Smoked two racks of ribs today. 22" kettle, SnS, KBB, apple chunks. The grocery store butcher only had one rack of fresh baby backs left in the case. That rack was 3.25 lbs at $5.25/lb. I wanted two racks. He pulled a Swift Premium cryovac rack from the regular meat case. It was 2.5 lbs at $2.69/lb. Butcher opened the cryovac, pulled the membrane for me and wrapped in butcher paper.
The fresh and more expensive rack was meatier; however, there was no difference in taste or texture between the two racks. First time I have smoked a cryovac rack so this was an interesting unexpected experiment. Picture below is a bone from each rack (sorry about the upside down pic--not sure why it flipped when I uploaded).. Can you tell which one is which?
Also need to put in a plug for the SnS. A dozen KBB briquettes ashed over, full chimney unlit, apple chunks. Lower vent cracked, top vents 1/4 open. Held 225-235 for a 3.5 hr cook. When racks passed bend test only half the briquettes had burned. The only time I had to make an adjustment was to clear some ash that blocked the bottom vent.
The fresh and more expensive rack was meatier; however, there was no difference in taste or texture between the two racks. First time I have smoked a cryovac rack so this was an interesting unexpected experiment. Picture below is a bone from each rack (sorry about the upside down pic--not sure why it flipped when I uploaded).. Can you tell which one is which?
Also need to put in a plug for the SnS. A dozen KBB briquettes ashed over, full chimney unlit, apple chunks. Lower vent cracked, top vents 1/4 open. Held 225-235 for a 3.5 hr cook. When racks passed bend test only half the briquettes had burned. The only time I had to make an adjustment was to clear some ash that blocked the bottom vent.
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