As promised, the evaluation of this weekends spare ribs experiment.
Photo=92s on my home server, so it might be a bit slow
http://creativeimpulse.xs4all.nl/photo/
username bbq_user
password bbq_user
I will keep the photo=92s there for about a week
saturday,
Picked up the spare ribs from the local butcher. He did not cut them
yet because he did not know how much meat I wanted on the ribs. The
ribs he had where whiteout the loin part, al the way down to the
sternum (sternum itself was not there, but still a tine bit cartilage
connected tot the end of the ribs. I took the whole part, which he cut
in two pieces (length of the ribs, about 10 to 15 cm). total weight, 2
kg.
sunday
at home, I cut of some fat so I had 1700 gr left.
I carefully read all your advise from my last post. Since I used fresh
garlic, a dry rub seemed difficult. Some suggested mustard as some
kind of glue. I decided to ad olive oil to make a paste out of the
ingredients.
Paste:
1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons paprika powder
6 pieces of garlic (picture showing only 5)
olive oil to make a paste
put the paste on the ribs, and left it for one hour in plastic foil.
Did not put it back in the fridge to let the meat come to room
temperature
my smoker uses wood only. Target temperature in the cooker 100 to 120
C.
for the meat temperature, I had no Idea. I went for the wiggle and
pull rib to check if the meat is done. I started at 13:00 expecting a
smoking time of 4 to 6 hours I did stick a digital thermometer in the
meat to check the readings without opening the lid (remembering your
warnings about peeking)
cooker temp
13:00 100
13:15 100
13:30 110
13:45 110
14:00 110
14:15 120
14:30 100
14:45 140
15:00 125
15:15 110
15:30 100
15:45 110
16:00 120
16:15 100
16:30 130
16:45 120
17:00 140
17:15 140
17:30 130
17:45 120
18:00 100
18:15 100
18:30 100
Time Meat int.
13:00 15
13:15 20
13:30 42
13:45 50
14:00 57
14:15 61
14:30 65
14:45 66
15:00 71
15:15 72
15:30 70
15:45 68
16:00 71
16:15 71
16:30 73
16:45 79
17:00 81
17:15 85
17:30 87
17:45 86
18:00 84
18:15 80
18:30 80
looking at those reading, there where some ups and downs but is seems
that around the 70 C. it had trouble getting hotter
I got a bit worried, because I did not see the meat pull back but
decided after 5 hour to feed the family. Since I had two pieces, I
decided to put a glaze on one of theme.
Glaze
=BD cup of brown sugar
=BD cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worchester sauce
1 tablespoon dion mustard
2 tablespoons of honey
took the ribs out after 51/2 hours.
The ribs part 1 (closed to the loin) was dark, but not burned
It had a nice ****ny color due to the glaze
The ribs where moist
Although the meat did not pull back from the bone much, you did not
have to pull the meat off the bones, the almost fall of the bone.
The ribs close to the sternum where a disappointment.
The meat was done, but chewy in one of the last pictures you can see
that one of the ribs had a =93joint=94 part and there was a lot of
cartilage. I always thought a rib is a rib. I never thought there was
so much difference between the loin part, the =93middle part=94 and the
sternum part. I now know to stick with the middle part if I want to
smoke ribs.
Improvements for next time:
Get only the good spare ribs
There was not much garlic taste, baste with garlic and oil to keep a
garlic taste (not to keep them moist, they come out moist without
basting this time)
Easy on the glaze. It had a nice taste, but can overpower the taste of
the meat
The wood I used was dry oak, no fresh wood. No heave smoke. I will not
change this. After 5 =BD hours they had a nice flavor. No need for lots
of smoke when you burn only wood
Questions to the group:
When you take a look at the pictures, did the butcher do a good job? I
asked for a st louis cut.
Do you have suggestions on the cartilage part. I think you refer to it
as the skirt and costal ribs. I don=92t remember reading about it in the
past being chewy and lots of cartilage?
Well, it turned out to be a long post, I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Conclusion: Yes you can have good spare ribs in the Netherlands
Adriaan
the Netherlands
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