Spare Rib Contest Summary

Smokin Joe · May 2005

Sunday was a great day of food prep & cooking - followed by a great evening of eating & drinking.[p]That morning I got the egg going with a batch of my Fire Roasted Salsa. A recipie I created for the TX Egg Fest. It is by far one of the best non-meat things I do on the egg.[p]Next I went to the spare ribs. I trimmed the slabs as Thirdeye suggested (removed chine and extra flap of meat/fat and prepped as follows: rinsed, dried & rubbed meat directly with the "Rendezvous rub", mustard on the ribs (I used Sam's brat mustard which is a horseradish & brown mixture), applied more rub and worked on to the ribs. Into saran wrap and into the fridge for 4 hours (generally I like to season my stuff a day ahead of time, but I ran out of time on Sat).
I set up indirect with two half-fist size pieces of hickory and a fist full of cherry chips (I was out of the cherry chunks so I went with the chips) scattered throughout the lump. Stabilized the temp at 200* grid temp (dome read 220*-225*), laid 2 slabs of spares on the grid, added the grid extender and put the trimmings on the grid extender (I left most of the fat on the trimmings), shut the lid and let smoke for 4 hours. Foiled and returned to the egg for 30 minutes, checked the consistency of the ribs, brushed with BBQ sauce*, re-foiled and back into the egg for another 30 minutes. After a total of 1 hour in the foil I pulled the plate setter and charred them direct at 400*-450* for a few minutes per side. Brushed on more sauce**, turned a few times to get the look & texture I wanted. Sliced and served. [p]*BBQ sauce - Followed JKs Wild Boar recipe to a tee (posted by someone here on the BGE Forum - Thanks!) . Once the sauce was reduced a bit I split the batch and modified one half by adding three tablespoons of crushed red pepper and a half can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Reduced both a bit more and had a batch of "hot" and a batch of "regular". This is a very "balanced" tomato based BBQ sauce - a good mix of sweet and tang. My modification to heat things up was a really good if you like a good heat & flavor without being overwhelmingly hot[p]**Final Sauce-ing of the ribs during the char - I used the “regular” on one slab and the “hot” on the other slab. [p]The result was a moist and tasty rib that came off the bone with a little tug. The flavor of both the "regular" & "hot" ribs were good, but most agreed they liked the flavor of the “hot” sauce on the ribs better. [p]As far as the competition - it turned out being a master versus student thing - Tom Fricano “Freak” on the Forum (master) and myself (student). The tasters or “judges” agreed that his ribs had more smoke flavor and came off the bone a bit cleaner than my ribs (he is the master of that), while my ribs had good texture and flavor - especially the "hot' ribs. So I guess it was a draw??? [p]I think the folks who came out and got to eat some great BBQ were the winners. We hade so much food we’ll be eating BBQ again today. [p]Thanks for the help provided by Thirdeye & Lawn Ranger!!! This board is so awesome!!! Life is good! Joe[p]PS: Sorry no pix - I need to get off my butt & get a digital camera

Sandbagger · May 2005

Smokin Joe, I am glad you had fun this weekend. By the way, are you or EggMeister (through TXfest) going to post the salsa recipe. Tom

Smokin Joe · May 2005

Sandbagger,
I sent a word document to Haywire who (at least I think he is leading the TX Egg Fest recipie collection) that had all my recipies on it. I imagine it should get posted to Grillmeister's site soon. I'd post it now, but the word doc is on a different computer. Joe[p]PS: I modified it slightly this weekend - I added a some chopped fresh garlic to taste (4 cloves/wedges) and added a half can of chipotles in adobo suace. This time I also ran the tomatoes & peppers through my cuisinart to get a better consistancy. It really kicked it up a notch.

Spare Rib Contest Summary

Comments

Categories