Best ribs yet!

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freakynorm

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Aug 4, 2012
181
35
Mount Vernon, Washington
The wife, who normally never eats ribs has taken a liking to the ones I make. I recently made a batch for a family get together and they were such a big hit, we had no leftovers so the wife requested another batch be made so we could enjoy them over a few days. 

I picked up a 3 rack pack of St. Louis ribs from the local restaurant supply store Cash N Carry. They sell em at $2.60lb which is a bit cheaper than Costco. I smoke em on the UDS with pecan and cherry chunks in Kingsford blue charcoal. I use my own extra spicy homemade rub but use no sugar in it at all. I get all my sweetness into it during the foil and glaze stage. Once I start the smoker going I prep the ribs as it gets to temp. One of the racks ended up being a bit wonky because they did a crappy job on the trimming of it. That rack was just a pain to cut up was all. I also picked up some four cheese Italian and bacon cheddar brats. I also tried some hot dogs. I spiral cut them and put various rubs on them.

Got the brats and dogs ready.


Got the ribs rubbed up.


Got my foil ingredients at the ready.


I pulled the ribs, brats and dogs off after 3 hours. The brats were so good. The hot dogs were kinda meh. Even though they had different rubs on each, they all tasted the same. I won't be doing those again. 


Got my foil boats ready to go with the usual stuff, Parkay, brown sugar, Tiger Sauce, honey and a lil apple juice. This time I decided to add some honey whiskey to one rack and some bourbon to another rack. The third rack just with the basic stuff.


Ready to wrap and back in the UDS. I have found that a 3-1-1 method works best for me and my taste/texture preference. 3-2-1 and they get way too mushy. Generally with 3-1-1 they are still fall off the bone tender because you barely have to pull to get the meat off the bone.


Great pull back so far. Does anyone have any good uses for the drippings? It's so high in fat, that once separated it's like a 80/20 ratio of fat to actual juices. I just save it and pour it on the dogs' food. They love it.


Back on the smoker with a coating of Roxy's Rib Glaze. I actually used the bourbon in it this time. It actually tastes better than without it. I am just not a huge fan of whiskey/bourbon taste but in the glaze it really works nicely.


Nice closeup of them with the glaze.


All done and ready to slice up! The middle rack is the one they trimmed all messed up. You can see how uneven and crooked it looks.


Extreme closeup!


The finished product. I even brought a few to work. The same thing happened where people said they don't like ribs decided to try them because they smelled so good and they liked them so much they want me to make more.


The wife agreed these were the best batch yet. Next time I am going to use more of the honey whiskey for the foiling liquid. It added a very unique taste and gave the flavor a little more depth than I expected. 

 
  • Like
Reactions: disco
Good looking ribs man! 
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  Nice job 
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Great Job and awesome photos!

I reuse the drippings for my glaze, sometimes in my beans and sometimes in my pig candy.
 
Those ribs look great! I'm going to try that tiger sauce foil wrap next time.
Great Job and awesome photos!
I reuse the drippings for my glaze, sometimes in my beans and sometimes in my pig candy.
I second using the drippings for beans. I usually throw my leftover trimmings in too.
 
Those ribs look terrific and I love the post and Qview. You have give me some ideas for my ribs!

Thanks.

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Disco
 
Great looking ribs! That last photo is the money shot Nice and juicy and great color!

I buy all my bulk meat at Cash & Carry! If you sign up online you can get the weekly hot sheet specials. The spares go on sale quite often and they will be marked down as low as $2.19. My favorite buy though is Tri tip!
 
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Really nice!

I like your spiral dogs.  When I first saw that idea, I thought that it was kind of a gimmick, but it really does make for a great tasting dog.  A lot more surface area to get crispy.

It sounds like you put the dogs on the smoker, however?  I prefer to not use a smoker for dogs.  Hot dogs already have an artificial smoke flavor, and I find that this kind of ruins the taste if you smoke them for real on top of the artificial smoke.

I prefer spiral dogs on the grill it high heat.  Makes 'em more crispy!

But the ribs look wonderful!  Great job! 
 
Yeah the dogs on the smoker weren't the best. I definitely prefer them on the grill.

Hey dirtsailor2003, question for you please. I saw those giant tri tip packs at Cash N Carry too. Are they already cut or is it one ginormous tri tip? The entire family loves smoked tri tip and the price on it there vs the grocery store is a huge difference. I just didn't want to buy a huge chunk of meat and not trim it right. I'd prefer if it was like 4 5lb tri tip roasts all in one vacuum packed bag. They had frozen untrimmed spares for sale last week at $1.69lb. I was a bit skeptical of frozen ribs but at that price I should have tried them.

