Sacreligous BBQ Rib Challenge


 
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Preston Davenport

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First, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year!

For the past couple of years as I have been improving my baby back rib recipe and smoking technique, but I have never been satisfied with the results.

I have tried the various rub recipes and techniques as outlined on this forum and the BBQ FAQ. Seemed like it was missing something, although friends and family enjoyed them, I was never satisfied.

Sometimes they were good...sometimes they were really, really bad.

Last summer I watched the Food Network BBQ special and they outlined Carson's Ribs in Chicago and Mr. Carson demonstrated his cooking technique. I eventually broke down and tried their technique as outlined on the program and cooked 10 baby back slabs for New Years Eve despite my misgivings.

The results were spectacular! My family was ravenous with the ribs not one rib left and the bones were gnawed dry. My niece who is a vegetarian came back from the dark side and was wolfing down ribs they were so good...

Now Carson's technique goes against all knowledge in the proper preparation of BBQ. I have never eaten at Carson's but assumed that since they were so succesful that they must be doing soething right.

But their methods and techniques are sacreligous in the BBQ world as they baste their ribs before cooking!...Heaven forfend!...surely they will burn and the sugar in the BBQ sauce will carmelize into a black charcoal.

But it works and the results are spectacular!

Now the challenge to you is to try this method and report back whether the results were as good for you as they were for me.

RIB TECHNIQUE
==============
1) Remove membrane from ribs.
2) Prepare smoker for 220 F temps with just minimal smoke (1-2 fist sized chunks). In my water bowl I placed celery, onion, and sliced and squeezed orange.
Here's the sacreligous part....
3) Find your favorite BBQ rib glaze/sauce and baste the sauce on the ribs (yep...slather them)
4) Smoke for 1-1/2 hours and baste the ribs once again and rotate or move around in the smoker and add another chunk of wood.
5) Repeat basting and add wood chunk again after another 1-1/2 hours.
6) Continue until the ribs achieve a temperature of 180 F.
7) Baste once again and leave on smoker another 20 and then remove and serve.

I was sure they would burn and turn black. Not so. They came off nice and dark red in color and were extremely tender. They were the best I ever had!

Let me know your results...I am now a beleiver!

Preston D
 
I will give it a try. Before I had the WSM I made my ribs in the oven asian style with soy, hoisin sauce, garlic, ginger, 5 spice powder, honey, etc. Smothered it all with the sauce and heated it in a 300 degree oven for about 1 1/2 hours. Then I broiled them to get a little browning and texture careful not to carmelize them too much.

I think Carson's method may be similar to basting/mopping except that the sauce is thicker and stays on better.

I will give it a try and put a lot of sauce on first and then maybe sauce at the halfway point. I don't want to have too long a cook always opening up the lid.

Will let you know how it turns out.
 
Hi Jeff,
Just a reminder, the temperature should not exceed 250 F per Mr. Carson...he recommends 190 to 250 F range...if you cook at a higher temp than that, it may result in the charring of the basting sauce.
Preston D
 
Doing it now but I have about 3-4 very small chunks already in. I will leave those in and not add any more. I actually had some Carson's BBQ sauce and heated up some hoisin, soy sauce,tomatoes, garlic, and a little apple cider vinegar. Then blended in food processor and put on thick on the ribs. Will go for about 5-6 hours at 250 deg. Let you know how it comes out.
 
I smoked them for 5 hours with an average of about 225 deg. Basted them in the begining and 2 other times. Result was very juicy ribs I believe due to the thickness of the sauce staying on the rib to keep it moist. Of course there was not any real bark. They were very good! I wonder if I put less sauce on them if I will get a little more texture while not carmelizing them. They were probably the most moist ribs I have had and will continue to experiment some more.

Thanks for the tip!
 
Great Jeff...

Cooked it again tonite and they came out great again...like to see if some other folks here on the forum can try it...

How was the Carson's BBQ sauce?...is it sweet? A lot of sugar?...I am gonna have to order some and try it...

Regards,
PrestonD
 
Carson's bbq sauce is nothing to write home about. I won a free bottle in their trivia contest. You can make your own sauce a lot better by yourself by following Paul Kirk's book. I just thought to use it when you talked about their method. When I doctored it up with my other ingredients it was a lot better.
 
For years, despite tasting BBQ in dozens of joints around the country, I always came back to Carsons as the best ribs in a restaurant.

But, after learning from Paul Kirk, Jim Minion, and others in the Pacific Northwest and here on this website, I was sorely disappointed in my last visit to Carsons.

They tasted the same as before, but now, I know better.

I saw their recipe about a year ago, tried it, but found that the sauce darkened too much for my tastes. I tend to cook around 250 at the dome--maybe lower would have made a difference.

Either way, it is fun to try different approaches to making good que, which, on a very bad day, is still better than most of what you can buy from someone else

Dale
 
Thanks Dale!

Great input! I think the lower temperatures is probably the key here...I currently use an electric smoker (am shopping for a WSM) and probably am on a lower temperature (like 200-200 F). The batch I made yesterday came out a little more dark than before and the ends always seem a bit burnt...but it still had pretty good taste!

I'll check out the recipe you mentioned...

Thanks everyone!
PrestonD
 
Hi Dale!

Glad someone else jumped in here with thoughts on Carson's. I brought a group to their restaurant out in the 'burbs and was HORRIBLY disappointed and embarrassed!!

Worst restaurant ribs I have ever had! NO smoke flavor and VERY tough..we all had the baby backs and every rib was tough.

I will never go back! However, I WILL try this method next time I cook up some ribs.

On the plus side, it made it very easy to look like a true BBQ Aficianado when I cooked ribs for this same group of biz folks!
 
Sounds like Food Network needs to revisit Carson's and have some true BBQ afficiando's perform the review. Between this posting and others on the web it has not been too flattering! It seems like in the past they were much better!

What I think we would all like to see is Carson's pick themselves up and return to the quality BBQ they use to have.

Thanks everyone!
PrestonD
 
I have to ask one question regarding restaurant ribs and consistent quality. That is - being that the process takes 3-5 hours and the restaurant never really knows how many orders they will have during the perfect window...is it possible to truly hold the ribs without them drying out or getting them mushy.

Stogie's experience at Carson's is the opposite end of what I had at my favorite place in Chicago, Twin Anchors. I had always eaten at Twin Anchors on Saturday nights, and the ribs were always the same - crispy outside, moist on the inside, and falling off the bone perfect. Then I went late afternoon one Sunday and I'd swear it was a different restaurant. The ribs were just wrong, no other way to describe it. So I guess my point is that there must be a window of perfection, and that after that the quality goes down substantially. If anyone could speak to this I'd be appreciative.

W.D.
 
I did them again with a little twist. I made a BBQ sauce of KC Masterpiece, Carson's, and honey all 1/3 each. Slathered on some spares and cooked for 4 hours at average 220. Applied a little more BBQ sauce and foiled for another hour. Took out and crisped them up in the brolier careful not to let the BBQ sauce burn.

Extremely juicy and good!! I believe the foil of only 1 hour was good as it made the ribs very juicy but not mushy. Also under the broiler firmed them up a bit. Still experimenting but so far very good results!!
 
Jeff,
I watched the video again and missed it... Carson's also crisps them up under a broiler when finished ...so you have mastered the Sacreligous Rib Challenge... congratulations! I hope to be able to have some of next weekend off and smoke some more ribs. Will add the foiling and crisping methods you described!
Thanks!
PrestonD
 
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