BrianBishop
TVWBB Member
So after a disappointing first attempt at babybacks I decided a little further research was required and thankfully I found this wonderful place... Given a couple weeks of reading I stumbled across The Wisdom of Harry Soo as well as http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?40523-My-most-successful-ribs-yet-how-I-made-them and I knew I was ready for another attempt.
So today was the day. I started with two slabs for the smoker and one for the oven as a back up(long before I decided I needed a smoker, I spoiled my family on fall off the bone ribs steamed in the oven). All three were prepped by pulling the membrane, patted dry, sprinkled in sea salt and dry rubbed before a rest in the fridge. I used two different rubs on the smoked ribs to try to decide on a favorite... One for the smoker and the soon to be steamed ribs were both rubbed with the "Memphis Dust" rub from amazingribs.com the other for the smoker were rubbed with Steven Raichlen Basic BBQ Rub. Each went in the fridge for a little over an hour.
The smoker was prepared with about 1/2 load of charcoal, including some salvaged from a previous cook, and 40 briquettes (about 1/2 chimney full) were lit in the weber chimney. 2 hickory and 2 oak chunks were buried in the unlit
For those interested in the oven method, here it is. I set the ribs on a rack inside a large roasting pan and place in an oven preheated to 350 for 1 hour. After 1 hour @ 350, lower the temp to 250 and add 1/2 inch of water to the roasting pan and cover tightly with foil. Cook @ 250 for another 3-4 hours. When the ribs are sufficiently tender remove foil, sauce ribs and increase oven temp to broil. Carefully broil sauced ribs for 3-5 minutes taking care not to let the sugars in the sauce blacken and burn. Re-coat in sauce and broil another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and serve...
The target temp for the smoker was 275 but I went ahead and placed the ribs while the WSM was still climbing from 200. Within the first half hour it was up to 260. By the time the first hour had passed it was into the 280s'. I never allowed it to climb over 290 and it bounced between 275-285 with minimal damper adjustment for the first 3 hours of the cook. At which point the bark was well established and the ribs were ready to be wrapped.
I drizzled the ribs in honey and brown sugar. Wrapped in a double layer of HD foil and added about 1/2c of apple juice to the packet before returning to the smoker.
After an additional 45 minutes before checking for tenderness. They were looking phenominal
The toothpick and tear test showed the ribs to be plenty tender at this point to sauce and hit with some high heat for the final touch. For this I just fired up the gas grill on high and watched carefully as the sugars in the bbq sauce caramelized nicely. Here is the finished product.
Not the prettiest plated pic but this was a bit of a last minute meal as my parents had the ribs in their fridge for a while and the sell by date was approaching so they dropped them off this morning for me to use... We also had a few people over so we used paper to minimize cleanup... Next time I think some nice roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus spears will round the plate out beautifully. Also the pictured ribs were near the center of the rack, the ribs closer to the ends had an incredible smoke ring which unfortunately I didn't get a pic of (we were busy eating
).
Until today I did not understand the hatred among bbq'ers over steamed ribs. To me they had fantastic taste and I loved the fall off the bone tenderness. The texture of the smoked ribs this go-round can only be described as delightful. Basically fall of the bone, but with a fantastic pull and chew that I cant ever recall enjoying outside a restaurant. I tried a couple ribs off the oven steamed/broiled slab and I now understand the "mushy" description often associated with steamed ribs. They still tasted very good as I don't think there is a LOT of flavor lost into the steaming liquid, but the texture was not even comparable to the smoked ribs and there certainly is no smoke flavor added during cooking...
I think I may be really backing myself into a corner with all this delightful smoked food I've been bringing to the table lately. I must thank Harry Soo and Jeff Bryson as they were the two posters who led me to try a slightly different method than my first attempt at babybacks. The results were soooo well worth the second attempt its hard to describe! Thanks a million to all the contributors to this site!! You all make great bbq a reality all over the country and beyond.
