Sunday Ribs


 
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Pat McCreight

TVWBB Pro
I'm going to smoke 3 racks of loin back ribs Sunday morning for a Bears game lunch.

I'd like feedback on what type of wood to use. I have the following: white oak, pecan, hickory, apple and cherry. Last cook, I used 2 chunks of oak and cherry. I liked the taste of the ribs, but they came out a bit on the dark side.

What would be your favorite wood(s) for ribs given my choices? I will be using Original Charcoal lump. I use a fairly traditional rub, with a bit of heat.

I'll post pics as the cook goes along.
 
Thanks Kevin.

Do you think the cherry may have contributed to the darkness last time?

Also, do you think this is enough wood? 3 chunks of apple and 1 pecan.

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Edited to remove monster picture.
 
Quite possibly. Cherry can add color. A high ratio of chilies can too.

In quantity that's about twice the amount I use. Personal pref though.
 
Those chunks look beefy. Personally for 3 slabs of loin backs, I'd use half of the pecan and one of the apple cut into thirds. JMO. If you didn't like the dark color last time, why not go with less wood and see if that helps while still giving you the smoke flavor you like.
 
Ok, I get it....too much wood.
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I'll try and cut back to about 1/2 of that for the ribs. I never feel that my meat is too smokey, but I guess it comes down to what you're used to. Plus, I'm not sure how much I can taste sometimes after smoking all day. I do sometimes have trouble with the big chunks staying lit throughout the process. I've picked a couple of barely burned chunks out after a long cook.
 
Well, the plan was to get these on at 6:30 am. We had a surprise baby sitting from the grandparents last night, so I got to go out and stayed out longer than a 6:30 am cook deserves. So, they went on at 7:30 am, about 1 hour ago.

I settled on 2 chunks of apple and 1 of pecan, shown here with a minion start.
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I slathered, rubbed, and wrapped the ribs at 5 pm last night. Here they are after I applied a bit more rub to even things out.
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And here they are in the rack, ready to go in the smoker.
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Stokerlog is monitoring the cook and I expect them to be done by halftime of the Bears game.
 
I expect the Bears to be done by half time. No,just kidding. I don't even know who they are playing. Besides I have cousins in Chicago so I guess I have to say Go Bears. Enjoy those nice looking ribs
 
Ok, just finished demolishing these ribs. These are part of a competition practice, so I tried 3 different sauces. I normally prefer ribs without sauce, but the judges don't.

Unsauced (these 2 got done ahead of the third)
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3 slabs sauced
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Sliced and ready to eat
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Overall, the ribs were excellent. Done just right, good flavor, right amount of smoke. Very pleased with the results.
 
They look delicious! Glad they turned out good. I need to try again and see if I can get six cadillac cut ribs into a box. Probably could with baby backs, but I've always had my spares disappear before I can see if six cut that way will fit in a presentation box.
 
Tom, How do you plan to arrange the cadillac cut ribs? I'm sure you can fit them if you did a stack, like 3 on 3. I don't know if even loin backs would fit if you did a cadillac cut and tried to place them back together as a slab.

I was cooking spares exclusively for some time, but I have been having issues with them lately so I switched back to the loin backs. So far, I'm having far better results with them at home. We'll see how they do this weekend at my last comp of the year.
 
Pat, them ribs look alot better then the ones I did last night
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Guess my heart just wasnt in it, I was blowin leaves and makin some ribeyes/vegies on the performer. Every time I looked at the WSM it was either 200* or 300*, couldent get it settled, kept over-compensating, and my ribs came out way too dark. Still tasty though. What is the cadilac cut?

Brandon
 
Cadillac cut, which I think is also referred to as a Hollywood cut, is done like this:

Imagine 3 ribs, A B and C. You are targeting rib B (middle of A and C) for the cut, so you slice all of the meat from one side of A and C, leaving a huge, meaty B. Ribs A and C are useless for turn ins, so you need to have a good amount of quality ribs to do it well.
 
Yeah, that's the cut. It would really fill up the box, and you would have to be careful about arranging the garnish, but I think it could be done, with an offset stack.

It might help for visual appeal, but its not like the judges are going to eat the whole thing anyway.
 
Looks wise, I would say the top rack. You need to have a nice rich deep mahogany color and shine to it. The bottom 2 racks looks like you used mustard as the glaze.

If you are at Libertyville, talk to me about ribs. Won't give you my entire recipe, but can help you out a bit...

Scottie
 
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