[Article] Article: Cooking with Tre 2.0 - Ribs on a smoker

Barbecue season is back, at least here where we actually have seasons. Lazywife just quit her job, and her last day was Friday, so we decided to have a little get-together with some of her work friends up at the cottage. My job, as always, is the food. We had a great sale on ribs last week so I picked up a pile of them. Baby back ribs. 10 whole racks! Pardon the picture quality - only had the cell phone for pics.

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Any good rib recipe needs a dry rub. Mine is awesome. It works great on chicken too! Its got some brown sugar, some chili powder, some oregano and a bunch of other stuff. Recipe available upon request.

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Probably the most important step is removing the membrane from the bottom of the ribs. It's tough, chewy and doesn't alloe the smoke to penetrate the meat properly if you don't remove it. Just run a butter knife under the side near the middle, and work it out on both sides.

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Now rub your meat. ooo that feels good. just like that....unf

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now our meat is all rubbed, I like to let the rub set in overnight, but at least give it a few hours

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Day 2. Fire up that smoker. Get it nice and heated up. Our cooking temp will be around 225-250F. Take your meat out of the fridge and let it come up to room temp - this takes a while. I have a bradley smoker - it's pretty foolproof other than getting the temp right.

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We're going to cook these ribs for 4-5 hours. Two hours of hickory smoke, spray them with apple juice, cook for another hour, apple juice spray. Sauce them up and give them another 30 to 60 minutes. You can pierce the meat to test it's doneness. You don't want fall of the bone, that makes for mushy meat, you want it just under that. It takes some practice, but it's worth it. Keep in mind that every time you open the smoker, the temp drops significantly. So be patient. I rotated the racks at hour 1 and 3 for even cooking and smoke.
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Ribs are out and ready to go!

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There wasn't much left of ten racks...

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Happy hog day!
 
Tre Rub


2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp ground coriander
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1-1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix well. I usually quadruple it and keep it in a big mason jar. You may need a fork to break up the brown sugar properly.

Works great on beer can chickens, and pork butts too.
 
I need myself a grill before the 4th of July.

Something simple, charcoal, nothing fancy. I like the barrel kind, but i want it to be nice heavy gauge metal to hold the heat and last a long time, it seems everything these days is cheapy sheet metal.
 
Awesome. Post or PM that rub recipe - I normally tend to go down the paprika/brown sugar/chili powder/salt route when I make rubs, I'd like to give your herbed up one a try.

Do you also find you can't order ribs in a restaurant anymore? ;) I got dragged to a Baton Rouge franchise about a month ago, and thought "what the hell, this place prides themselves on their ribs, I'll give them a shot"... oh fuck. They fell to pieces when I cut them, couldn't even pick up a bone without the meat falling back on the plate. Had to pretty much eat a pile of rib meat off the plate with a fork. Pissed me off.
 
Awesome. Post or PM that rub recipe - I normally tend to go down the paprika/brown sugar/chili powder/salt route when I make rubs, I'd like to give your herbed up one a try.

Do you also find you can't order ribs in a restaurant anymore? ;) I got dragged to a Baton Rouge franchise about a month ago, and thought "what the hell, this place prides themselves on their ribs, I'll give them a shot"... oh fuck. They fell to pieces when I cut them, couldn't even pick up a bone without the meat falling back on the plate. Had to pretty much eat a pile of rib meat off the plate with a fork. Pissed me off.

once you cook anything for yourself, with maybe the exception of seafood, you find yourself disappointed at restaurants for two reasons

A) I cooked it better than this
B) Its 8X the price than if i did it myself
 
I'm the same with pulled pork. Once I made it on the smoker, I can't have it any other way. Rub recipe is above.
 
I need myself a grill before the 4th of July.

Something simple, charcoal, nothing fancy. I like the barrel kind, but i want it to be nice heavy gauge metal to hold the heat and last a long time, it seems everything these days is cheapy sheet metal.
Classic Weber kettle. No question.

If you're feeling spendy, get a Weber Performer - comes with propane ignition, a work table, a bucket for charcoal storage, a good system for removing ashes.
 
I need myself a grill before the 4th of July.

Something simple, charcoal, nothing fancy. I like the barrel kind, but i want it to be nice heavy gauge metal to hold the heat and last a long time, it seems everything these days is cheapy sheet metal.

Get a Weber. Pretty much everything they make is awesome. Spend the extra money, it's worth it. I bought one of their propane grills, and it's phenomenal.
 
propane ignition is nice. Charcoal is a pain in the ass to light (although easier if you've got a chimney)
 
Anyone have experience with this smoker? Its, by far, the top rated/selling one on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-721001-Smokey-Mountain-Charcoal/dp/B001I8ZTJ0/ref=zg_bs_553774_1
I own this smoker (the classic version, the modern 18.5 is the current equivalent), and I'm pleased with it.

Get one, and once you've got it put together, throw away the owners manual. Use this instead: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com

I did manual temperature control on it for the longest time, but eventually caved and bought a setup from http://www.bbqguru.com - and I haven't looked back.
 
Classic Weber kettle. No question.

If you're feeling spendy, get a Weber Performer - comes with propane ignition, a work table, a bucket for charcoal storage, a good system for removing ashes.
I have a chimney starter thing, 2 sheets of newspaper gets it done just fine. I can't imagine needing a hank hill ignition system to get my grill going.

And +1 on Weber kettle. Best $60 ever.