# First ever ABTs, first ever pork cheek, plus ribs (qview)



## isho21 (Nov 2, 2011)

Wow, can't believe I'd never even heard of ABTs before, but as soon as I saw them on these forums, I had to try them!

What to do with a wednesday holiday?  Fire up the ECB!  Just got it a couple of weeks back and the first attempt at using it was not successful.  This time I had all day to smoke so I fired up a couple of racks of baby backs, a pork neck and some ABTs.  Kind of went crazy and also smoked a piece of cheese and some salt!

First off, some homemade rub.  This is the Texas Dry Rub from Weber's Big Book of Grilling, but tweaked to cut down on the chili pepper (used 1/4 of what the recipe calls for) and liked it much better.








Next up I rigged the ECB with the probe through a potato sitting on the grill.  Turns out my probe isn't that good for air temperature, as it was reading very low, when I double checked with the other probes, it was running about 50-60* low.







Two other thermometers confirmed this temp, so we were ready to go.  I will say though, that the remote was perfectly in sync when inserted into meat, so... now I know.







Prepped the ABTs with garlic cream cheese dip and then seasoned it up with spices.  Also note the aluminum foil with a chunk of Capitas con Loroco cheese, and another foil with some regular kitchen salt.







Used a local Salvadorean cheese (Capitas con Loroco) which i shredded and folded into the cream cheese prep.  This made it pretty thick, not sure about that next time.  But the flavor was awesome.  The cheese has pieces of Loroco flowers in it which gave it a nice textural contrast, too.







Done! About 2 hrs in the ECB.  Check out the color on the cheese and salt!!!







Biting into my first ever ABT, and there will be many more in years to come... Also, I realized next time I need a ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce.







About 6hrs in, the first rack of baby backs came out.  They were excellent.  About an hour later, took off this second rack.  This one was a disaster.  While it was cooked well, it was most certainly NOT the same cut of ribs, this had big white cartilage-like connectors between the ribs themselves, never pulled off the bone while cooking, and was impossible to eat.  Never buying that kind again....good thing I had that other rack that was beautiful.  The pork neck is in foil by this time (in background).







After 8hrs, the neck hit 204.6* and i took it out.  It's now sitting in the oven (turned off) and wrapped in multiple kitchen towels, going to let it rest for a couple of hours.  Didn't sneak a peek (though I really wanted to!) but I read it's a good idea to wrap it some more and let it rest first.  I'm sure it's going to be ridiculously tender since the thermometer went right in....like butter.  Will post again when I open that bad boy up!


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## SmokinAl (Nov 3, 2011)

Great looking Q!


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## ptcruiserguy (Nov 3, 2011)

I have run into those ribs before. When I do I try to trim them up and then cut up the cartilage and smoke them longer.

Kinda making what I always call Rib tips.

But everything does look good. Gotta love them ABT's.

Mike


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## mballi3011 (Nov 3, 2011)

Now it is really hard to beat the ABT's. I really like the ribs too.


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## isho21 (Nov 3, 2011)

I think i realized....its not called a pork "neck" (poor translation) but rather, a pork cheek. Thanks for the views and comments!!!


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## realtorterry (Nov 3, 2011)

looks like a good day was had


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## bigfish98 (Nov 3, 2011)

Now that's a good wednesay!

Bigfish


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## isho21 (Nov 3, 2011)

Totally.  Kind of strange when a holiday lands on a wednesday (I'll take it, don't get me wrong...) but it was a great day for Q.


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## isho21 (Nov 3, 2011)

The final product!


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## hdflame (Nov 21, 2011)

Looks good.  How was the salt?  Think I'll try some salt too.


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## isho21 (Nov 26, 2011)

hdflame said:


> Looks good.  How was the salt?  Think I'll try some salt too.



Salt was nice, put it on some scrambled eggs the next day and it was delightful.


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## owlcreeksmoker4 (Nov 27, 2011)

My only thing is i could never ruin the flavor of my ABT's with dipping sauce lol. But an excellent Q thank you for sharing.


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