Barry McCorkle
TVWBB Super Fan
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
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