With Christopher Kimball and Bridget Lancaster. It was interesting. The explosion in the popularity of bbq has caused some rapid evolution over the past 20 years, but they got most of the basics right. It’s like watching physics between phlogiston and field theory.
They used baby backs. They didn’t make a point of stripping the membrane, but also it may have been stripped; as has been discussed here, that’s just a preference anyhow, but I found it interesting that they didn’t address it.
They wet brined the ribs. We now dry brine, of course, but you can see they were on to something! 1 cup of kosher salt to 4 quarts of water. They wet brined for one hour.
They made their own rub. It was a bit more southwestern than southern, with cumin, but otherwise it was pretty much what we would expect. I’d use it today.
They soaked their wood chunks for an hour. Those were the dark ages. They justified it by saying the chunks smoldered longer. We now know that is steam. However, they didn’t use a water pan! So that steam while the wood chips were heating up may have contributed the moisture needed to keep the ribs moist.
Two zone! No snake, or minion, but again they’re on to something. They used banked coals, and counted out 65 briquettes. They started the ribs with bones facing up. They measured pit temp; they started at 350° 😱, but then said adding the ribs lowered the temp, and that the pit would drop to 250° over the next two hours.
At two hours they flipped and rotated the ribs, and added 10 briquettes directly on top of the fire. They stated that this would raise the temp to 275° for the next two hours, at which point the ribs would be done.
They paused to say that store bought bbq sauces are pretty good, and it was one place where you could skip making your own. I’m of two minds on this. On one hand: yeah. There are some damn good store bought sauces. On the other hand: I spend good money for quality pork, make my own rub, spend an hour or so the previous night prepping my ribs, then half a day bbqing them… and I’m going to put someone else’s (commercially available) idea of what bbq sauce is supposed to taste like on them? You can. But I won’t. I do use commercially available sauces, but very sparingly. If I’m making a bbq smashburger, for example.
They tested, and rated a sauce called Mad Dog #1. I never heard of it. They said it was from New England, so it isn’t nationally available. I did some searching, and ATK did rate Mad Dog #1, but in 1995. I suspect they were recycling an old test result. They don’t do the test right in front of the camera, just a quick rundown of results and a bag/taste/reveal.
At 4 hours, they removed and cut into the ribs. Some of us would have called them overcooked; the meat tore with the knife, and they called them ”fall off the bone”. But remember what ATK does. They don’t cook to any standard other than, “What do our taste testers think?” If the testers liked fall off the bone, then that is what they’d shoot for. If the testers liked some pull, then that’s what the episode would have shown how to achieve. So, no fault there.
I enjoy this show. I like the acknowledgement that some things that work in professional kitchens either don’t work or are impractical in a home kitchen, but also that there are work arounds and solutions. And it’s worth noting that they have revisited ribs and bbq several times over the past 20+ years, and each time the knowledge has been revised and updated.
They used baby backs. They didn’t make a point of stripping the membrane, but also it may have been stripped; as has been discussed here, that’s just a preference anyhow, but I found it interesting that they didn’t address it.
They wet brined the ribs. We now dry brine, of course, but you can see they were on to something! 1 cup of kosher salt to 4 quarts of water. They wet brined for one hour.
They made their own rub. It was a bit more southwestern than southern, with cumin, but otherwise it was pretty much what we would expect. I’d use it today.
They soaked their wood chunks for an hour. Those were the dark ages. They justified it by saying the chunks smoldered longer. We now know that is steam. However, they didn’t use a water pan! So that steam while the wood chips were heating up may have contributed the moisture needed to keep the ribs moist.
Two zone! No snake, or minion, but again they’re on to something. They used banked coals, and counted out 65 briquettes. They started the ribs with bones facing up. They measured pit temp; they started at 350° 😱, but then said adding the ribs lowered the temp, and that the pit would drop to 250° over the next two hours.
At two hours they flipped and rotated the ribs, and added 10 briquettes directly on top of the fire. They stated that this would raise the temp to 275° for the next two hours, at which point the ribs would be done.
They paused to say that store bought bbq sauces are pretty good, and it was one place where you could skip making your own. I’m of two minds on this. On one hand: yeah. There are some damn good store bought sauces. On the other hand: I spend good money for quality pork, make my own rub, spend an hour or so the previous night prepping my ribs, then half a day bbqing them… and I’m going to put someone else’s (commercially available) idea of what bbq sauce is supposed to taste like on them? You can. But I won’t. I do use commercially available sauces, but very sparingly. If I’m making a bbq smashburger, for example.
They tested, and rated a sauce called Mad Dog #1. I never heard of it. They said it was from New England, so it isn’t nationally available. I did some searching, and ATK did rate Mad Dog #1, but in 1995. I suspect they were recycling an old test result. They don’t do the test right in front of the camera, just a quick rundown of results and a bag/taste/reveal.
At 4 hours, they removed and cut into the ribs. Some of us would have called them overcooked; the meat tore with the knife, and they called them ”fall off the bone”. But remember what ATK does. They don’t cook to any standard other than, “What do our taste testers think?” If the testers liked fall off the bone, then that is what they’d shoot for. If the testers liked some pull, then that’s what the episode would have shown how to achieve. So, no fault there.
I enjoy this show. I like the acknowledgement that some things that work in professional kitchens either don’t work or are impractical in a home kitchen, but also that there are work arounds and solutions. And it’s worth noting that they have revisited ribs and bbq several times over the past 20+ years, and each time the knowledge has been revised and updated.
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