Today's experiment: Play by play

[DaveD]

Hey all, the weather forecast came through and it is a spectacular day here in northern Virginia. I'd planned a cook for today to give my wife a break after her astounding prime rib yesterday, and to put off the redux until tomorrow's dinner

Putting this here because I'm smoking both pork and beef. Starting materials are a set of four small racks of pork short ribs I got from Porter Road, and a bone-in ribeye steak I got from CrowdCow. I've not experienced this cut of pork before, for one half of the experiment. And for the other, I'm going to smoke the ribeye at 225 and skip the sear step, as I saw someone post here the other day (sorry I fail to remember who!). We'll just slice it up as a snack during the afternoon.

The pork short ribs total about 2 lbs. Removed the membrane and dry-brined with coarse kosher overnight, generous application of Memphis Dust about half an hour before going in. Fortunately two of the mini-slabs are thick enough to take a T probe.

It's a PERFECT day to be cooking outside! (And please to be impressed by our brand spanking new fence!)






They went in on the vertical p-smoker's low-T "smoke" setting for one hour, then I raised the set point to 225. I'm leaving space on the left for where the steak will sit later (so I have to clean just the one rack).



After an hour on Smoke:



For the steak, I have this orphan 1-lb ribeye because when my CrowdCow box was shipped couple of months ago, they had only one of the pair I'd ordered. Now's as good a time as any to use it to try out a slow-smoked steak. Brined with coarse kosher first thing this morning, and I'll hit it with Mrs. O'Leary's an hour or so before it goes in.



I'm hoping my Meater+ can be stuck into the steak, it's not the thickest I've ever seen.

More later!

[DaveD]

Ribs are bookin' along. After 2 hr 15 min total, temps are 169 and 177, and I've given them a couple of spritzes.

[DaveD]

A bit over three hours in, starting to see some pullback on the ribs, and the IT is 190. Got the steak coated in Mrs. O'Leary's and JUST managed to get the Meater+ into the middle of the steak - it's no more than an inch thick if that. Targeting 130-132 for the steak, shouldn't take all that long.

[Panhead John]

The hell with the food, look at that brand new sparkly fence! Looking good brother!

[DaveD]

Update time!

The steak came out very nicely, even lacking the sear. We snacked on about half of it and then put the rest in the fridge to serve as a protein source for some kind of dinner salad in a couple of days. The O'Leary rub is wonderful, and I happened to have all the ingredients so I could make it to spec (used thyme instead of oregano).

Steak T in low-mid 120s, ribs 194 and starting to get nice and tender in many spots.



Steak deliverable, IT 130-132:



Meanwhile, back at the ribs: a bit over four hours in.


By five hours, they hit 200-202, incredibly tender, so pulled, wrapped, into the FC they go -- it's only 2:20pm!




But that frees up the T probes to stick into a couple of stonking great potatoes, lightly coated with EVOO and salt & pepper after being forked again and again. Into the smoker they go, another experiment: first time baking taters in the smoker. SmokerTaters. AND the first time putting T probes into taters. Aiming for IT just below the boiling point so that the interior can be oh so fluffy.



After action report in a couple of hours...

EDIT: Mildly concerned about holding the ribs for a couple of hours in the FC. Should I pull them out and let them begin to cool -- they have to cool some for serving anyway. Any advice welcome.

[DaveD]

Dinner was definitely a success, but the takeaway is that ribs in the FC for 3+ hours doesn't do them any favors. They were absolutely delicious, to be sure, but I can tell that if they hadn't been done so much earlier than I expected, and I could have served them about 15 minutes after coming out of the smoker, they would have been absolutely off the hook.

Neither my lovely bride nor myself could detect anything about the potatoes that suggested they'd been baked in the smoker. I pulled them when their IT got to 210 or so, but they were still a little crunchy in the centers. I'll go to 220 next time.

Some good lessons learned, and everything tasted great, so all in all, a good day in the lab.

[TripleB]

Wow!!! Great pics and nice job. Like the smoke ring on the ribs and love snacking on ribeye. Good that it was a success. But we don't care about potatoes..... Just kidding. The fence is very nice. Keeping in dogs or the kids? I put in a back fence last month....complaining neighbors

[DaveD]

No kids here, but we do have a dog. The new fence replaces some decades-old, butt-ugly chain link, and we added a new gate and moved the fenceline forward, so now a few hundred more square feet are inside the fence instead of outside. Our next door neighbors are awesome, and we went in together on a job on both our properties. We love it!