Grilling, Smoking, BBQ, etc. WAYCT (What Are You Cooking Today) Outdoor Edition
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@Brodie those look legit. Were they like a brat or a hot link in terms of flavor?
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@SourPower Thanks!
They were more of a hot link. Just salt, pepper, and cayenne for seasoning...super basic.
It was more of a proof of concept cook for me, but now I'm ready to conquer the world. Jalapeño and cheddar is the plan for my next attempt. I've been wanting to try that out, and it's also been highly requested by the wife. Looking forward to giving it a go for our next big family get together.
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@Brodie Making sausage is a blast and yours look great! I have a 5 pound sausage stuffer that makes light work of a batch of sausage. There's a book called Charcuterie that has tons of classic sausage recipes in it. Highly recommended.
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@seawolf Awesome, thanks for the rec on the book...I'll definitely have to take a look.
I also have a brand new shiny 5lb stuffer that I used. Although I wouldn't call it "light work" for me yesterday...I was verrrry slow my first time out. Just figuring it out, and also worrying about busting a casing had me crawling along during the process.
Definitely felt more confident in it after about 4 pounds in, so next time should be much quicker. Just another excuse to break it out again soon, and get some more reps in
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Some ribs for dinner
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@Jett129 St Louis pork ribs from costco. I use a pellet smoker, and cook until you get the amount of pull you want on the bone. Ive played around with different methods. I pat ribs dry and do a mustard binder. Then season with what you want. Currently I just have a pork rib I was gifted that I've been using and add black pepper and brown sugar. But I recommend some kind of seasoning with at least salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika. After I heavily apply that I cover it in brown sugar. Smoke at 225 for the most part. Usually around 6 hours give or take on how you like it and how you do it. Last 20 min or so I brush on a mix of bbq sauce and something sweet (this time it was apricot jam in the mix). Then let rest a little bit. I like my ribs not completely fall off the bone, but done enough to pull a bone out wihour much effort. If I don't wrap it at all I spritz it give or take every hour with some apple cider vinegar and whatever else on hand (this time it was an orange soda Poppi, but I do the vinegar with apple juice if I have it). If I wrap the ribs I don't spritz, doing a variation of the 3-2-1 method (3 hours un covered, 2 hours wrapped in butcher paper, 1 hour unwrapped---but that leads to not much pull off the bone, so I do more like 3, 2.5, 45min give or take, and when I wrap it i put some thin slabs of butter on it and sometimes more brown sugar). The pic above I didn't wrap and spritzed as it went after the first 2 hours. I also went up to 250-275 after 3-4 hours this time.
Many ways to do it, but highly recommend the brown sugar, and spritz if you don't wrap, butter if you do wrap, and something sweet mixed with your sauce. And 225 is a good starting temp. Play around with the temp the more you do it, but I'd do a that for at least first 2 hours anyway you do it. I just bend it with tongs to see the doneness. Hope your rib adventures go well.
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@wjw This is fantastic. Thank you so much. I have 3 racks of St. Louis ribs from Costco in my freezer,just waiting for me. I feel like when you bite into a rib you should leave a bite mark. If your meat is falling off the bone then you’ve probably overcooked them. I generally use a mustard binder and a rib/pork rub that contains most ,if not all the spices you mentioned. I’ve never wrapped ribs before,but you have me intrigued to try. I usually spray with a 50/50 mix of apple juice and water,as I don’t really like vinegar on my BBQ,but I’m willing to try that as well. I cook with a PK 360,which enables me to use indirect heat. I use a combination of hickory and apple wood for smoke. I keep a drip pan with water and bourbon underneath them. If you scroll back a bit there’s some pictures from a pork butt I recently made. My cooking surface is small so if I want to make more than one rack I have to use a rib rack which makes it hard to sauce it in the end. Ribs are my favorite BBQ food,and I’ve occasionally made very good ones but never great,and sometimes they’re just not that good. I will be re-reading your post many times over the summer,and will report back. Really appreciate it!
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@Jett129 what you spritz with or season with doesn't really matter, but I do really recommend a liberal coating of brown sugar after you rub it down with your other stuff. (I also never taste the vinegar from spritz). The spritz is really just for moisture. Lots of other stuff I smoke I use a drip pan with whatever liquid too, but I feel like with spritz or wrapping not necessary for ribs. And if you put drip pan directly under what you are smoking really changes how it cooks compared to having it offset. Try the 3-2-1 method to see if you like it. That gets a lot of bite on the bone "competition" style ribs, I just like my bone to pull off a little easy without being fall of the bone...somewhere in-between. Saucing isn't a must either, but if you do sauce it, I recommend having it in the smoker for around 20 min or so to let it stick on and be that tacky kind of coating rather than just sauce. And I'm a big fan of sweet sauce for pork. Could always pull it out to sauce as well.
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The mean reason to spritz your ribs in my experience is to get a better smoke flavor and coulor. The smoke sticks easier on the wet surface of the rib. Next to that, It'll also raise the humidity of the inside of the bbq wich will help with keeping the moisture of the ribs optimal, but this can also be done by adding a water pan to the bbq. You can even combine it with a drip pan and catch the grease. furtermore, a water pan can contain much more water at one time, wich will help auto-regulate the humidity. Every time you open your lid to spritz, you loose all the hot air / smoke and humidity, just to start over. Using a water pan can realy help for people with Kettle and gas bbq's, as they require more airflow due to less heat retention.
I can talk ribs for hours, so if you have any more specific questions, just ask
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Really great,incredibly informative,can’t wait to get started. Thank you. @scarfmace @wjw
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@SFMCfranky Webers are amazing cookers. I used to use one of these to do low and slow on mine and got great results: https://www.smokenator.com/
It turns it into a water smoker.
The main reason to spray IMO is that it cools off the meat so that the bark can develop and the collagen can melt down without overcooking the meat. I don’t like opening the cooker and changing the temperature so a water cooker or a sealed cooker like a kamado to me obviates the need to do so.
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I also don’t like opening it. With pork or chicken I always use indirect heat with a pan of water under the rack and a large chunk of soaked hickory on the coals. My Weber has a built in thermometer. So I can easily monitor the heat.
Cheers
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Yep exactly if you’re lookin it ain’t cookin. If you can control the temperature and humidity in the cooker and monitor that, I’ve found better results, faster cooking, and more freedom during the cook to run errands, entertain guests, watch sports, and/or drink beer.
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Pork butt from the other day
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that's awsome! going for pulled pork of sliced? Also your BBQ is begging you to size up your meat
