Throwdown #15: Pork Spareribs


 
My entry for the throw down is Apple and Maple Wood Smoked Spare Ribs.

I picked up a 5 pound rack of spare ribs yesterday. I trimmed a little of the fatty areas away and
pulled the membrane. Given a dose of mustard and seasoned yesterday with Three Little Pigs a
Taste of Cherry rub. Wrapped in foil and refrigerated until this morning. Pulled from the refrigerator
this morning and given a seasoning of Lambert’s Sweet Rub O Mine, while the WSM came up to temp.
Put onto the WSM, using KBB with 2 chunks of apple and 1 chunk of maple wood. I am using a
full water pan. My target temp is 230.


Almost 3 hours into the cook and preparing the foil for the wrap.


At the 3 hour mark they look ready to wrap in foil.


I laid it face down on the foil then covered the back with the same concoction.


Put back onto the WSM meat side down for the next hour or so. Will check it at the 1 hour mark
and if it is ready then will glaze it.


Sides for tonight’s dinner are some pee wee potatoes with onion and minced garlic. They were
seasoned with garlic pepper. 2 super large ears of corn have been soaking for the past 6 hours
and will be joining the potatoes on the Performer.


Ribs out of the foil at the 1 hour mark and glazed with the sauce from the foil.


Potatoes and corn onto the Performer using lump charcoal and 1 chunk of hickory wood. I am
trying out my Grill Dome rack that I got from Amazon.


Potatoes and corn are done.


Here’s your plate!


I have got to admit that these were the best spare ribs I have done. Spare ribs have been my
nemesis and that is why I really prefer Babybacks. Everything came out delicious and my wife who
is a picky eater had 2 helpings of ribs and potatoes.

Thanks for looking!
 
Some very tasty entries here so far. Love it and good luck to all.
Caribbean Baby Backs with West Indies Rub and Mango/Jalapeño Jelly Glaze
Can you dig it?
The inspiration: Years ago (BC -- before children), my wife and I visited a dear friend living in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. One day he took us over to British V.I. Virgin Gorda to meet friends of his -- a local family. Lovely folks, they took us to an amazing beach accessed by dirt road.There was no one else there, just us! We had packed some sandwiches, but when we saw that they had brought home made goat curry, we quietly tossed those sandwiches in the bushes. It was a magical day of great food with kind friends by the turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

What I've done here is not try to recreate that curry dish, but be inspired by the flavors of the Caribbean. There is a traditional Caribbean pork curry, Porc Colombo, that has the flavor profile I wanted today. I mixed a rub of curry powder with thyme, allspice, cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, and granulated onion and garlic, and a healthy pinch of cayenne. This was rubbed on the the two racks and refrigerated overnight.

This morning I gave the ribs another sprinkling of rub and set them on the WSM at 225-250.
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While these were on I made some mango-jalapeno jelly for a glaze. First, a chopped mango, apple, and charred and skinned red pepper were pureed in the blender with the juice of 4 limes and 1 cup of apple cider vinegar. This was brought to a simmer on the stove. Added a dash of salt, a hearty pinch of habanero powder, 2.5 cups of sugar, a couple tablespoons of molasses, and a half can of unsweetened coconut milk. Also added six seeded and finely diced jalapeños. Six ounces of pectin were added to firm up the jelly. Very tasty stuff!

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At the three hour point I mopped the ribs with some coconut milk to keep things moist. At the four hour mark I gave the ribs a glaze of the mango/jalapeño jelly, and another just before pulling them off at nearly five hours.
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A light sprinkling of curry rub, then off the smoker and ready to eat.
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Thanks for looking.
 
St Louis Cut spares and Onion Pedals - This is my submission to Throwdown #15

Not sure if these are technically St Louis cut spares...I'm not an expert. Either way, didn't think I'd have the opportunity to participate, but my wife surprised me with a rack she found at the store. They misprinted the price, and the rack cost $1.56. That's right....1 dollar and 56 cents! :D

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Rub is a slightly adjusted "All South BBQ Rub" from "BBQchef33" in the BBQ Brethren Forum. Bit of White sugar, brown sugar, salt, Cumin. Increased the amount of Pepper, Cayenne, and Chili Powder. Lot of feedback from Tony R to make these work. Greatly appreciate the help I get from him constantly...and so much I learn from so many on this forum.
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3-2-1 method with ribs on and cruising around 260 (little higher than I wanted but it'll do). Few small chunks/chips of cherry on the snake. Going straight dry ribs for this rack at my wife's request.

