T-Bone's First Ribs
This past Saturday, Team T-Bone (Mrs. T helped) attempted to moist heat some baby back ribs on the ol' kettle Q. Our choice of wood was hickory chunks and apple chips which provided an unassuming yet sweet bouquet. After the membranectomy, those bad boys were rubbed with Szeged's rib rub and put in the fridge for 2 hours. Earlier that afternoon at the local hardware store, we completed our equipment purchases of BBQ gloves, rib rack, and mopping sprayer.
With our new Weber chimney, the fire was prepared a la the minion method. After the fire was set, wood was added and the kettle brought to a cooking temperature of 225 degrees. Next, the rib rack was baptized and our baby backs were on their way.
Ribs were mopped every 20 minutes with peak temperature reaching 245 degrees. An hour and fifteen minutes later, the ribs were removed and placed in foil with butter, apple cider and brown sugar. The meat appeared a bit tough at first so we decided to try Dr. BBQ's foil method above for another 30 minutes. The end result was a good smokey flavor; however, the meat was not terribly tender off the bone. I am waiting for some Moist Heat consensus because in my reading of BBQ, I'll wager I haven't read the same recommended cooking temperature or same cooking time used yet.
Oh Joe-Be-Wan-It-Smokey, you're my only hope.
However, check out the smoke ring we were able to achieve.
4 Comments:
At 6/26/2006 8:41 PM,
Andakin said…
Either that is the brightest smoke ring I have ever seen or someone learned how to use their MS Paint program!
You can ask Joe-Be-Wan, ribs are tough to master and I don't think you can ever make "the perfect rib" everytime.
I don't know what else to tell you about your temperature/timing issues. And I don't know what else Joe-Be-Wan will be able to suggest. Be patient...the moist heat will come.
At 6/27/2006 8:31 AM,
T-Bone said…
Okay, okay....
The ring wasn't quite as pronounced but there was one. I forgot to mention that Jack D's BBQ sauce was put in the foil as well for those last minutes.
At 6/27/2006 8:43 AM,
Flamb_Ed said…
I'm not sure about baby backs - I tend to stick to spare ribs (there's more meat :) and I think they're less likely to be tough). I don't know much about temperatures either - I don't own a thermometer. Anyway, what I do know is that when I've grilled ribs in the past I usually do them for 3-4 hours on a medium/low indirect heat. Then take them off the grill to rest when the bones start to poke out of the ends. Ideally the bones should twist out of the meat fairly easily. One other thing to try is rubbing both sides of the ribs with an orange (cut open) before applying the rub/marinade. The acid of the orange should help to tenderise the meat.
If I get my act together I'll be trying these this weekend (a Joe-Be-Wan recipe) so I'll let you know how it goes...
At 6/27/2006 1:07 PM,
Andakin said…
After looking at your pictures again, I do see one problem. The location of your thermometer on your grate is not going to give you a very accurate reading of your fire temperature. The thermometer should be as close to the meat as possible so you know the exact temperature of the fire by the meat. If you were getting 245 in the spot it is in the picture, my guess is that the temperature of the fire by the meat closest to the coals was probably closer to 300 or more.
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