6 ribs, 6 rubs shootout


 
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Blake C

TVWBB Member
Having a little shootout at my house today -- last weekend of freedom before a pretty heavy schedule at work.

The contestants!

1) 'Pork Barrell BBQ' All American
2) 'Southern' Louisiana Sweet Mesquite
3) Weber classic recipe
4) BRITU recipe
5) BBQJunkie.com recipe
6) Food Network recipe

I've enjoyed the 'Southern' rub on pork butts. Closeout at World Market for $1.99 a can
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I picked up Pork Barrell while I was there.

I've tried BRITU before but found I'd used too much - it was very salty. I adjusted the amount of rub this time around.

A friend has been heavy on the brown sugar in his rubs, so I found this one from BBQJunkie to try out that's not shy about the brown sugar. And a dash of cloves??

Weber's been good to me in all cases, (love their hamburger season) so I've thrown them in the hat too.

The lady's a Food Network fan, so I grabbed one of theirs too -- heavy on the paprika. I read that old paprika is just .. red.. flavorless -- so I grabbed a new can from World Market while I was there for fairness. Also calls for oregano, which isn't in any of the other rubs.
 
The ribs:

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Six BB racks from Meijers. A little sloppy, I had to trim them a bit. One had most of the skirt attached.

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All rubbed and numbered with a little foil flag.
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These are going on a full ring and waterpan in a pair of WSM, with Char-grill (or something) Hickory blocks.

One WSM is seasoned and I keep it pretty grungy. The other I borrowed from a neat-freak.
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Both WSM are running perfectly -- 250* for the last hour with one vent closed, everything else open.

Big closeups of each rub applied to the rack:
1 http://imgur.com/IcXuo.jpg
2 http://imgur.com/wsa2y.jpg
3 http://imgur.com/Bv4di.jpg
4 http://imgur.com/Jv9GH.jpg
5 http://imgur.com/iHdD1.jpg
6 http://imgur.com/PBPUW.jpg

And on they go
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I notice that the #1 rack looks dryest, while #5 appears to have gelled over and is glossy.
 
Thanks guys
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With the meat on, both WSM have dropped to about 200 degrees. I popped that last vent back open, so they're all 100% right now. Figure I'll go close it again in a half hour. I think three racks flat on an 18.5 is pushing it, I may be smothering the fire a bit.

I have the best smellin' driveway in the zipcode. And probably the messiest countertop!
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Great thread, should be a fun read. Even though I have never tried any of these rubs it still is pretty interesting.
 
Looking fun and good! You may want to put a little foil under each end of the ribs to keep them from cooking faster than the centers.
 
Well, it's raining now.. I just checked the forecast and it looks like I'm in for a wet one!

Gmann (the aforementioned neatfreak)'s WSM has been slow to come back up to temperature -- I added some freshly lit bricks to compensate.

Then again, it's got a 700* thermo in it, while mine's just the regular Weber piece. Maybe that accounts for the difference in readings? Mine's cruisin' at 235, his reads ~205.
 
Curious ...

You could have used half-racks or you having a party? (What, no invite?)

Why not use the lower grate?
 
I've got seven or eight people comin' by to try the ribs, and I'm going to ask them to 'score' them.. Something tells me I won't get a very serious effort out of most of 'em, but it'll be fun anyway. I want them to have a rib from each rack.

To be honest, I haven't used my lower rack yet at all. I did 40lbs of porkbutt on these same two smokers on the top grate, so I guess I just haven't felt the need to yet
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I'm not even sure where I left it :p

As far as the invite -- follow your nose! I wouldn't turn away a bbq guy. In fact, I'm going to run whatever's left up to my Taco Truck guy. He feeds me well during the week
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Say it ain't so!!!!

I've been waiting all day(back is out) to find it the results.

Too bad, Blake. It was a great idea.
How bad are they? They can't be that bad.

Rob
 
Rob I'm flattered that you'd use your first post on me lol

They came out on the crispy side .. edible but not at all what I wanted to see..

Oops
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I guess it'd be wrong of me not to post anything picture-wise, so here's the aftermath:

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Blake they looked like they were rockin' at the 3.5 hour mark and judging from the "aftermath" it doesn't look like you had any complaints! Did they get crispy at the ends where the slabs were at the very edge of the grates. I've had that happen. I usually whack those couple of ribs off an hour or so before the rest of the slab is done and "snack" on those to test the product!

Despite your disappointment, they looked great. Could you tell anything about the different tastes the different rubs imparted to the ribs?

Pat
 
Im with Pat: Despite your disappointment, they looked great.

A verry cool idea for this post.

Keep it up
 
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