Need help/suggestions for transporting pork spare ribs

Black_Badger · December 2012

Hello All,
I'll be cooking four racks of pork spare ribs for the first time tomorrow; ribs that I will then need to transport ~200 miles on the following day. I need some good suggestions on how to cook, store and transport these racks and I'm hoping someone out there is still trolling the boards even though we're right in the middle of the holidays. As you can see in the photo I've rubbed these liberally with yellow mustard then hit them with a blend of rubs. Normally I'd think these need more rub, but I used quite a bit compared to what I've had success with in then past when cooking butts and briskets.

Do I really need more rub, or does it just look that way because of the mustard?

These are in the fridge, uncovered, now and will stay there until tomorrow when it's cooking time. My plan was to get my XL set up for indirect at 250 and plan on cooking them for 2 hour bone side, 2 hour meat side then as needed until done. I have AJ/ACV to spritz with, probably every 30min or so.

Does that plan sound about right?

If so, I was thinking I'd let the ribs cool (probably try one or two...) then foil them up and put them back in the fridge. I'll stick them into an ice chest with a couple blue ice packs for the drive then reheat for dinner.

Without access to a grill, how should i reheat these?

I know that's a lot of questions, but any comments on all or some of them are greatly appreciated. I'll try to get some good pics along the way. Always fun/terrifying trying something brand new, right?

Cheers -
B_B

Black_Badger · December 2012

Ribs look nice after a night in the fridge. Ready to stoke up the Egg and get ready for the cook. Looks like this might be a solo mission, but I'm pretty confident I've got a good plan down. Stay tuned for more if you're interested, I'll post updates as they come in.

B_B

Black_Badger · December 2012

Okay everyone, ribs are on at 250F indirect and the first glass of Highland Park 12 has been poured. It's now officially a great day! Fingers crossed for a good cook to top it all off. I have four racks, two on the grid and two on a second raised grid, I'll move them around in an hour. More to come...

B_B

JayHawkEye · December 2012

Are you eating these tonight or tomorrow? If you are eating them tonight I wouldn't cool them down at all. Wrap them in a couple of layers of HDAF and then wrap those in towels and throw them in a heated (hot water) and dry cooler. Use more towels to take up the extra space. They'll still be hot.

Black_Badger · December 2012

Hey @JayHawkEye, these are for tomorrow night, and I have a ~200 mile drive between home and dinner. I'm thinking trying to keep them warm for that period of time is a recipe for disaster.

Black_Badger · December 2012

Just moved bottom to top and top to bottom. They're looking really nice. Unfortunately, I'm looking at the empty bottom of a glass, so back to the Highland Park bottle....

No pics this go around, but I'll grab some when I flip in another hour.

B_B

Ragtop99 · December 2012

Hopefully you put them in the fridge overnight. If you sauced them, I'd reheat them gently in the oven. Covered pan would be fine, but you could get away with a cookie sheet uncovered as the sauce will prevent the meat from drying and you can put a little extra sauce on if needed when they come out.

Black_Badger · December 2012

Here they are two hours in and getting their first flip to meat side down. They smell great and are taking on a nice color. Moved top to bottom, flipped 'em over, and gave them a good spritz with AJ/ACV. Back in for another hour...

B_B

henapple · December 2012

Man, those look great.

Black_Badger · December 2012

Haha, forgot the pic.

Better late than never I guess...

Black_Badger · December 2012

Four hours in. Just flipped again. Going to open the daisy wheel just a bit, been running about 230 and want to get at or just above 250. nice color, but not as dark as I would have expected, yet. I'll be checking, spritzing every half hour from here on in. Hoping they'll be ready to sauce in an hour or so.

B_B

Black_Badger · December 2012

Okay everyone, the first adventure is over. I have to say they came out pretty great. They're not all as pretty as I'd like, but the taste and texture are just what I wanted. They pass the bite test perfectly, looks like a cartoon bite taken from the center of a rib...

These took longer than I thought, glad I started early-ish (6 hours in total). They ran a little cool most of the day (~230-235), but I wasn't in a rush so I thought I'd just ride it out. Glad I did wait for these, but in the future I want to try to keep them stoked up at or just above 250.

As for taste they have great smoke (four large lumps of apple, one of hickory) and are plenty sweet with a nice vinegar tang. They have a touch of heat, and I'd like to ramp that up in the future. As a KCBS CBJ I'd say these would be a 8-9 in tenderness and a 7-8 in taste, but may struggle a bit in appearance. Granted, I'm tasting them at the perfect time, hot off the grill, and they might suffer in a container...

Some more pics below, hope someone enjoyed this thread today, I enjoyed the cook and the writing.

Cheers all -
B_B

henapple · December 2012

Nice...

njl · December 2012

I made ribs today that mostly won't be eaten until Wednesday night. I let them cool on the counter top a bit, then wrapped each half rack in parchment, put them all in a 2G ziplock, and put that in the fridge. I'm thinking of moving them to the freezer in a bit.

I've never done this before...hopefully the parchment wasn't a mistake.

Black_Badger · December 2012

Hey @njl. I ended up letting them cool on the counter top, wrapping in heavy duty aluminum foil and then moving into the fridge. I'm not planning on freezing, but the foiled racks will go into a cooler with ice tomorrow for the drive. I'm thinking these can be brought up to temp in the foil, in an oven. I'd like to add a little AJ to one or two of the pouches to see if that helps the reheating process in terms of moisture. I had the trimmed ends for dinner tonight and they we very moist.

Let me know how your technique works, and I'll do the same. I'd love to have a reliable process to move ribs around when needed. We all know the XL Egg is great for cooking, but lousy for portability...

Hope your ribs and travels turn out great.

B_B

jay75 · December 2012

Hey B,B jus to let you know I recently got some ribs out of the freezer and baring in mind they weren't even food savered!!! Q was still amazing! Huh! All I did was to warm them in a steamer over the hob! Awesome! I froze them in April this year...

Black_Badger · December 2012

Cheers @jay75, we'll see how it goes tonight, fingers firmly crossed.

rsmith193 · December 2012

We always vacuum seal them then in the ice chest. throw the bags in boiling water for a few minutes, and they are hot and ready to go.

SamFerrise · December 2012

keep them refrigerated for the ride or you could have some stomach problems. Reheated ribs off the Egg are just as good. In fact, I think my left over ribs taste better the next day.

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Need help/suggestions for transporting pork spare ribs

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