Apple City vs.BRITU ribs (long...)


 
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Barry McCorkle

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Well, it was a great day for BBQ here in sunny SC. In between doing some yard work and hiding Easter eggs, I was able to fire up the WSM and cook some ribs. Today I cooked two full racks of loin back ribs using two different recipes. The first rack was made using the BRITU recipe and the other was with the Apple City Baby Back Rib recipe from Smoke and Spice. I followed the Apple City recipe to the letter, except for using the suggested mop.

Started a chimney full of Kingsford, dumped it in the charcoal chamber and added unlit briquets on top to fill it about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Waited for all of the charcoal to turn gray and then added 4 chunks of apple wood. Assembled the smoker, filled the water pan with water and closed all vents (including the top vent) to get the temp from 270 to 240. Once it was 240, I opened the top vent all the way and put the 2 slabs of ribs on the top cooking grate. The bottom vents were kept closed. When the lid was put on, the temp stabilized at 219 and eventually got to 224. It held 224 for a few hours until the afternoon sun started to hit the cooker, at which time it got to 239. Bottom vents were kept closed for the first 4 hours of the cook and then were opened to get a temp of 255 to 266 for the remaining 1 ? hours. At the 5 hour mark, the ribs were brushed with their respective sauces and after a total of 5 ? hours the ribs were pulled off and set on the table for dinner. Water pan stayed pretty much full and I never had to refill it. At the end, there was still a layer of charcoal in the cooker that would have lasted at least a few more hours.

The results? The Apple City ribs were very good, but not as good as the BRITU. The BRITU ribs were much moister and I like the sauce much better. In fact this rack of BRITU ribs was quite possibly the best ever! The two ribs had very different tastes as you would expect. The Apple City ribs were somewhat drier but the taste was good as a dry rib without the sauce. They also smell really good while cooking as the apple and cinnamon seem to come out. Three complaints with this recipe: 1. the cinnamon taste from the marinade, the rub and the sauce really seemed to stand out. 2. The Apple City sauce was thin whereas I like my finishing sauces thick. When I tried to brush on the sauce near the end of the cooking session, it ran off the ribs. 3. They seemed to char more from the dry rub, which was heavy with brown sugar. Probably should have used the mop.

Both sets of ribs were very good (really tender and great smoke taste) and are much better than the Texas Roadhouse ribs that I had a few weeks ago. However, if I had to impress some friends for the first time with my BBQ abilities, I would definitey have to go with the BRITU recipe!

SC Que
 
Thanks for the detailed post...great info and a good point of comparison for those of us with BRITU experience.

Chris
 
To thicken sauces try Xantham gum. It is a natural product and is used by most commercial companys for that purpose. We got ours at a health food store (very pricey). However a little goes a long way.
The great thing about it is you use it with cold sauce. My wife has developed a bbq sauce that is outstanding,but it was to thin. We simmered it for 3 hrs. to thicken. Still it wasn't what we were looking for,and also by changing the volume the spices were to hot for most people around here. Enter Xantham gum, cook the sauce ,simmer for 1/2 hr.cool and then add the xantham. We use 1 teaspoon for 2 cups sauce. It's magic!

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Good Cookin'
Dan
 
Apple City ribs....

J. Barry, sorry I didn't see your post earlier about some tips on the Apple City ribs. They do get very black don't they?? Also, the mop would not have helped!! Been there, done that! Despite the appearance, they did taste good...much sweeter that any others I have done. If you have seen my Packer smoker picture here on the site, I cooked the Apple City ribs for that Packer game!

When dealing with the rubs, be sure to pay attention to the sugar content! You can substitute turbinado sugar, raw sugar, for other sugars as it has a higher burn point.

I used the Southern Succor rub this weekend on my 37 pounds of ribs and they were very black as well...even after mopping! Still tasted mighty fine!!

Stogie
 
Stogie,
Thanks for the confirmation on the ribs turning dark and good point about the Southern Succor rub, it gets fairly black as well. But man o man does the wife love that rub. When I make the Renowned Mr. Brown, she goes naked.... that is she does't want any sauce on the meat. This is a good thing as I have not been able to make a competent sauce yet and I am stuck using Maurice Bessingers mustard based sauce.
Good sauce but I would still like to make my own.

SC Que
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>When I make the Renowned Mr. Brown, she goes naked.... that is she does't want any sauce on the meat. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad you clarified that...I know that Mr. Brown is good, but I've never seen anyone get nekid when eatin' it!
 
The comment above about the sugar content of the rub couldn't be more correct.

Yesterday I made three racks of BRITU following the directions to a tee EXCEPT , I now know I overdid the rub.

After taking a closer look at Chris's picture of the ribs after the rub went on, he clearly used less than I did ( well , heck, the recipe makes so much rub the tendancy is to get a little liberal with it ).

Using too much and then having it sit for 2 hours likely just exacerbates the issue. My ribs were black as could be at the first turn ( 3 hours ).

This was the first time I ever made ribs, EVER , I have to say they were the best I ever had..even if they were black.

The KC Masterpeice with honey was great, however, you really don't need it as the ribs are so tasty.

Thanks Chris, for sharing this recipe with us.

Steve
 
Yesterday I did 3 racks of baby backs that weighed in at 3lbs each...talk about a little tenderloin with your ribs !

Since my first attempt at BRITU caused the ribs to blacken and become somewhat dry , I used less rub this time and let them sit our for a little over an hour rather than 2 hours.

As I was having a hard time with high heat last time , I used the Minion method this time and indeed the temperature was lower and easier to control.

The ribs were not as spicy this time due to less rub and the size of the backs themselves.

Sure are good though, it's 7:45 a.m and I find myself nawing on a cold one for breakfast. These were so large that I could only eat 7 ribs at dinner and I had not eaten all day.

Steve
 
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