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Too "fall off the bone" for me. They didnt do exactly what I wanted. However, my wife and our guests were very pleased and complimentary to the chef. Not MY perfect ribs, but when there are bare bones at the end of dinner...I'll take it. Thanks for looking.
 
Sweet Seduction smoked pork spare ribs with BBQ baked beans

I'm using this opportunity to do a competition practice cook. I bought Seaboard spare ribs and trimmed them down to St. Louis cut.

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Next, I layered the meat side with my own homemade pork rub and Simply Marvelous Sweet Seduction...a winning combination. I let the ribs sweat for 30 minutes and then I layered the rubs to the back side and let them sweat an additional 30 minutes.

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While the meat is sweating, I prep my 22 WSM with a ring of KBB and 4 large chunks of Apple & Hickory... 3:1 Apple to Hickory. I like the sweet flavor of the seasoned apple wood that lends itself well to pork. The kiss of hickory adds a nice note from the stronger smoke. I don't use water in the water pan. I simply foil it.

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I normally use an 18 WSM with rib racks when competing; however, my 22 WSM is newer and I like to get it more seasoned whenever I can. 3 racks of St. Louis spares easily fit flat on a single grate on the 22 WSM. I cook my ribs at 275º and they usually are done in ~4 hours.

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After the ribs are on the smoker, I begin prep on my BBQ beans. I used Bush's baked beans and added some agave nectar, brown sugar, peach nectar, Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ rub, and my own homemade BBQ sauce. I temporarily lift the top grate and place the beans underneath to catch most of the rib drippings.

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After replacing the top grate, I begin spritzing the ribs every 15 minutes in order to promote a nice smoke ring. I use a 50/50 combination of apple juice & white grape juice. I do this until the ribs achieve the nice color that I'm looking for.

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Once the ribs have that nice mahogany color that I want, I wrap them in HD foil with brown sugar, margarine, Tiger Sauce, apple juice, Sweet Seduction & agave nectar. I wrap them very tight so that they braise rather than steam in the foil. They go back on the smoker until they are are probe tender (a probe goes through the meat like a hot knife through butter).

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Once probe tender, I pull them from the smoker and out of the foil. I sauce the ribs with my BBQ sauce and return them to the smoker for ~5 minutes to set the sauce. I pulled them off and then did the ever important bite test. No fall-of-the-bone overcooked ribs here! They had perfect bite (as you can see in the photo) and they tasted fantastic.

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The beans came off the smoker and were fantastic as well. They had a great al dente texture and the flavor was a perfect compliment to the ribs. Dinner is served.

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These are some of the best tasting and best looking ribs I've cooked this year. I would be confident and proud to turn these ribs in in any BBQ competition.

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Thanks for looking and let me know what you guys thinks. Good luck to everyone else trowing down in this competition. All of the entries look great and it's going to be tough to determine a winner.
 
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There are a lot of great entries! It is going to be very hard to vote. Great ribs all!

@ Luke - I like the pic of the elbows on the table!
 
I would wonder if the infamous wing competition from earlier this spring has the record for number of entries.
 
Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the great entries! I will post the poll later today so we can start the voting process.

I've noticed (and it's also been brought to my attention by PM from members) that some entries are not spareribs, but are, in fact, loin back ribs. We could have had a "rib" throwdown that would have included spares, loin backs, and country-style ribs, but Tony and I specifically agreed upon spareribs, in part because it would keep loin back and CSRs available as topics for future throwdowns.

So, when I post the poll, I will leave out those few entries that are not spareribs. Please keep those photos in your back pocket...you can repost them when we do a loin back rib throwdown in the future. :)

Thanks,
Chris
 
Me don't read so good. Great topic, and love the entries. There are some creative and talented people on here!
 
Chris Allingham said:
...some entries are not spareribs, but are, in fact, loin back ribs. I will leave out those few entries...
Click to expand...
never a smooth election or vote goes by without controversy... :) Good Luck To ALL Entries!
ALL submitted look OUTSTANDING! including the three left out :(
 
Congrats to all the entries......just wish I could have been there to taste each one. Lots of great looking ribs................d
 
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