If there's one thing I've cooked far more than anything else in my short time smoking meat, its baby backs. And yet what a humbling experience today's cook was!
I had 3 racks total, the plan was for two of them to get a hoisin glaze (these just got a SPOG rub) and the other rack to get my usual 3-layer salt/heat/sweet rub and go Memphis style. Both methods were requests from SWMBO. The first time I EVER tried something other than burgers, hot dogs or chicken was when I tried Weber's Hoisin Glazed Ribs recipe on my 22" kettle. The glaze was amazing, the ribs were not ready and were chewy, but my wife just loved the flavor and I haven't done it since, so... that was the goal - cooking for her tastes today.
At 5pm yesterday evening my kiddo helped me get the rubs on. This was the result around 7:45am (we used a mustard binder):
I lit the PBC this morning just before 7:30am and had the ribs on at 8am. PBC temps were between 285F to 250F for this portion of the cook.
Now, last rack I did was the first time I ever wrapped ribs and they turned out REALLY good (inspired by Heath Riles's method for his competition ribs). Much more juicy and tender, but still had a tug to them. So lets do that again with all three racks! Thinking I'm smarter than the average bear, I decided I'd prep the foil for the wrapping a la Henrik (ingredients on the foil, meaty side goes down) and preheat the oven to 250F. I figured it was easier to just move them in there during this phase and planned to hang them back on the PBC for the finish to firm up the bark, etc. All three ready to go, two with some squeeze butter (yes, I had to try it) and hoisin glaze, one with squeeze butter, brown sugar and honey:
After 2h15m on the PBC, I decided they were ready to be wrapped. Hmm... this is the first time I've noticed THAT much char on those bottom ribs closest to the charcoal basket. (cue the dark foreboding music) No worries, sacrificial end ribs, it was a worthy cause.
So I took them off, left the hooks in since I'm hanging them again soon, double wrapped them really good with the hooks poking out the top, and let them roll in the oven for an hour... just like last time... right? Well, here's where things really started going all cattywampus on me. With the first rack I'm pulling out of the oven the hook gets caught on the oven rack tearing the foil, sending baby back goodness all over SWMBO's oven. Dear lord in heaven, her anniversary gift just got more expensive! Made sure that didn't happen on the other two, but the damage was done. I unwrap them all, and man they are tender... more tender than I expected, heck I think they're ready. What the heck?? I applied hoisin glaze front and back to those two racks, and the other rack got more heat & sweet layers:
OK, so now SWMBO has a towel wrapped around her freshly washed hair and is wiping out her oven while I get these back on the PBC, and as far as I know I'm not sleeping on the couch tonight. Lets do this... pick up the first rack, hang it, reach for the second and I hear the *thud*. Yep - 3/4 of that first rack is now in my charcoal basket at the bottom of the PBC. Its like that first scratch on a new car - it had to happen some time! Grab some tongs and pull it out. Remove both rebar, grab the PBC grate and get it in place, remove the other two hooks, and get all 3 of them on the grate. Rebar out, higher temps are fine, I just want the glaze to caramelize a bit and the bark to firm up. Did I mention how charred the bottoms got this time???
I let this roll for about 10 min, then had to use tongs to grab them lengthwise and lift them out of the PBC to keep them from breaking in half. Got them inside, glazed once more and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Now, they weren't mushy, but they were fall of the bone tender. Lo and behold SWMBO and my kiddo LOVED them. I'm sitting there on a beautiful NC day on our screened in porch feeling like a complete moron wondering how things went SO wrong, and they are just devouring the stuff. Who knew? I know most folks here prefer "competition" style with more of a bite... I prefer them a bit more of what I think of as "tug off the bone"... and these ribs were neither, I thought they were just OK. I can't decide if my family loving them means I lucked out today, or if I'm doomed to making fall of the bone ribs in the future.
Possible FUBAR points of my cook I'm still pondering:
So yeah... humbling cook today. Time to sacrifice to the PBC gods maybe. Or see if I can manage burgers. Or stick to the microwave. Or cold cereal.
I had 3 racks total, the plan was for two of them to get a hoisin glaze (these just got a SPOG rub) and the other rack to get my usual 3-layer salt/heat/sweet rub and go Memphis style. Both methods were requests from SWMBO. The first time I EVER tried something other than burgers, hot dogs or chicken was when I tried Weber's Hoisin Glazed Ribs recipe on my 22" kettle. The glaze was amazing, the ribs were not ready and were chewy, but my wife just loved the flavor and I haven't done it since, so... that was the goal - cooking for her tastes today.
