My first ribs & Introduction

Thanks for all the welcomes This forum is awesome!

cousinconley said:

Looks great. Welcome aboard! Nice to see another Okie.

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I live about 5 miles from ya.

Pyle's BBQ said:

Great looking ribs. Welcome from Iowa. If you haven't been there Cattle Call is where we usually do introductions. I think this will past muster in Q-Talk with pictures of your cook and pictures of your equipment.

Did I mention we like pictures.

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I'm sorry, I should of started this thread there in Cattle Call -- moderator(s), please feel free to move it if you want. Thanks!

Bacon said:

Welcome to the community from the Dallas metro. Ribs look great! How did they taste?

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They tasted wonderful! They were the best ribs I've ever eaten by far, however I have never been to a BBQ restaurant (or at least one that did *real* BBQ instead of microwaving prepackaged stuff.) I am going try Big Anthony's here in Tulsa this Sunday during the buffet special; I will sample a plateful of almost everything he smokes. (I hear Big Anthony's is one of the best here in Tulsa.) Also, I am not that far from Kansas City, MO--about 200 miles or so. I'd like to make a trip there to the hometown of this nation's most popular barbecue sauce, sometime with my boyfriend; we would want to go to the very best BBQ restaurant there but we have no idea where to go--recommendations very welcome.

Both sets of ribs were plenty smokey but not too smokey; they were not bitter (mostly thin blue smoke kissed these ribs)--smoked with pecan and apple (about 50 / 50). I used Chigger Creek wood chunks I bought from Hasty-Bake here in Tulsa, Oklahoma; I don't know if they are a good brand or not, but I imagine they are good because Hasty-Bake sells one of the very best lump charcoals (made by Ozark Oak).

Side note: I am lucky to have Hasty-Bake here (I just found out about them recently); they are based out of Tulsa and their lump charcoal is only $6.29 for 10 lb bag. I re-use my lump charcoal over and over and it burns clean, lasts a long time and is easy to snuff out with my airtight little Weber Smokey Joe kettle. (I just shake the small pieces through my homemade expanded metal grate that sits over the standard charcoal grate; then put the rest in my airtight charcoal storage container.)

The meat didn't have any bad foreign tastes in it such as lighter fluid, fish or chemicals. I don't use lighter fluid and started the lump charcoal with a chimney starter with 2 cotton balls soaked with 91% rubbing alcohol--cheaper than those little white Weber cubes and safer/cleaner than newspaper. (The hasty-bake lump is so efficient the entire chimney was full of red hot coals within like 5 minutes.) I never smoke or grill fish on my Smokey Joe / Mini WSM; so there is no chance for fish taste in my smokes. (I don't do sausages/dogs in it either.) I Learned this all--about lighter fluid, fish, etc.--from Harry Soo & what poor Lee Ann went through on the final episode of season 1 BBQ Pitmasters. Also, the other day I went to this mom & pop BBQ fast food here in Tulsa, and ordered their brisket sandwich; I was excited to try it--she told me they smoke it for 16 hours. Well it was dry and not salty enough in the middle; and worst of all, the bark tasted of petrol and fish--uh oh couple of BBQ no no's!

I enjoyed Mike Mill's Magic Dust rub on these ribs, even the cumin in it--I'd probably like them equally well with or without the cumin. After I smoked the ribs to temp, I threw them on a very hot grill to do a little Maillard reaction action; then I sauced them up and grilled a bit more to set the sauce. I don't know if this is or isn't the preferred way, it's just something I read about. Meathead's KC BBQ sauce tastes pretty darn good; the first set of ribs used his sauce exclusively, and the second set of ribs used a 50/50 mix of his sauce and KC Masterpiece. To be honest, I liked the sauce with just Meathead's recipe alone. The KC Masterpiece sauce is too sweet for me--I enjoy sweetness, but I don't like them to taste like candy (besides I am diabetic lol).

The texture was good; it was tender but not too tender. You could take a bite out of it and leave the curved bite mark in it without the meat falling off the bone. It wasn't too dry and it wasn't too moist. The bark was a little dry looking after they were done smoking because I didn't open up the smoker at all--okay I peeked a couple times lol--to spray them with apple juice or whatever. However, the dry bark soaked up the BBQ sauce, so it all worked out. Just beyond the bark it was still juicy and tender--not dry. (I didn't foil them--just smoked then briefly grilled/sauced.)

Oh, also it did taste of pork; the smoke, rub nor sauce masked it.

Well that's how they tasted--hope I described it well enough.

Btw, I just got into BBQ about 3 weeks ago. I used lighter fluid and briquettes when I was a kid and we all thought grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, to a crisp, directly over hot coals on a cheap $10 "BBQ" grill was BBQ Despite the improper terminology it was all good fun back then: to start a fire and cook over it in the backyard! I was always excited when my dad agreed to us having a "BBQ"!

Thanks again for all the welcomes !

cowgirl said:

Welcome from another Okie Jennifer!! :grin:

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Just visited your blog briefly and saw your whole hog cleaning & q'ing--all I can say is WOW you are HARD CORE! I think it's also awesome that you grow your own shrimp! I want to get into that! Shrimp is too darn expensive. Hrm now I am wondering what bbq'd/smoked shrimp would taste like--I normally grill it.

Mrsamman said:

Nice job, and welcome from a fellow Tulsan. Thanks for the tip on the lump, from Hasty Bake. Everything else is so expensive I would of thought the charcoal is too.
Scott

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Wow another Tulsan! COol!