I just ordered a Pitmaster IQ110 for my UDS and my next cook will be some chuck roast for pulled beef. I want to do a brisket but Cash N Carry has "nose-off" briskets and Costco and Walmart have only the flats for sale which I guess is the same as nose-off. I read a brisket how-to and it said to avoid nose-off ones because those are usually flats with most of the fat trimmed off which could make for a dry brisket.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. 
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Yeah the dogs on the smoker weren't the best. I definitely prefer them on the grill.

Hey dirtsailor2003, question for you please. I saw those giant tri tip packs at Cash N Carry too. Are they already cut or is it one ginormous tri tip? The entire family loves smoked tri tip and the price on it there vs the grocery store is a huge difference. I just didn't want to buy a huge chunk of meat and not trim it right. I'd prefer if it was like 4 5lb tri tip roasts all in one vacuum packed bag. They had frozen untrimmed spares for sale last week at $1.69lb. I was a bit skeptical of frozen ribs but at that price I should have tried them.

I just ordered a Pitmaster IQ110 for my UDS and my next cook will be some chuck roast for pulled beef. I want to do a brisket but Cash N Carry has "nose-off" briskets and Costco and Walmart have only the flats for sale which I guess is the same as nose-off. I read a brisket how-to and it said to avoid nose-off ones because those are usually flats with most of the fat trimmed off which could make for a dry brisket.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. 
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The packs of Angus have two or three per pack. I don't buy the Angus, just the IBP (I think that is the brand) mega pack of tri tip. There are usually 5-6 in there. They are not trimmed so there is a fat cap. I used to not trim off the cap, but have started too, as I like to get more rub on the meat. I found that unless making au jus the cap really didn't add any thing to the tri-tip. When I get a pack, I keep one out to cook and then vac-pack the rest and freeze. Can't beat the price! ON sale at our Safeway the other day tri tip was $6.99, yikes!
 
Individual tri tips will only vary in size depending on the size of the animal at slaughter.

Other than that, there is trimmed 185d and untrimmed 185c NAMP/IMPS designations.

Trimmed or untrimmed is a preference thing. Sometimes the untrimmed is a little cheaper.  Then with the extra fat??????

Good luck and good smoking.
 
dirtsailor2003, I will definitely be picking up that mega pack of tri tips. The grocery store sells them at about $6.99lb regular price, Walmart I think is $5lb. Costco has the prime grade tri tips at $8lb or so. I want to say that bulk pack of tri tips was maybe $3.00lb at Cash N Carry. Heckuva deal for sure.
 
freakynorm, what temps do you do you 3-1-1 at for the ribs? I have done 3 different cooks with St Louis cuts and on was tough the others were mush. 

Baby backs on the other hand, I have no problems.... Thanks.

~ Joe
 
 
dirtsailor2003, I will definitely be picking up that mega pack of tri tips. The grocery store sells them at about $6.99lb regular price, Walmart I think is $5lb. Costco has the prime grade tri tips at $8lb or so. I want to say that bulk pack of tri tips was maybe $3.00lb at Cash N Carry. Heckuva deal for sure.
It sure is! I need to pick up another pack. Been waiting to see if they go on sale. Spring must be tri tip sale time because C&C had them on sale March-May. But even the non-sale price is great compared to the market.
 
 
Great looking ribs! Have you ever tried American Honey Whisky?
I haven't but then again I am not a drinker at all. The wife drinks the wine, I cook with it and that's the extent of it. I stopped at the liquor store and they had those small sample bottles for $2-$3 each so I got a few. I will be buying a full size bottle of the honey whiskey next time I go. I don't know that I would notice a big difference between any of the major brands of whiskey. My palate for hard alcohol is not refined at all. 

I picked up an pineapple vodka sample bottle. I thought that could be nice to use in the foil if I made some citrus/Hawaiian style ribs.
 
freakynorm, what temps do you do you 3-1-1 at for the ribs? I have done 3 different cooks with St Louis cuts and on was tough the others were mush. 

Baby backs on the other hand, I have no problems.... Thanks.

~ Joe
Generally I shoot for around 225deg and the last hour I let it heat up more since when I open the lid to apply the glaze, the temp spikes up a bit and starts getting to 275deg or so and I am too lazy to damper the UDS to prevent the spikes at that point since I'm almost done cooking and I just want the glaze to set. So far it's worked nicely where they are fall off the bone but not super mushy. They would fall apart though if I used tongs but I use the high temp bbq gloves and gently cradle them in and out of the UDS. I have also found slicing them up with an electric knife keeps them looking as good as they taste. I picked up a cheap $13 electric knife from Walmart and it works perfectly. Lets me cut my tri tips nice and thin, keeps my ribs looking good, keeps my fatties together, etc. Great investment for sure.
 
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