Experimented with ribs on the weekend... as some of you may already know... the problem im having is getting juicy tender ribs... and this problem is starting to shit me lol..
With this problem in mind.. and after reading on brining.. i thought what the hell.. i might as well try this and see if it can help... so the night before i threw the ribs in about 2 litres of water, and 2 tsp of salt... 10 hours later.. quick rinse.. sat them in the fridge for about 4 hours (had to head out)...
Fired up the kettle... got the temps to settle to around 240 before throwing the ribs in, bricks and water pan in also..... i thought id try no foil method this time....only opened the lid once at 3 hours into the cook to add more coal and woodchips .....much to my dissapointment 5 hours later this is the result....
interestingly enough it was almost no different to foiling for me.. the meat wasnt shoe leather like i had produced in the past.. but wasnt juicy either.. meat was still fairly dry....
On the positive side... i got to play around with the vents during the 5hr cook and it was suprising to see how the temps responded with small changes...the temps never rose beyond 250... and never below 220... also tried a new rub and new sauce which both turned out pretty good!
looking forward to experimenting again with this next time..
Those ribs look delicious! I smoke my ribs under the hood of a gasser, with the ribs offset to the smokerbox and burner with a waterpan underneath the ribs and they always come out nice and juicy after about 4 hours.
I personally dont think its really necessary to worry about getting ribs to be moist, as traditionally they're served with a good American BBQ sauce which balances out any dryness, but each to their own! I trust you peeled that horrible membrane off the ribs before cooking?
Turkeys were meant to be the dominant species on Earth, but God made 'em too delicious
I hang my head in shame with the fact i screwed up my 2 massive racks of pork ribs using the WSM and i overcooked them to the point that i had to chuck one full rack as it was tougher than cardboard
I don't know why this happened as it took that bloody WSM 1.5 hours to climb up to over 200F with a 3/4 chimney of lit charcoal and i threw on some unlit ones for good measure but there were a lot of unlit briquettes from there from the previous cook so i used them for the unlit base.It should've worked.
The lit charcoal were those tubular redhead style which I've previously found to be pretty good for heat and longativity and the exra unlit ontop were heatbeads.
After about 3 hours in the WSM,I constantly sprayed the ribs with a applejuice and apple cider vinegar spray and they looked pretty moist but were tough as old boots.....these were the worst ribs i've ever cooked and I'm ashamed of myself and felt like a complete waste of a day.
The entire cook was 6 hours ( i think i shoulda pulled them at 5 hours but they didn't seem ready so in that last hour they went from ready to overdone...ggggrrrrrrr NOT HAPPY JAN!!
but it's only because i couldn't get the damned WSM up to temp so the ribs went in originally at about 160F and i closed the vents to 1/4 open all round when it got to 220 on the bottom and the temp stablised at 240F for 3 hours
I think it's gunna take me a fair while to get used to this WSM thing.
At the risk of losing the rib challenge when it comes up, here is my technique for perfect ribs.
I'll put the recipe in the Pork recipe section as well.
This recipe is only for the truly dedicated, it takes considerable preparation and effort, but it is worth it, start at least two days prior to the festivities!
Preparation Step1: Make the MMM BBQ Sauce
1½ Tablespoons Tomato Paste
¼ Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
¼ Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon Chilli Powder
½ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon grated fresh Ginger
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed Lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
2 Cloves Garlic, (dry roasted in an oven until it is soft then mashed into a paste)
In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients, cook over medium heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, to combine the flavours.
Remove from the heat and let cool.
Use immediately or it can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Preparation Step2: Make the Dry Rub:
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup sugar
¼ cup salt
3 tablespoons star anise powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
4 tablespoons chilli powder
½ cup smoked paprika
½ cup garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
6 tablespoons black pepper
4 tablespoons white pepper
3 tablespoons dried oregano
½ cup celery powder
Mix all ingredients well in a bowl and set aside or store in a clean airtight glass jar
Preparation Step 3: Make the Dry Sprinkle:
1 cup Dry Rub from the last step
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup ginger powder
4 tablespoons cayenne pepper
¼ cup star anise powder (optional, I like the aniseed flavour)
Mix all ingredients well in a bowl and set aside or store in a clean airtight glass jar
Preparation Step 4: Make the Poaching Liquid:
1 litre cranberry juice
1 litre grape juice (Dark)
1 litre apple juice
½ cup lemon juice
Mix all ingredients well in a bowl and set aside.
