jeffshoaf

I've been lucky finding really meaty ribs lately, so I've been going simple: salt, pepper, and garlic powder smoked low and slow with the heat deflector and drip pan at 225 for 4 hours or so. I do my jerky in a dehydrator. The last few batches came out really good after marinating in honey, cayenne, and fennel seeds. Gotta water down the honey so it's thin and soaks in.

Simple rub (salt, pepper, garlic powder), 4.5 hours at 225 degrees with Apple wood chunks. The spare ribs were pretty and tasty. In fact, they were pretty tasty!

Check out the Instant Pot too - 2 pressure settings, 7 functions.

I'm a big proponent of pressure cooking, especially during the work week when I don't have a lot of time to cook. I used a modern stove top cooker for a couple of years, but got an Instant Pot appliance recently. It's touted as a 7 in one cooker - pressure, slow, rice, steamer, saute, yogurt, and one more that I can't remember. I've used it for pressure and slow cooking, and the saute mode for browning meat prior to pressure or slow cooking. It's really nice to come home from work, dump in some dried beans, a bit of pork, spices and water and have a nice pot of beans in 25 minutes - less if I planned ahead and had the beans soaking.

As long as the fire wasn't started by someone trying out your kk...

I've had good luck lately just distributing the wood chunks thru the charcoal, but I've seen temperature fluctuations as the large chunks catch fire. That has got me wondering if soaking the chunks might help - I know it won't make the chunks produce more smoked, but it might help delay the wood from starting to smoke during preheat and/or help delay ignition.

I do count hotboxing as storage and have used it for both butts and ribs - it's just short-term storage! I have a small cooler that is just the right size for two butts with two towels.

I generally go simple since I had a few experiments fail due to rubs and sauces overpowering the meat. My last few rib cooks just used salt, pepper, and garlic powder, slow cooked with heart deflector and drip pan over charcoal and some hickory and Apple wood, 225 - 250 for 4 or 5 hours. I didn't even monitor the meat temp this round. Foil is for storing, not cooking! I usually make my own sauce based on tomatoes, honey, and molasses, but I was otherwise occupied and dipped these in Bone Sucking Sauce from the grocery store. Very happy (and full) with the results.

Baby backs get all the love; can we spare some for a rack of mighty tasty spare ribs?

It's to hold the thermometer to the lip of a pot. It will hold your thermometer to your kk, but a lot of us don't so we can't easily remove the thermometer when doing high temp cooks. Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Just a bit too well done, but tasty nonetheless.

Paper towel holders and trash cans! Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk

I guess we need to define "a lot"! A butt will cover the bottom of the drip pan to a substantial fraction of an inch - I'd consider that "a lot", but a couple of small racks of babybacks will just leave a couple of puddles on the diffuser - not what I'd call "a lot".

Yep - indirect, no drop pan. I typically only use a drip pan if I'm expecting a lot of drippage.

Looks like my local grocery chain has switched suppliers of babybacks and the new ones are some of the meatiest ribs I've ever had. They were on sale this week, so I fixed a small rack for myself and another for my mother Groundhog Day eve. I over-spiced the last batch of babybacks I cooked, so went simple with this round: Just salt and pepper with a couple of chunks of apple wood and a handful of hicory chips. 4 hours at 240 or so - nice and tender, but not "fall of the bone". I had intended on letting them go another hour, but my stomach was growling...

But she's didn't say I'd be invited to the parties and gatherings!

After having babyback ribs and seeing pictures of other things I've cooked on my KK, a friend said that I will be cooking all meats for any parties or other gatherings she has in the future...

I'm in King, NC - that's just north of Winston-Salem - and have a new 23" KK I can show off. PM me to make arrangements.

This worked well with 15lbs. Of pork butt - thanks again! Sorry, no pics. I had 'em all wrapped up and in the cooler before I even thought of taking any. Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk

They don't have shuns, but they have some very high-end knives that are supposed to be superior to Shuns and are priced accordingly, as well as plenty of less expensive knives that are a good intro to Japanese knives. Quick delivery from Japan as well - mine arrived around a week after ordering - with reasonable shipping rates.

I ordered a couple of relatively cheap knives from Japanesechefsknife.com that I liked, them got a Shun set on clearance. I think the blades on the cheap knives are just s nice as the Shuns, but the fit and finish of the handles on the Shuns is tons better. Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk

Great - thanks everybody!

I've read several mentions here of holding smoked butts and other larger cuts of meat for hours after it's finished cooking by wrapping in foil and towels and sticking in a cooler. I'll probably have a need for this technique this weekend, but I haven't been able to find details on this (searching for "cooler" didn't help a whole lot). So... Is it as simple as removing the meat, wrapping tightly with foil, then wrapping with towels, and then sticking it in a cooler? Don't the juices run out of the foil and foul the towels, creating a soggy mess? I haven't got the meat yet and may fall back to turkey or chickens instead of a butt or beef roast. Does the same technique work for the fowl as well? TIA!