All's Well That Ends Well

[GoldenJet]

Last year I posted about finishing 4th in a local rib competition. We lost points because one or two of our 11 turn in ribs got a little scorched.

This year's Ribfest was this past Saturday. We came in ready. We had a plan to manage the racks better. Keep an eye on our temp. Rotate the racks front to back and top to bottom.

I have, and love, my smoker, it's a Good One Marshall. It has 4 grates for racks. You could easily smoke 16 racks at a time.

To start the day, we warmed up the smoker and scrubbed the tops of each grate with balled up foil. We didn't scrub the bottoms...oops. This led to some unsightly black drips on the lower racks of ribs. These ended up tasting delicious but we decided to concentrate on the 4 racks on the top grate for turn in.

This year's ribs were definitely thinner racks than in the past and we ended up achieving finish way too early. We ended up wrapping in foil and letting them rest in a cooler...maybe this was a key "mistake".

We made a fresh batch of Memphis Dust for our rub, but this year I decided last minute to substitute Turbinado for the white sugar.

In the end, the stars aligned, and of the 22 teams we were voted Grand Champions.

What a great feeling. Here's our team before and after.

[jfmorris]

Wow! Congratulations on the win! And the lucky "mistake" of getting done early and having a long hold to help tenderize those ribs...

Were these baby back or St. Louis style spares?

[GoldenJet]

Baby back ribs.

All teams work with the same ribs. We picked our own racks from fresh cases supplied morning of the event by the event organizers.

They give us 12-15 racks. We turn in 2 and serve the rest to friends, family and the general public.

[Greygoose]

Congrats to you and your crew,,👍👍👍

[Smoker_Boy]

Great job!!

[rlozinak]

Congrats

[Jim White]

Congrats! Very impressive trophy.

[GoldenJet]

Right?!

We actually give it back and they add our name to it for posterity. Same for the flag, we get to fly it for a year.

[Sid P]

Congrats! Where did this Ribfest take place?

[GoldenJet]

Up in Lake Bluff

Annually on the first Saturday in October.

[KimO]

Congratulations! Great achievement! And looks like you had a lot of fun!

[Donw]

Congratulations on the win.

[FireMan]

How grand to have a champion in our midst! The thought and prep you let us in on was cool. 👍👍👍

[TripleB]

Great job. A lot of work, but very satisfying. Cheers to the champs!!

[GoldenJet]

Here's our winning combination:

Dry brine with coarse Morton salt

Yellow mustard as a binder

Memphis Dust (plain paprika, Turbinado sugar)

Blues Hog Champions Blend

3-2-1 @ 225-250 which was adjusted on the fly due to fast cooking ribs and about an hour rest.

Wrapped face down with brown sugar, rub, honey, butter, sauce.

More sauce and a little high temp to set the sauce.

Italian parsley for our presentation ribs.

A great team and a little luck!

[RonB]

Congrats. It's always nice to be recognised - especially with a win.

[GoldenJet]

If you're going to try this in the oven, you might substitute smoked paprika. I have found using the smoked paprika with a smoker adds too much smoke flavor.