Cooking Preparation Step 1: Prepare the Ribs (48 hours before cooking)
Place each slab of ribs, bone side down on a cutting board.
Slide a knife under the membrane and against the end bone to separate it from the bone, using a tea towel, hold the edge of the membrane and slowly pull it away from the back side of the rib in one piece. This will allow the marinade to penetrate the meat evenly. Submerge the ribs in a brine mixture of 1 Tablespoon of salt to 1 litre of water and refrigerate overnight.
Cooking Preparation Step 2: (24 hours before cooking)
Apply the Dry Rub to all sides of the rib rack, don’t hold back, be generous and ensure that the rub sticks well to the ribs.
Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for between 4 and 24 hours.
Cooking Step 1: (6½ hours before serving)
Preheat the BBQ or Oven to 135°C (275°F) and place the rib rack meat side up in the BBQ. (if using a gas grill BBQ, remove the flat plate, slide the grill bars to the centre and only use the outside burners, place the ribs in the centre of the BBQ on the grill bars with a foil dish sitting on the un-used burners underneath to catch the drips).
If baking in an oven use rack over a roasting dish with 2 cups of ½ lemon juice and water, this is a good idea in the BBQ as well, it just helps keep everything moist.
Slowly roast, or BBQ smoke the ribs for 3 hours.
Cooking Step 2:
Remove rib racks from the heat and put each rib rack in a heavy duty foil package big enough to cover the entire rack of ribs (I use a double layer of foil).
Add 1 ¼ cups of the Poaching Liquid to each rack of ribs in its foil pack and seal each package well, then return to the heat for a further 2 hours
Cooking Step 3:
Remove the foil packaged rib racks from the heat.
Remove the rib racks and apply the Dry Sprinkle to the ribs.
Place the ribs back into the BBQ or Oven meat side up for a further 45 minutes.
Step 4:
Increase the heat to 150°C (300°F).
Remove ribs from the heat and brush the ribs with thick layers of the MMM BBQ Sauce.
Put the rib racks back into the BBQ or Oven for 20 minutes, or until the sauce has started to caramelise on the ribs!
Cut the ribs and serve with MMM BBQ Sauce and serviettes (this can get messy).
Have someone get you a beer and wait for the compliments.
Cheers
Chris
Common Sense is so rare these days it should be a Super Power!
Holy Moly
I was just going to post this"
"Not your fault mate, TWO words,,,,, NEW PORK
Its shit for BBQ
All that lean pork growing and industry advertising has led to pork that's great for our health (IF QUICK GRILLING), But It doesn't take into account Slow cooking that renders fat.
I don't bother with ribs any more unless I stumble across a marbled one with some semblance of a fat cap and is an inch or more thick.
So, How can we make our healthy "new pork" ribs edible?
A bloke I used to know par boiled them in with smoke water and salt added and then grilled them under a pizza oven. They came out tender and sure was tasty , But not BBQ.
Grrrrrrr"
But that there is worth a try, Im going to make the effort to follow that to the Tee.
Good stuff.
If trees screamed when we cut them down, We wouldn't. If they screamed all the time we would. http://www.aussiecue.com.au
That's one mighty recipe for pork ribs but holy OINKER....it'll have some heat in it..you got 1 TBS Chili powder in the sauce which is acceptable but the Rub has 4 TBS of Chilli Powder and @ TBS of Cayenne powder....man..that'd take the silver off a spoon
And just when i thought it was safe to drink my beer...you got 4 TBS of Cayenne in the Sprinkle....Chris..do you actually got any taste buds left..that Cayenne is bloody HOT!
Theres enough Cayenne and chilli in there to start the Towering Inferno
holy crap Chris - that looks more like an artform than a recipe!
the one thing i noticed in that technique is the 1 1/4 cups poaching liquid that is added when foiling... ive only ever just given the ribs a few quick sprays in the past!! so 1 1/4 cups is friggin heaps.. iam so going to try this out.
interestingly enough - the missus also commented the same points as you SmokyMick.. ie she goes the ribs iam getting are so lean and bare its almost impossible to expect anything juicy and tender as the pics from the U.S forums... Clever girl - why didnt i think of that
I could be wrong and I hope I am...but i reckon we are killing our pigs/cattle/lambs & Chickens way too young to appease the gormet food industry.....the poor animals wouldn't even have reached puberty yet and they getting gobbled up.....and I think that's why we can't get these massive cuts of meat like they do in the USA.
