What's everyone cooking this weekend (5/19/12)?

[LarryR]

Re: What's everyone cooking this weekend (5/19/12)?

Dennis and I are having some difficulties connecting on the video. He was going to try it on another computer today.

[EGGARY]

Re: What's everyone cooking this weekend (5/19/12)?

Eggary:

They were not soft and did not fall off the bone. But when you lifted the bone and bit into the rib and pulled away with your teeth, the meat just came cleanly off the bone, nice and tender, with lots of juices - ending up all over our faces and hands - definitely a multipe napkin ordeal for each rib!!! The way I found this technique was to watch a bunch of youtube videos on all kinds of grills because I spent a lot of time doing research on cooking ribs on ceramic grills on all my prior rib cooks and those results were lousy. The guy that got my attention the most was a fellow preparing a huge amount of ribs - like 125 racks. He obviously was a professional and was cooking on a big rig and was prepared to individually foil 125 racks for his event. He said the first stage of the cook would take between 2 and 3 hours at 250 deg and that the way to tell when to move to the second stage, which is foil, is to just look at them and see their color and how they're cooking. I thought this advice was meaningless, not offering me any standard, but I made the decision to cook them at 275 Tru Tel, which is probably around 250 main grate, at least for the early part of the cook, for 2 1/2 hours since I Ithought my ribs were on the larger size and I didn't trim them (on my prior cooks trimming the ribs made no difference - they were not good regardless). So I put them on when my grill was about 200 deg and then didn't touch it for 2 1/2 hours after my Tru Tell reached 275. When I opened the KK, I was astounded - they looked fantastic - browning beautifully and plump as can be with little bubbles of juices forming and dripping on the surface. I knew it was ready - just like he said - you'll know. This was a revelation. So I moved on to the foil stage for 1 hour and then the basting and turning. Can you tell I'm excited about this rib cook??? Next time, the only change I will make is to get them a little more charred on the final stage of the cook of basting and turning. I was afraid on this cook that any minute the ribs would turn hard and dry and tough like my prior cooks so I wanted to get them off as soon as reasonably possible while they were still so succulent, which you could tell by just probing them with a fork.

Ribs are on my mind, Baby Backs to be exact. When did you place the wood chunks ? Would the method be different for BBs ? Thank you.

[Loquitur]

Re: What's everyone cooking this weekend (5/19/12)?

Eggary:

I hesitate to answer this because I'm surely no expert having only made great ribs one time in my whole life. But if I were doing them based on my recent experience, I would think the first stage would be 1 1/2 - 2 hrs and start checking them after 1 1/2 hours since they are smaller than spares. Once they are browning and plump, I would move on to the foil and keep them in the foil for 30 - 40 minutes, since you don't prefer the meat too soft and falling off the bone. Then back on the grill without the foil to firm them up and set the sauce or rub, another half hour or 45 min. That's what I would try but I hope some of the rib experts who don't object to foiling will chime in here.

I use apple and/or cherry chunks for smoking, which are mild smoking woods and which don't seem to suffer from early acrid smoke as far as my taste buds can tell. So I put the chunks on right after I light the fire then load the grill with the food when my Tru Tel is between 150 and 200 degrees. But I don't start timing my cook until my Tru Tell gets to whatever temp I'm aiming for. I don't find ill effects from letting the food sit in the heavier smoke at these temps with apple and/or cherry chunks.

Please report back what you did and how it comes out - its so helpful to us!!

Susan