The BBQ thread

When 'ribs' is a verb for you, you are a serious barbecue person.

 

I ribs good:


Fresh off the smoker. Serving w/sweet potato fries and bacon green beans.
Healthy!

 

Apropos of nothing in particular except a triggered memory:

When I was in my last year of x-ray school, doing clinicals, we worked at the hospital four days a week and did one day of classes. The class behind us had just begun doing their rotation, and I had two brand new student techs following me around like baby ducks. I was working with my favorite tech, who was very good, very fast, very professional. We caught a patient who had come through the ER. The guy had a bad break to his forearm, a compound fracture which the EMT's had supported with a wire basket splint and a sling. One ear was torn nearly off, hanging off his head by the bottom third of the ear tissue. He was singed all over, missing eyebrows, eyelashes, some hair.

I took one look, told the newbies to stand over in the corner, watch, and stay out of the way. They did, saucer-eyed. The girl I was working with glanced at me and said, "This is a bad one. We're going to hammer this out really quick and get him out of here, he's shocky". So I focused hard and was as quick and deft as I could be, trying to anticipate her and have anything she needed to hand before she asked, developed the film fast, that kind of thing.

I asked the guy what happened to him, and he says, "Well, bossman told me to take some 55 gallon drums and cut the tops off to make trash cans, and I cut into one that was full of fumes and it blew up on me." The metal disc that formed the top had blown right past his head, tearing the ear off. Another part of the barrel had hit his arm, which had multiple breaks of both bones in the forearm.

I had to wonder just how dumb you had to be to take a torch to an oil drum without checking it first, but I guess it's the kind of moment of inattention which could happen to anyone.

 

Wonder how many people were in line.

 

Only 240 or so at that time of morning.

 

I just got finished doing some improvements to my offset Brinkmann, using high-temp caulk to seal up the juncture of the firebox and pit, and felt caulk around the doors.

The difference was amazing. I used to have to babysit fairly closely, but on Friday I smoked up some pork belly "burnt ends" and a bone-in pork shoulder roast, and it was pretty much set it and forget it.

I used rub on both, and injected the shoulder with a mixture of phosphates, apple juice and some of the rub. The best results I've ever had from a smoke. When the shoulder was in the middle of the stall, I wrapped it in pink butcher paper instead of foil, which helped get it through the stall but wasn't air-tight, so the texture of the bark was top-notch.

One product I recommend highly: The Weber iGrill, with up to three temperature probes, plus one that monitors the ambient temperature of the pit. It has an app for your phone, which displays the temps and charts the entire cook, so you can sit inside and get a complete report up to the minute on your food.

 

Beautiful weather in Chicago today, I don’t have any plans, so I’m gonna ribs.

Got a 3.6 pound back rack. Used Carolina Gold sauce for the adhesive and mixed a bowl of Stubb’s rub and brown sugar for the rub. Going with apple-based mop/spritz today. Last couple times I used cherry Dr. Pepper and bourbon.

How do you guys post photos here? I can share when done.

 

Probably easier way, but this site doesn't load well on my phone. So, I take picture on phone, email to self, copy from email, paste into message.

 

Cool. They’re out there smoking right now. Probably slipped too much sauce on to begin, so the bark will take a while.

 

Was in Chicago a couple of weeks back and did a little side trip to a grocery store to check local sauce options. Found the Lillies BBQ brand.

Got a couple of each, was most impressed with the Carolina and Gold. Nice change from my usual tomato based sauce. Going to use it on my next batch of pulled pork.