First Spare Ribs, 3rd hot smoke with Q-View

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lav25

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Aug 28, 2011
81
34
Osaka, Japan
Newbie here, just tried making spare ribs in my little smoker.   Things worked out pretty well, although someday I'm sure I'll look back and giggle.

No prep pics, but basically, I picked up two full racks of pork spare ribs at the market.  I did some research and decided to try two different recipes that I found links to (somewhere) on this site.  First, I did this one:

http://makinglifenotsuck.tumblr.com/

I used ordinary yellow mustard, and for a rub I used The Meat Guy's Stake (sic) Seesoning (sic again).  It's a pretty basic spice mix, the listed ingredients are onion powder, garlic powder, dill seed, mustard seed, and "spices."  Goes well with, well, meat. 

Anyway, I coated the ribs in mustard, then rubbed on the Stake Seesoning, and ziploced everything overnight.

The second rack got this bourbon marinade: (I realize this may be a competing site, but I'm sure I found the link somewhere here.  If I'm out of bounds, please let me know)

http://www.smoker-cooking.com/smoked-bourbon-spareribs.html

The only change I made to the recipe was using Four Roses instead of Jim Beam.  Also, when it came time to turn the used marinade into BBQ sauce, I found that the local supermarket didn't have cider vinegar or molasses.  Or tomato puree.  So I used ketchup.

Sorry.

Anyway, I had to cut the racks in half because my cooking surface in the smoker is only about 11 inches across.  I loaded up with hickory Smoke Wood, put one grill with the rubbed ribs, laid a second grill on top and put the marinated ribs on that.  Unfortunately, my little setup was overloaded by that much food, and I couldn't get the temps above 190F. 

I let things run for three hours, flipping and switching upper to lower at around an hour, and again at the two hour mark.  Since I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish things there, after three hours, I foiled the ribs (brushing the rubbed ones with a melted butter and honey mixture per the recipe) and moved them into my oven.  To make up for the low temps in the smoker, I ran things at about 275 for the first hour, then down to 250 or so for the next half hour, and then to about 220 for the last half hour. 

3-2-1, right?  Well, when I took the half rack out of the foil to go for the last hour, it fell apart.  Fell off the bone.  Sounds done to me.

The rubbed ribs:

9e38c844_DSCN2355.jpg


The marinated ribs:

f24c96b0_DSCN2354.jpg


Side by side:

1c4385ad_DSCN2356.jpg


And there was a half rack more of each.  The marinated ribs, with their BBQ sauce, were pretty good, but the rubbed ones were great, needed no sauce at all.  Both were fairly moist, could do a little bit better, but I'm really happy with the results, especially for my first attempt.

-val
 
nice looking ribs,,, Congrats on the first try are in order.............
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Joe
 
Great first attempt at ribs. The great thing about our hobby is you can still eat your mistakes.
 
Very Nice!!!

Awesome Bark!!!

Congrats on your first ribs, and thanks for showing!!!!!

Bear
 
Val, saw the rig and ideas!  GREAT job, and there is nothing wrong with your results.  Keep at it, and you are gonna be teaching me things soon.
77.gif
 
Man, Val, you're smokes are just getting better and better, just the way it's supposed to be! The 3-2-1 can be difficult to get exactly the way you want the first time, let alone every smoke. You had a few variables to contend with, like lower smoke chamber temps, then compensate with higher foiled temps...tough call, and I'd have probably done it the same as you did. You have a good baseline to work from now, though. You may try checking them out earlier after foiling, or just trim 30-45 minutes off the foiled time...but, you already know that! LOL!!!

Like you said, someday you'll probably look back on this and giggle, but it's fun to learn what makes it all come together, too.

Who would have thought you could turn out such fine eats from such a simple smoker...great job!

Eric
 
looks good!

Eek!...guess I'm not moving to Japan anytime soon!!
It's a tradeoff.  No cider vinegar (it can be found at bigger markets) but the tiny little local market does carry sashimi-grade fish as a matter of course.  Still can be pretty frustrating.....
 
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