pre-thought side note: Coming soon will be a picture of my new awning for outdoor living. It is almost complete, I just need to purchase and lash down the bamboo roof and what-not. It is 10′ x 20.8′ and will give us a great space to be. Yay for us.
As far as parties go, meat or otherwise. What pops in to your mind when someone says Memorial Day? That’s right, people everywhere, drinks a-flowing and great food as far as the eye can see. I know you expect no less of MeatHenge Labs. Yeah well, we were tired and enjoying the fact we didn’t have to deal with acres of friends and/or family. It was really nice to spend a few days just puttering about doing what we wanted, when we wanted. This, and yelling at the children, breaking up fits and fights.
Early Sunday morning I was driving around in my truck for no good reason and the radio told me to go buy some Luscious & Meat Pork Ribs on Sale, $1.99 a lb. Rarely do I buy Grocery Store meat, rarely. I was weak and sped over to get myself one of two packages left. They looked just fine and didn’t smell all manky. I had something ‘to do’ on Monday.
After returning home and dispatching the children with a wave of muh hand, I pulled out the slab to inspect my prize. All I did was remove the back flap of flesh, I left the membrane and didn’t need to trim anything else off. Spiffy.
Time to make a quick rub. 3 tsp. of Spanish Smoked Sweet Paprika mixed with 1 tsp. of Hungarian Mild Paprika (this gives us a 4 part base). Then 2 tsp each of Onion Powder (never garlic, nasty crap), Ancho Chili powder, Oregano, Salt … and a few other things. You know how that goes.
Toss this mix in to a little electric whizzer and make it go until blended. This really knocks the spices & herbs in to a very bright concoction. Try it some time without the whizzing, it ain’t the same.
Coat the ribs, front and back. Just as much as you’d like, little or tons. Seal tightly and toss in to the back of the fridge for up to 3 days or so.
This one sat for 24 hours or so. See the meat glisten? Yes.
Pull this out about an hour before you grill or smoke. The meat wants to be about room temp.
Get your smoker going at least an hour before hand and get it up to temp. Get your fire set, this takes time. It isn’t like grilling a burger, you need to make sure everything is set before you put your meat in.
I used whole raw chunks of Hickory. That’s why you see large fire, it is real wood. Not Kingsford crap, not even mesquite charcoal. Real wood for real meat.
I had a digital thermometer at Meat Level and it read about 230-260 degrees F, give or take for 5 hours.
At that point you can sauce, or not sauce. That’s up to you. Did I mention they were juicy? And good? Cause they were. Juicy & Good.
And what would a nice rack of pork ribs be without a sweet desert? Really good. But the brown sugary with appley goodness it is even better.
My dear sister brought a really really really tasty pasta salad. I found feta cheese and cured black olives in there, plus some crunchy love like cucumbers & celery and carrots and and and man was that feta good.
Here we are. Meat Platter all over. Take a look, you’ll see some ‘patties’. Those belong to Fatted Calf. They were this last weekend’s spoils, organic brandied cherry Crepinettes. Taylor & Toponia were right, grilling those little darlings are really the way to go. They puff up like little meat clouds. My sister said they were really cute and resembled little meat pillows. Either way they make a great Meat Side to any meal. Heck, they’re rich enough for center stage as well.
I say, clean off/out that grill and get outside. It’s nice out.
XoXo
a much better post, thank you. 🙂 i must find these crepinettes!
i think you should enter the alameda county fair riboff: http://alamedacountyfair.com/fair/news.html
there’s a $4’600 grill at steak. 😉
Grill at steak, HAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAH.
Uh, yeah. I dunno. I think I’m too lazy.
I thought raw wood causes creosote problems when smoking. Do you have to burn it for a while before tossing on the meat?
Dave,
First off, I want to THANK YOU for taking the time to post a question in the comment section at a blog.