At 5pm yesterday evening my kiddo helped me get the rubs on. This was the result around 7:45am (we used a mustard binder):
I lit the PBC this morning just before 7:30am and had the ribs on at 8am. PBC temps were between 285F to 250F for this portion of the cook.
Now, last rack I did was the first time I ever wrapped ribs and they turned out REALLY good (inspired by Heath Riles's method for his competition ribs). Much more juicy and tender, but still had a tug to them. So lets do that again with all three racks! Thinking I'm smarter than the average bear, I decided I'd prep the foil for the wrapping a la Henrik (ingredients on the foil, meaty side goes down) and preheat the oven to 250F. I figured it was easier to just move them in there during this phase and planned to hang them back on the PBC for the finish to firm up the bark, etc. All three ready to go, two with some squeeze butter (yes, I had to try it) and hoisin glaze, one with squeeze butter, brown sugar and honey:
After 2h15m on the PBC, I decided they were ready to be wrapped. Hmm... this is the first time I've noticed THAT much char on those bottom ribs closest to the charcoal basket. (cue the dark foreboding music) No worries, sacrificial end ribs, it was a worthy cause.
So I took them off, left the hooks in since I'm hanging them again soon, double wrapped them really good with the hooks poking out the top, and let them roll in the oven for an hour... just like last time... right? Well, here's where things really started going all cattywampus on me. With the first rack I'm pulling out of the oven the hook gets caught on the oven rack tearing the foil, sending baby back goodness all over SWMBO's oven. Dear lord in heaven, her anniversary gift just got more expensive! Made sure that didn't happen on the other two, but the damage was done. I unwrap them all, and man they are tender... more tender than I expected, heck I think they're ready. What the heck?? I applied hoisin glaze front and back to those two racks, and the other rack got more heat & sweet layers:
OK, so now SWMBO has a towel wrapped around her freshly washed hair and is wiping out her oven while I get these back on the PBC, and as far as I know I'm not sleeping on the couch tonight. Lets do this... pick up the first rack, hang it, reach for the second and I hear the *thud*. Yep - 3/4 of that first rack is now in my charcoal basket at the bottom of the PBC. Its like that first scratch on a new car - it had to happen some time! Grab some tongs and pull it out. Remove both rebar, grab the PBC grate and get it in place, remove the other two hooks, and get all 3 of them on the grate. Rebar out, higher temps are fine, I just want the glaze to caramelize a bit and the bark to firm up. Did I mention how charred the bottoms got this time???
I let this roll for about 10 min, then had to use tongs to grab them lengthwise and lift them out of the PBC to keep them from breaking in half. Got them inside, glazed once more and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Now, they weren't mushy, but they were fall of the bone tender. Lo and behold SWMBO and my kiddo LOVED them. I'm sitting there on a beautiful NC day on our screened in porch feeling like a complete moron wondering how things went SO wrong, and they are just devouring the stuff. Who knew? I know most folks here prefer "competition" style with more of a bite... I prefer them a bit more of what I think of as "tug off the bone"... and these ribs were neither, I thought they were just OK. I can't decide if my family loving them means I lucked out today, or if I'm doomed to making fall of the bone ribs in the future.
Possible FUBAR points of my cook I'm still pondering:
- Perhaps the PBC temps weren't accurate. My thermometer probe wouldn't cooperate and ended up sorta hanging off to one side. I know fzxdoc uses two ambient probes in her PBC and notes the temps vary greatly and shift from one side to the other during longer cooks.
- I've seen wood chunks flame up in the PBC charcoal basket. I used two chunks, and I'm wondering if they contributed to the overly charred ends on the bottom. Just don't get it, didn't happen on previous cooks.
- Perhaps my indoor oven temps were too high and/or not accurate. This could explain how they got so crazy tender during that hour. I wrapped tightly. If I wrap again, I think I'll cut the time down to 30 min or so.
- I've since decided that the hook that got caught when taking that rack out of the oven led to that rack falling off the hook after it was re-hung. Didn't consider it at the time, but I think that pulling action did more than just rip the foil.
So yeah... humbling cook today. Time to sacrifice to the PBC gods maybe. Or see if I can manage burgers. Or stick to the microwave. Or cold cereal.
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