I bought 3 full slabs of spares at Wally World, weight in the 3.5 lb range. Trimmed them to St. Louis style and they ended up weighing 2.5, 2.5 and 2.25 lb. Rubbed one with CS Spicey Chicken, one with CS Rib Rub and one with my own rub,(marked each so I'd know which was which) put them in plastic bags and into the fridge overnight. This morning, I re-rubbed them (actually just sprinkled on the rub) this morning and put them in my CS 55 (ribs and CS 55 were both cold) and smoked them at 225 dgs. Used 4 oz hickory and one charcoal bricquet. Cooked them 4 hours, removed and wrapped and put in an ice chest. Sampled after 1 hour. Very good. Brushed a little sauce on one batch and re-wrapped and put back in ice chest. Sampled after 3 hours, better. Wife and grandson loved them. They were nice and tender, but not "falling off the bone". They cut perfectly. Spicey chicken was fairly spicey, which we like, but it may be a little too hot for some. I liked both other rubs, too. I think I'll try one rubbing of Spicey Chicken and the second with my rub.
I had not cooked anything in my CS 55 for a long time, but ran across the forum and decided I'd learned some new things to try. I really liked the results and am looking forward to another cook. Appreciate all the good information I gathered the last couple days here.
