What to BBQ with BabyBacks?


 
I

Ivan Stratton

TVWBB Fan
Ok guys I need your help. My Mom is on vacation with us and she bought one slab of Baby Backs with her. She is a great cook but not a griller or bbqer. I think she thinks this will feed us all (6). I was planning on firing up the smoker but I dont want to do just one rack and I dont know that I can find more baby backs. I hate to fire up the WSM and not fill it up. I need some options to go with it. We had roadside chicken last night and I did brisket last weekend.
 
I would second the beans. But to add a bunch of pulled pork to a cook that you might be planning on having finished sooner, I'd go with one other protein, perhaps a slab or two of spares, and then mix it up with the side dishes. Corn, potatoes, bacon wrapped anything...or scotch eggs and ABT's. Lots of options.
 
The menu so far: baby backs (1 rack), corn on the cob, cole slaw, baked beans, maybe a fatty. I was leaning towards another meat that would go with the BBacks that would cook in the roughly the same amount of time. I think my best bet would be more ribs but I'm out of town and I dont think I can find any.
 
I may be a day or so late here, but I'm going to pipe in anyhow.
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How about just a couple of chickens? The ribs and a fatty or two can live on the top rack. Buy a couple of whole chickens, and cut the backbone out of them to butterfly ("spatchcock") them. Soak them for an hour in a brine of 1/2 cup table salt, 1/2 cup white sugar, and 2 quarts of water (well-dissolved). Rinse them well and dry with paper towels, smear the skin generously with real mayo or softened butter, work a little rub de jour under the skin, sprinkle some over the skin and on meaty underside, and lay them out flat with skin up on the rack under the ribs. You want the breasts at around 160 and the thighs at 170-ish.

A brined boneless pork loin might also be a possibility. Lightly score the fat in a 1/4-inch crosshatch pattern. Brine it the same way as the chicken above, also for an hour, rinse, and dry it. You can just add rub and toss on the smoker until it reaches about 135, then wrap it up in foil and keep warm until needed.

OR, if you want to get fancier about a boneless pork loin, you can start this one in the kitchen and move it to the smoker to finish it. Mix up 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp hot smoked paprika, a pinch of ground cloves, and a pinch of cayenne, and set it aside. Salt and pepper your loin, and brown it for about 3 minutes per side in a heavy skillet, until it's nicely browned on all sides. Move the loin to a plate, pour out the skillet fat, and dump the syrup mixture into the skillet till it bubbles (about 30 seconds or so). Put the loin back in the syrup, roll it around a bit, and pour the whole thing into a foil pan. Bend/fold down the sides of the foil pan for better smoke access. Now rush this pan out to the smoker and put it on the bottom rack. Reach through the access door with tongs a couple of times during cooking and roll the loin over a bit to pick up some more of the syrup glaze on all sides. You want internal temp to reach 135-140 in the middle of the roast - a couple of hours or so depending on cooker temp. (The glaze and pan-browning is based on Cook's Illustrated recipe "Maple-Glazed Pork Roast with Smoked Paprika". They finish it in a 325 oven for about 45 minutes instead of to a smoker.)

Keri C
 
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