Where to get the right ribs?

I know what you mean about no smoke ring, I was reading on the site and it said somthing about no smoke ring, but the link did not work, I was hopping Tom or smokin okie might enlighten us with the why on that?

well... i dunno... something about nitrates, nitrites, comes from burning wood, but we use so little wood in a CS that it doesn't do the smoke ring... sounds like that might be a good thing... but... then people said "put a charcoal briquette or piece of lump in with the wood"... so I did, and I think it imparts a little bit of smoke ring after all. Do it all the time now.

Mornin',ya'll.

Chappy ,it sounds like your ribs finished and did not dry out.

The CS does that well.

Our Sam's sells IBP loinbacks, usually, and
they are the brand of choice for many.

They also sell trimmed and untrimmed spares that are good.

It depends what you like to eat and how much prep you mind doing.

In Memphis there are some restaurants that do a dry rib.

The recipe section should have recipes for the Memphis style rub.

Try adding some more turbinado sugar to your rub and that should give you a little "barkier" exterior.

Don't baste or spray the ribs while cooking and that will dry them a little more.

Try cooking a slab at 200�,one at 225�,one at 250�.

Keep cooking until you have rendered all the fat.

Take careful notes.

Try a little more wood,if you are looking for more smoke flavor.

Finishing on a grill or broiler can also dry up the outside more.

If you were watching Memphis in May on the Food channel,they tend to like loinbacks.

You may see a team cook 18 slabs to have
enough of what they want to present.

MIM likes the meat to almost pull off the bone,while KCBS & FBA want it to bite cleanly from the bone.

woodburner is right on about the chemical reaction[smokering] that charred wood or charcoal can create in the surface of meat.

His solution works for many.Maybe just leave a piece of unburned wood from the last cook.

This tends to continue to about 140� and ceases.

You can always lay on more smoke,right up to the soot or creosote stage.

Now,if you are just hunting a chemical reaction to give you a pink ring,you can go straight to the chemicals involved and not mess with smoke at all.

I don't know that I'd fool with it on ribs,because you don't have much meat mass anyway.

Now,on your big hunks like butt,brisket,clods,rolls,etc.,folks have been rumored to add a little Tenderquick to their rubs, or even rub the surface down with some and rinse it off after a half hour.

Hope this gives you someplace to start.

Couple of responses.

Chappy, first of all, smoke ring does not define a well cooked piece of meat. That's just what we've all heard forever, BUT it's not been proven that it's a chemical reaction to the Nitrates carried in smoke. That's why it's now not "legal" in most cook-offs to judge the SR -- however, I haven't been at a table yet, where a notice, non-certified didn't say -- wow look at that ring... so perceptions are reality and that's fine. But because of how smoke rings are created, there are limited ways to get on in a CS:

Smoke Ring --- the real story

The pinkness you want in the ribs is cause by the nitrates "curing" the meat -- think of ham, that same color.

I agree with tom, I use IBP's all of the time.

The smoke won't make them "well browned" and you can always add more smoke for more smoke flavor. The temp of the cook is what browns them. It also may be from how the ribs were cooked that you're trying to copy.

We can certainly help you though it. Tom gave you a lot of good info.

Vernon
Vernon, if you see any broken links, don't hesitate to email more or make a post. Just put enough information, like a link to the post with the broken one, into a post/email and I'll fix it.

You can also do a search. Try "smoke ring" and enter Member 5 (that's me) and I got 57 results. Pretty talked about topic.

As ususal some great advice! I think I may have had some spare ribs, not the loinbacks Tom speaks of. The ones I have seen on TV at competitions are slighly smaller on one end than the other but seem to be consistanly about 6" wide and meaty.

I'm going back to Sam's to get some stuff for the weekend and I'll try a couple of racks this Friday, being sure they are lionbacks.

I did spritz the ribs with 2/3 apple juice and 1/3 oil to try to keep them moist. I don't think I'll do that again. As Tom said, the CS does that itself. A batch I did before came out better and I only opened the door once to check them at 5 hrs.

Maybe a 1/4 chunk of charcoal may be worth trying too.

One other question. As a newbie to this game, I love the CS. Why don't competition teams use it??

Thanks again...You guys rock!!

Next time I do spares, I'll add some photos to my Ribs 101 post:

Ribs 101

Friend of mine over at Virtual Webber has a page that will be of help:

Virtual Weber Rib Prep

You might have been seeing St.Louis cut spares on tv.

Spares will be longer,flatter,meatier,and usually thicker than loinbacks.

A lot of folks prefer them for personal dining.

Smokin's 101 and ChrisA's site show some good prep techniques.

The spares are essentially squared up and trimmed of cartilage, that you wouldn't want the judge getting.

The underside meat flap will be removed to cook more evenly and pesent nicely.

As to Cookshacks in competition,the different sanctioning bodies write rules that they feel maintain the tradition and embody the spirit of true barbecue.

Cookshack cookers had not been allowed, because the heat is provided by an electric element.

Gas is also not permitted.

The ABA is comprised of cooks from several of the organizations that hope to get the public much more involved and move bbq to a higher popularity level.

NASCAR would be an example.

Our own drbbq is on their board of directors,Cookshack is one of the original corporate sponsers,and Smokin' Okie will be cooking an ABA event in Brainerd,Mn.

Cookshack also did well at the ABA national contest last year.

They feel that" let most types of cookers compete and let the best cooks win".


American Barbecue Assoc.