Beer Forum

I got the BBQ Blible last year and with the help of my buddy I started doing a lot of indirect slow cooking of ribs and pork shoulder. I have loved every minute of it. It gives me a reason to sit by the grill with a few beers for several hours. I just watching a thing on the Food Channel where the pro griller talked about his ribs being pink to the bone, in other words, smoked all the way though. I have heard that a way to accomplish that is to freeze the ribs and them place them on the grill with of course a ton of wood chips. What are some things that you guys have had success with?

i just have a small pile of charcoal and keep adding wood chips. I actually find that soaking the chips in water best (even better than soaking in beer). I add more charcoal as needed. I add a hand full of cherry chips every half hour for about 4 hours of cook time. I use a spice rub on the ribs and don't put bbq sauce on them until the last 30-60 minutes.

This might not be the most popular method, but I like to braise both ribs and shoulder in a slow cooker for a few hours before smoking them. It pretty much guarantees a tender BBQ.

This braising method works best for me, just choose your favorite rub and go. Smoke it for 30 minutes or so after if you want, although i don't.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html

Enjoy

I brine my ribs overnight before smoking. This keeps them nice and tender and the flavor soaks into the meat quite a bit more than by just using a rub.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

BugeaterBrewing wrote:I brine my ribs overnight before smoking. This keeps them nice and tender and the flavor soaks into the meat quite a bit more than by just using a rub.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Just a salt water brine solution? What's the ratio? This sounds good.

you can add all kinds of shit to the brine. dont remember ratios but I made a brine with water, salt, sugar, apple cider vinegar, rosemary, and juniper berries. just throw the shit in.

Just started doing this myself. Bought a smoker with an offset firebox a month or so ago. 3rd batch last weekend with dry rub came out great. If you use whole logs try to take the bark off as it adds more nasty flavor than the wood inside.

1st batch used logs of kiawe (mesquite) only - way too smoky to eat. Saved a few chunks in the freezer and used it in the baked beans for batch 2 and 3 below.

2nd batch used Kingsford stuff - OK but stuff burns fast and found out has losta chemical stuff in it. Still tatsed much better than #1 above and basted that the last hour with sauce. Had to restock fire every 30 minutes. Threw a couple of kiawe logs without bark on top of the Kingsford and it added smoke without being as overpowering as above.

Ordered a few books off the internet

3rd batch last weekend - dry rub only put on the night before (about 2 tablespoons per lb of ribs) and book I read said to take it straight from refer (it's close to freezing like you mention above) directly to smoker for a better smoke ring. First two bathces above I let sit on the counter to get to room temp for 1/2 hour like I do when I am grilling steaks. Used only natural wood charcol and had to restock every 45 minutes or so - also threw a few wood chips soaked in water on the coals after the first hour. Had space for a center cut rib roast with the same rub overnight and had that on the entire time as well after searing the roast on all sides for about 15 minutes. I forgot to look at the rib smoke ring on this batch, but the friend that was over and he is a great griller and loved it.

Also have read about the brining and want to give that a try down the road, but what to play with the dry rub a bit more first. You definitely want to brine fowl for slow smoking.

I try to stay 200-225 at the grill surface (the thermometer on the lid reads about 25 degrees higher) and the spareribs take about 5 hours and the Baby Backs 4 hours. Last 120-90 minutes I throw on some uncooked sausage. Then I wrap them in foil and stick in the microwave oven (not turned on) for the hour or two before we eat so I can hang with friends (1st batch above started too late and we waited for them to get done - had to drown them in sauce to cover the smoke taste).

Half hour before dinner fire up a batch of cornbread and stick it in the oven (take the beans out on the stovetop).