A little late, but... New Year's Day BBQ

[mayapoppa]

What better way to recover from the previous night's excesses than to let the kids go crazy on the trampoline, and eat a pile of good meat? I did ribs, pulled pork and brisket on the PBC. Finally had a proper pit temp thermometer, and the PBC held pretty steady between 260-265 with the 2 halves of a 15lb pork shoulder and a 7lb flat. When I put the 3 racks of spares in, the temp dropped... just too much meat! I cracked the lid, which brought the temps up, but it hastened the burning of the coals, so when I pulled out the brisket and shoulder to wrap, I added a few more briquettes, decided to finish the wrapped meat in the oven, and let the ribs finish cooking on their own. All worked really well.

A fun anecdote from the day: my neighbor (whom I like, but isn't the most socially adept) commented that the ribs were good, but not as fall-off-the-bone as his. He then described his process which involved some arcane process that included both boiling and steaming the ribs... I kept my response to myself. A little while later, his wife came over, raving about the ribs, and described how she hated ribs where "you take a bite, and the whole thing falls off." I wonder where she has had ribs like that? I know this sounds a bit petty, but it was all good-natured, and everybody had a great time.

[Jerod Broussard]

Nice man. I soooo need to cook some more ribs.

[JeffJ]

Me too! I am WAY overdue for some ribs and I've got my brand new SnS sitting in the garage just beckoning to lose its virginity.

[mayapoppa]

They are always the crowd favorite... it always amazes me how some people aren't really familiar with brisket or pulled pork (although a lot of our friends are from other countries, so some bbq ignorance is understandable), but everybody loves ribs.

[JeffJ]

I think it might have something to do with the fact that even ribs that are cooked only so-so they are still pretty good, as long as you don't know any better. I think some people just love the pairing of the mild flavor of the pork coupled with some glazed on BBQ sauce and the visceral delight of tearing meat right off the bone. People have ribs like that at a restaurant and they think ribs are great. And then they have some real backyard Q ribs and they are absolutely floored.

[mayapoppa]

That is true... before I started making my own, I had even been known to eat the ribs at Ikea. Something like "man these ribs taste like they were steamed *chomp chomp* and this sauce is way too sweet *chomp chomp* I don't know why I got these *chomp chomp* I need to learn how to cook ribs *chomp chomp* so I can finally eat real ribs *chomp chomp*"-empty plate.

[BigBear]

Great looking spread mayapoppa . There is almost no better joy than watching the kids jumping on the trampoline in the backyard while enjoying the sweet smell of pork smoke billowing out of the PBC! BTW, great restraint on the neighbor's comment about boiling ribs. I'm afraid I would have sunken to the level of quoting Meathead on the subject.