BTW: The brew of the day which I failed to picture was Zombie Dust by Three Floyds Brewing. Its a local micro brewer but has realized some international acclaim from some of its offerings such as "Dark Lord"...
So today was the day. I started with two slabs for the smoker and one for the oven as a back up(long before I decided I needed a smoker, I spoiled my family on fall off the bone ribs steamed in the oven). All three were prepped by pulling the membrane, patted dry, sprinkled in sea salt and dry rubbed before a rest in the fridge. I used two different rubs on the smoked ribs to try to decide on a favorite... One for the smoker and the soon to be steamed ribs were both rubbed with the "Memphis Dust" rub from amazingribs.com the other for the smoker were rubbed with Steven Raichlen Basic BBQ Rub. Each went in the fridge for a little over an hour.
The smoker was prepared with about 1/2 load of charcoal, including some salvaged from a previous cook, and 40 briquettes (about 1/2 chimney full) were lit in the weber chimney. 2 hickory and 2 oak chunks were buried in the unlit
For those interested in the oven method, here it is. I set the ribs on a rack inside a large roasting pan and place in an oven preheated to 350 for 1 hour. After 1 hour @ 350, lower the temp to 250 and add 1/2 inch of water to the roasting pan and cover tightly with foil. Cook @ 250 for another 3-4 hours. When the ribs are sufficiently tender remove foil, sauce ribs and increase oven temp to broil. Carefully broil sauced ribs for 3-5 minutes taking care not to let the sugars in the sauce blacken and burn. Re-coat in sauce and broil another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and serve...
The target temp for the smoker was 275 but I went ahead and placed the ribs while the WSM was still climbing from 200. Within the first half hour it was up to 260. By the time the first hour had passed it was into the 280s'. I never allowed it to climb over 290 and it bounced between 275-285 with minimal damper adjustment for the first 3 hours of the cook. At which point the bark was well established and the ribs were ready to be wrapped.
I drizzled the ribs in honey and brown sugar. Wrapped in a double layer of HD foil and added about 1/2c of apple juice to the packet before returning to the smoker.
After an additional 45 minutes before checking for tenderness. They were looking phenominal
The toothpick and tear test showed the ribs to be plenty tender at this point to sauce and hit with some high heat for the final touch. For this I just fired up the gas grill on high and watched carefully as the sugars in the bbq sauce caramelized nicely. Here is the finished product.
Not the prettiest plated pic but this was a bit of a last minute meal as my parents had the ribs in their fridge for a while and the sell by date was approaching so they dropped them off this morning for me to use... We also had a few people over so we used paper to minimize cleanup... Next time I think some nice roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus spears will round the plate out beautifully. Also the pictured ribs were near the center of the rack, the ribs closer to the ends had an incredible smoke ring which unfortunately I didn't get a pic of (we were busy eating
).Until today I did not understand the hatred among bbq'ers over steamed ribs. To me they had fantastic taste and I loved the fall off the bone tenderness. The texture of the smoked ribs this go-round can only be described as delightful. Basically fall of the bone, but with a fantastic pull and chew that I cant ever recall enjoying outside a restaurant. I tried a couple ribs off the oven steamed/broiled slab and I now understand the "mushy" description often associated with steamed ribs. They still tasted very good as I don't think there is a LOT of flavor lost into the steaming liquid, but the texture was not even comparable to the smoked ribs and there certainly is no smoke flavor added during cooking...
I think I may be really backing myself into a corner with all this delightful smoked food I've been bringing to the table lately. I must thank Harry Soo and Jeff Bryson as they were the two posters who led me to try a slightly different method than my first attempt at babybacks. The results were soooo well worth the second attempt its hard to describe! Thanks a million to all the contributors to this site!! You all make great bbq a reality all over the country and beyond.
BTW: The brew of the day which I failed to picture was Zombie Dust by Three Floyds Brewing. Its a local micro brewer but has realized some international acclaim from some of its offerings such as "Dark Lord"...