This is one of my heated complaints about blogs, no interaction between the spewer and the spewee. It is a one flow communication ring that makes us look like real blow hards. Yeah okay, I am a blow hard, but I do wish people I didn’t know directly would post comments.
And I do hope you check back to see I really posted a reply.
That being said, yeah creosote is a HUGE problem with smoking AND grilling when you use REAL wood charcoal or raw (seasoned) wood. Most people just blow by this whole situation and don’t know. They smother their wood fire and wonder why their food tastes bitter, then time after time their smoker imparts a bitter taste. CREOSOTE.
When smoking & grilling I ALWAYS preburn my wood, raw or otherwise. Which is why having a few grills around the yard makes sense. The response is usually, “oh sure, I have another nine million dollars for a second grill to just preburn my wood.” Keeripes. Everyone has an old grill to get rid of, just ask around. If not, hit up a few garage sales.
This way, when you ADD fuel to your smoker or grill, it is HOT/GREY and ready to go. No downtime experienced.
And for the people who know me, I am VERY picky about fuels. In fact, I am more than happy to get in to a fist fight over it. I really think people who use gas grills for ‘smoking’ and grilling because “lighting a real fire is just too hard” need to be beaten severely. Everyone needs to learn how to build a fire for cooking, I believe it is important and necessary. You truly understand what it takes to cook a meal, both in the home and outdoors. Humans are far too lazy and miss so many cool things in life by just flicking a switch, pushing a button or pulling a cord.
Besides, setting your own fire to cook with really creates a great sense of accomplishment.
On the same note, make DAMN sure your exhaust is set to FULL open. Regulate your fire by the intake, and even then you should be able to maintain a ‘smoking’ fire by having a FULL open intake and a FULL open exhaust. This will also lower the possibility of having a creosote encrusted meal.
Between pre-burning your wood and making sure your fire has plenty of intake and exhaust you should be able to produce awesome results.
Xo Xo
Dr. Biggles,
Thanks for thoughtful reply. Much appreciated. I’m an amateur smoker and only use my Weber (but I’m pretty good with it, I think). Unfortunately, I just use a combination of lump and briquettes.
One more question. Is a good quality lump (I assume lump is preburned wood) a reasonable approximation of preburning wood?
Well, at least the briquttes will give you long even heat with not much oxygen. If you do go to mesquite charcoal or wood, remember they need more air and will burn hotter (smaller fire).
No matter what fuel you’re using, make sure you only see wafts of clear bluish smoke coming out. Never billows of white smoke (creosote and other nasties).
You should preburn ANY fuel for two good reasons. First, if you dump cold charcoal on to a lit fire without the lid closed, it will smolder and and give you that puffy white smoke you don’t want. Second, and most important you cooker temperature will drop and take a while to get back up. If you dump on any fuel that is already grey & hot, there is only a quick spike in temperature and no long dip. This is a good thing. Even happy temperature all the way through cooking is your goal. See.
What do you think about boiling the meat at a low heat before broiling and basting as a way of cooking ribs? I’m trying to find a good, quick way to cook ribs for a weekday dinner…
Hey Alice,
EXCELLENT question. I’ve done it a few times and personally? I hate it. It’s a very tasteless way of cooking or precooking pork. This means you wind up with an inferior product as compared to taking the 5 hours to smoker. However, sometimes one just doesn’t have the time.
I would be more inclined to slice them up when they’re raw (smaller pieces, less cooking time), put them in to a roasting pan with slices of lemon on top. Then put in to a 350 degree oven for as long as it takes, maybe an hour and a half (or bump it up to 375). Once done remove lemon slices and baste with your favorite sauce and put back in the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes. This method will give you, at least, some roasting flavor versus boiling. However, if you don’t even have that kind of time, yes you can boil the ribs a bit. Then do your broiling to produce your carameliztion. You could also use a rub that contains some nice Spanish Sweet Smoked Paprika to produce a little smoky flavor! Yeah, that would be really nice.
Honestly, you should be able to get something very nice in a reasonable amount of time.
Biggles