Now if you think about the fact that the US has about 300 million people compared to our miniscule 22million. that's a lot of animals getting slaughtered over there but they don't seem to have issues with sizes there compared to our market.
I know these gracious animals get slaughtered to please us carniverous Humans but jeez, they should at least wait till the poor buggers grow up a bit
Last week during an extremely busy spirt of work which seen me doing 12-14 hour days, I pulled into a KFC to get some dinner on the way home and I always check to see what they've put in the box before i drive away from the drivethrough as I've been diddled before.....these pieces (3) would've been lucky to feed a 3 year old let alone me, and I said to the chick at the window.."since when did you guys change your name to KFP?" and she said "what's KFP?" and I said "Kentucky Fried Pidgeon because that's the size of peices i got" wasn't happy...won't be going back....maybe
I completely agree Davo, they're selling off animals as young as they can for a quick buck. I regularly hear stories of 13-15 pound briskets from the states, but I'm lucky to get one bigger than about 4 kilos here
Turkeys were meant to be the dominant species on Earth, but God made 'em too delicious
A 4 Kilo Brisket in Australia would be about 9 pounds.....where are you getting them Snab? that's a serious brisket in Oz....you're lucky to get one in the supermarket more than 1 kilo and it's usually corned.
To answer a few questions, yes it is a tad warm and sweet and sticky. Management doesn't like it too hot (nor too much star anise) so I tone it down when she is in the building!
Agree about the fat and marbelling, find a good european butcher or (small) smallgoods producer, mine is from what he calls "the former Yougoslavia"....great bacon, speck, kransky and the best viennas I've ever had....oh and he will cut you any bit of pork you want and he will ask how old you want it.
Cheers
Chris
Common Sense is so rare these days it should be a Super Power!
Davo wrote:A 4 Kilo Brisket in Australia would be about 9 pounds.....where are you getting them Snab? that's a serious brisket in Oz....you're lucky to get one in the supermarket more than 1 kilo and it's usually corned.
Cheers
Davo
Hey mate,
It sure is some serious meat. There's a decent butcher in the Westfield Belconnen Mall in Canberra who will do you a whole brisket on the spot if he has any in stock, or if you give him a few days notice. He gets his beef on mondays, wednesdays and friday's. The last brisket i got from him, with the fat cap on the top is about 4.4 kilos and he only charged me $30! Bargain!
There's also a really good fella on Donald Road in Queanbeyan, just south of the ACT border, who gets his beef in on monday arvo's who will save you as much brisket as you like if you give him a couple of days notice. Alot of butchers think you're after brisket bones and get a bit puzzled when you ask for the actual meat, coz its such and tough n old fashioned cut that no one wants, but the ones that know what you're talking about get pretty curious about what you're gonna do with it! I reckon most butchers just mince the brisket up these days.
Turkeys were meant to be the dominant species on Earth, but God made 'em too delicious
I like to think I know how to cook ribs. I will throw this out there for those who want to give it a try. Spares or Babybacks. Like other have mentionned, take the membrane off, although there is some data to support that a ribs will stay more moist with it left on and scored at the end of the cook.
Use your rub, dont put it on untill you are ready to cook, most rubs have salt and if left on more than about 30 mints. can make the ribs tuff and hammy tasting. Cook at 250*-275* for 2 hours, 3 if you are doing spares. Spray with your favorite mop, apple juice, cranberry... I use Gatoraide every 30 mints. Take off pit, double foil add 1/3 cup of your mop and put back on pit for 1 to 1 1/2 hours 250*. Check at the 1 hour mark, the ribs should be just about perfect if you have been able to maintain your temps, if not foil back up and keep cooking, checking every 15 mints. Have a competition coming up in 2 weeks and am gonna cook a butt, brisket and ribs this weekend so will try and post a few photos.
Please forgive me if I come on to strong as the new guy, just love to talk BBQ and love to post pictures! These were the last competition ribs we turned in.
