistent 300o for a full 4 hours. I think longer but I was done cooking at that point so I walked away.
The cooking process was a little different too. Here were the basic steps, all at 300o:
First hour – meat side up
½ hour meat side down
½ hour meat side up
1 hour wrapped in aluminum foil
When I made the pouch I poured melted butter, apple juice and honey. Not sure how much of each but most was apple juice. I really liked this.
10 minutes with glaze to finish.
The glaze was a mix of 3 parts BBQ sauce and 1 part honey – maybe should have gone more honey
The smaller of the two slabs was well over cooked. The meatier of the two slabs was just about perfect.
I was only disappointed about the color of the ribs. I always love the color about ½ ways through the process. The end result always seems to dark to me. It tastes good, which I like, but I think that when the ribs are a dark reddish color, it is mouth watering….I mean I am drooling just typing about it!
So to correct this, in the next test, I think I just decided, that I will use the trashcans. I will cook them slower and lower at 210o with these steps:
Meat side up for 1 hour
Then meat side down for 1 hour
Foil wrap for one hour.
Once the foil wrapping is done, they should have another hour to go if at 210o and this last hour is where I will glaze every 10 minutes.
Hopefully the end result will be a more red rib result. The pics that follow are 1/2 ways done and then the final product. The flavor was, I think, perfect! Now I have to work on the color!
The color I want
What they end up looking like....just a little too dark for my liking:
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