I’m ashamed to say....

J_Que

that yesterday was my first rib cook of the year. With all the nasty weather we had this winter I just couldn't coax myself off the couch. So yesterday I decided to pull out my competition rib recipe for yet another round of refinements.

Started with a medium sized St Louis cut rack from Costco. Pulled the silver skin, trimmed the excess fat and rubbed the back side with a little DP Swamp Venom. Put the rack back in the fridge for about 30 minutes while I fired up the egg with a mix of Apple and Pecan chunks. While the egg was stabilizing, I pulled the rack back out and gave it a light coat of yellow mustard along with a heavy coat of DP Dust. I put it back in the fridge while the smoke turned from a bright white to a cool blue. This was my first mistake. I should of kept the rack out of the fridge during this period and allowed it to warm up a bit. Put the ribs on the egg and smoked for 3 hours straight at a steady 250. (Second mistake. I probably should of smoked them for 2 hours judging the results)  During this time I readied the foil. Brushed it with a little honey, Parkay, light brown sugar, Apple juice, Apple cider vinegar and some more dust. Pulled the ribs off the egg, foiled and back on the egg @ 250. After an hour I pulled the ribs from the foil, coated with some finely ground finishing rub and put them back on the egg to firm back up. After 30 minutes I coated both sides with some bone suckling sauce and left them on the egg for another 30 minutes to set up a bit. Pulled the rack and let it rest for 10 minutes. This is always the hardest part of the cook. Just watching them sit there after 5 hours of cooking will drive you crazy, so I normally set the timer and walk away. By the time the timer is ringing I’m almost ready to eat my arm off! 

The results:

Appearance: 6-7

Great Bark, Nice cherry/mahogany color and a nice light smoke ring. Could of used a better trimming technique as the ribs were not very uniform.

Taste: 7-8

Great depth of flavor, slight hint of smoke with a very good blend of sweet & heat that allowed the pork taste to shine through. The flavor profile is great, but I would like to get more flavor penetration into the pork itself. Any suggestions? 

Texture: 5-6

Great bite thru and while half the rack was almost perfect, the other half very dry. 3-1-1 just seem like overkill. 

Next time:

Check for doneness more often with a smaller racks.

Let the ribs warm up a bit before they go on the egg

Smoke for a shorter period of time or get a bigger rack.

Learn to trim like a pro. (Suggestions welcomed.)

Brine or marinate to get better flavor penetration?

Add a water pan above the plate setter to catch the drippings and possibly increase the humidity inside the egg.

 

Any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

DMW

Looks good from here. Was talking competition with someone a few weeks back and they mentioned they smoke 6 racks of ribs to turn in 6 ribs. There's nothing that says each rib turned in comes from the same rack. I have a feeling those that are winning ribs are doing this, as the end ribs probably don't cook the same as the center.

J_Que

You are correct. Typically comp cooks are smoking many racks to get a perfect 6 in front of the judges. 

JohnInCarolina

J_Que said:

You are correct. Typically comp cooks are smoking many racks to get a perfect 6 in front of the judges. 

Well, this makes me feel better about my latest rib cook. Fairly mixed result. I feel like I have a lot to learn about ribs.

Ladeback69

How many of you watch Pit Masters? It looks like when they do a piece meat or what ever, they give them more then one to the right single bite they need to win. They will cook 2 or 3 briskets to get the right slices and burnt ends or multiple pork butts. I wonder who gets all the leftover?:-D

Monty77

Very nice looking ribs and well documented process, I also have varied success with ribs depending on the sizes of the rack and length of time and temp on the Egg.  I have been using 235* lately and it seems ok for smaller racks, but 250* seems necessary for larger baby backs.  I usually use the 3 -1-1 method, and have recently tried the CWM method with mixed results.  I think my wife is starting to think my attempts at the perfect ribs are just an excuse to make them quite often!    She might be right!