Yesterday I made a last minute decision to make some ribs. There was rain predicted for today and had promised my neighbor I would smoke some ribs this weekend.
I ran over to Meijer’s to pick up some spareribs, which I prefer over backs. I like Meijer’s because none of their meat is "enhanced" with injected fluids, seems like all the other stores in the area only sell "enhanced" pre-packaged ribs. And my usual butcher, Ream’s in Elburn IL, doesn’t carry spares, I would have to call and order them a day or 2 in advance. They always have backs but not spares.
I usually buy the whole spare rib and trim it to St. Louis style myself, freezing the trimmed tips for another cook (tips are another cut I love). But when I got to Meijer’s I noticed that they had St. Louis cut in the cooler. Since I was in a bit of a rush I decided to get these and save some time.
I peeled off the silver skin, trimmed them up (cut off the flap and squared them up a bit), salted them and popped them in the fridge or about 2 hours.
I then made up a batch of sauce (my own recipe). Got the grill set up with a 2x2 snak, a few pieces of Applewood and a pan with 2 quarts of boiling water.
Took the spares out of the fridge, brushed with olive oil and applied my favorite pork rub, about 2 tablespoons per slab.
Placed them on the 230 degree grill and threw another piece of Applewood on the lit coals. I decided to try using a rib rack for the first time, as the snake method doesn’t allow a lot of room. This was a mistake as the large slabs don’t fit well, with the ends curling over each other. So I decided to fold them over and use 2 slots for each slab.
2.5 hours later I didn’t like the way things were looking. Seemed like the spares weren’t cooking evenly top to bottom when placed on end. The snake had burned down enough to allow more food grate area so I cut the slabs at the bend and laid them flat on the grill.
Now I like my ribs sauced, so at hour 4 I coated both sides with my sauce, cooked for 30 minutes, then brushed on a second coat and cooked another 30 minutes. Then placed each piece over the hot coals for about 1 minute per side to caramelize the sauce and took them off.
They came out pretty good, smoky and sweet. I don’t care for "fall off the bone" tender, as I prefer some "bite" to the meat. These could have used another 30-60 minutes which would have made it a 6 hour cook instead of 5 hour.
A few lessons learned here. I’ll be skipping the rib rack in the future as it doesn’t really hold the full racks of ribs very well and if I cut the rib racks in half it won’t allow me to use the "lift & bounce method" to check for doneness. So I’ll use the S&S next time. But since I had a problem keeping a low temp with the S&S in the past, I’ll skip covering the coal grate with foil as this may be funneling too much air into the bottom of the S&S (maybe just a small piece to catch the drippings). I know I can use both the coal grate and food grate to get more ribs on but I think that would cause a greasy mess in the bottom of the kettle.
I will also do a better job of trimming the racks of ribs. This time around the ribs at the small bone end were falling off the bone while the ribs at the large bone end were a bit too chewy. I need to achieve a consistent thickness if I want an even cook. So I will be chopping off a few ribs from each end. These can always be thrown on the grill as a "cook’s bonus" to munch on during the cook, along with the flap.
I ran over to Meijer’s to pick up some spareribs, which I prefer over backs. I like Meijer’s because none of their meat is "enhanced" with injected fluids, seems like all the other stores in the area only sell "enhanced" pre-packaged ribs. And my usual butcher, Ream’s in Elburn IL, doesn’t carry spares, I would have to call and order them a day or 2 in advance. They always have backs but not spares.
I usually buy the whole spare rib and trim it to St. Louis style myself, freezing the trimmed tips for another cook (tips are another cut I love). But when I got to Meijer’s I noticed that they had St. Louis cut in the cooler. Since I was in a bit of a rush I decided to get these and save some time.
I peeled off the silver skin, trimmed them up (cut off the flap and squared them up a bit), salted them and popped them in the fridge or about 2 hours.
I then made up a batch of sauce (my own recipe). Got the grill set up with a 2x2 snak, a few pieces of Applewood and a pan with 2 quarts of boiling water.
Took the spares out of the fridge, brushed with olive oil and applied my favorite pork rub, about 2 tablespoons per slab.
Placed them on the 230 degree grill and threw another piece of Applewood on the lit coals. I decided to try using a rib rack for the first time, as the snake method doesn’t allow a lot of room. This was a mistake as the large slabs don’t fit well, with the ends curling over each other. So I decided to fold them over and use 2 slots for each slab.
2.5 hours later I didn’t like the way things were looking. Seemed like the spares weren’t cooking evenly top to bottom when placed on end. The snake had burned down enough to allow more food grate area so I cut the slabs at the bend and laid them flat on the grill.
Now I like my ribs sauced, so at hour 4 I coated both sides with my sauce, cooked for 30 minutes, then brushed on a second coat and cooked another 30 minutes. Then placed each piece over the hot coals for about 1 minute per side to caramelize the sauce and took them off.
They came out pretty good, smoky and sweet. I don’t care for "fall off the bone" tender, as I prefer some "bite" to the meat. These could have used another 30-60 minutes which would have made it a 6 hour cook instead of 5 hour.
A few lessons learned here. I’ll be skipping the rib rack in the future as it doesn’t really hold the full racks of ribs very well and if I cut the rib racks in half it won’t allow me to use the "lift & bounce method" to check for doneness. So I’ll use the S&S next time. But since I had a problem keeping a low temp with the S&S in the past, I’ll skip covering the coal grate with foil as this may be funneling too much air into the bottom of the S&S (maybe just a small piece to catch the drippings). I know I can use both the coal grate and food grate to get more ribs on but I think that would cause a greasy mess in the bottom of the kettle.
I will also do a better job of trimming the racks of ribs. This time around the ribs at the small bone end were falling off the bone while the ribs at the large bone end were a bit too chewy. I need to achieve a consistent thickness if I want an even cook. So I will be chopping off a few ribs from each end. These can always be thrown on the grill as a "cook’s bonus" to munch on during the cook, along with the flap.
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