Pork Loin Back Ribs (with Pr0n)

The rest of the family is gone this weekend, at the out-laws. Doesn't mean I can't do some bbq, just may scale it back. So I picked up a rack of ribs, and a ring of sausage. Since it's not much food (relatively speaking) and the cook won't take long, figured I'd use the kettle instead of the WSM.

That's ribs allright

Here's the rack, right before I pulled the membrane (used my Thermopop and paper towels).


There's a snake in my kettle!

A fuel snake, that is. Stubbs charcoal with a few chunks of pecan. Wrapped half of the charcoal grate with foil and wedged in some more foil in the gaps. The idea is to direct the incoming air more to the lit fuel (learned that on here, you know).


Rub a dub dub

Used the last of my bottle of Meyers Elgin Smokehouse Texas BBQ rub. Pretty good stuff. You can see the rack of ribs is not exactly picturesque. The super meaty end is like a pork roast.


4:30 - on it goes

Well, there's my Weber kettle in an "action shot". Thermo indicates about 250 to start out. After about 30 minutes I opened up the bottom vents so I could shoot for about 280 or so. Ended up not being a good move.


6:30 - halfway there

So you can see how it is all looking right before I put it in foil, spritzed it with apple juice / water, then wrapped it up. You can also see the lit fuel working its way along the snake, almost halfway around. Now, during the last hour the temps got up above 325, which is hotter than I wanted. Took a long time to bring the temps back down (by closing vents...).


8:00 - Out of the foil

So here you can see the ribs back out of the foil (I pulled them out at 7:30), and the sausage put on. Tried a quick bend test, and the rack split! Plus on some of those bones the meat has already pulled back WAY too far. Well, they're overcooked. Dabbed on some Sweet Baby Ray's sauce, and left them on for about 20 more minutes.


8:30 - Back indoors

So here is what we're working with. You can see the narrow end of the rack is separate, due to the earlier split. Bones way too visible on one end of the rack, barely visible at the other. Eh, what are you gonna do? When I started cutting the ribs the meat was pulling away too easily. Did get a few ribs that came off how I wanted. Not a disaster, just not going to win any comps.


Time to Eat

Here's the money shot of the plate (note to self: is that the best photography I can do?). The Holmes Pork/Venison sausage is my current favorite, and it did not disappoint. The potato salad is store-bought from HEB: it was only ok. But the ribs sure were tasty! For the most part the meat pulled away too easily, but a couple had a nice tug to them. Pork still plenty moist, rub and smoke very tasty but not overpowering. Ice cold Bud washed it down perfectly.


Verdict: delicious! If I had not let the temps to get so high, it would have been ever better.

Thanks all, for the support.

One more postscript: when you're holding a chimney of lit, transferring the little buggers to your weapon of choice, try and not do it BAREFOOT. Just.... don't do it.