I'm using this opportunity to do a competition practice cook. I bought Seaboard spare ribs and trimmed them down to St. Louis cut.
Next, I layered the meat side with my own homemade pork rub and Simply Marvelous Sweet Seduction...a winning combination. I let the ribs sweat for 30 minutes and then I layered the rubs to the back side and let them sweat an additional 30 minutes.
While the meat is sweating, I prep my 22 WSM with a ring of KBB and 4 large chunks of Apple & Hickory... 3:1 Apple to Hickory. I like the sweet flavor of the seasoned apple wood that lends itself well to pork. The kiss of hickory adds a nice note from the stronger smoke. I don't use water in the water pan. I simply foil it.
I normally use an 18 WSM with rib racks when competing; however, my 22 WSM is newer and I like to get it more seasoned whenever I can. 3 racks of St. Louis spares easily fit flat on a single grate on the 22 WSM. I cook my ribs at 275º and they usually are done in ~4 hours.
After the ribs are on the smoker, I begin prep on my BBQ beans. I used Bush's baked beans and added some agave nectar, brown sugar, peach nectar, Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ rub, and my own homemade BBQ sauce. I temporarily lift the top grate and place the beans underneath to catch most of the rib drippings.
After replacing the top grate, I begin spritzing the ribs every 15 minutes in order to promote a nice smoke ring. I use a 50/50 combination of apple juice & white grape juice. I do this until the ribs achieve the nice color that I'm looking for.
Once the ribs have that nice mahogany color that I want, I wrap them in HD foil with brown sugar, margarine, Tiger Sauce, apple juice, Sweet Seduction & agave nectar. I wrap them very tight so that they braise rather than steam in the foil. They go back on the smoker until they are are probe tender (a probe goes through the meat like a hot knife through butter).
Once probe tender, I pull them from the smoker and out of the foil. I sauce the ribs with my BBQ sauce and return them to the smoker for ~5 minutes to set the sauce. I pulled them off and then did the ever important bite test. No fall-of-the-bone overcooked ribs here! They had perfect bite (as you can see in the photo) and they tasted fantastic.
The beans came off the smoker and were fantastic as well. They had a great al dente texture and the flavor was a perfect compliment to the ribs. Dinner is served.
These are some of the best tasting and best looking ribs I've cooked this year. I would be confident and proud to turn these ribs in in any BBQ competition.
Thanks for looking and let me know what you guys thinks. Good luck to everyone else trowing down in this competition. All of the entries look great and it's going to be tough to determine a winner.
