Totally Naked Spare Ribs - No Rub or Sauce or Wrap

[Gimmethecash]

Originally Posted by 4ever3

I think folks get a little crazy with rubs and injections and “hanging meat” and this and that blah blah blah... Oh and “layering” rubs like it’s gonna hit yer taste buds at different times...

The beauty (to me) is cooking good meat and letting it stand on its own...


Rub, inject, layer, hang (upside down or right side up) all you want, but sometimes ya just need to smoke some neked meat...

Amen, brother!

[Kack]

Originally Posted by Gimmethecash

Amen, brother!

It really is ridiculous how much poking and prodding happens on here. Mustard for a rub holder, layered rubs, margarine in foil, mops, basting, all kinds of mixes and sauces. By the time you guys are done you've made a $9 rack of ribs cost $25.

Charcoal and Cherrywood are really all you need for a good rib. If you like a little bit of tang to it, sprinkle it with a little malt vin and salt.

Start fire, get temp between 200 and 300, insert ribs, come back in 4 hrs.

[HankB]

Originally Posted by AKMIMNAK

Just Meat & Smoke!

I've done that too. I wanted to try some different rubs so I halved some back ribs and put different rubs on each. I left one w/out rub as a sort of control. I was astonished by how good the naked one was. My take away from that was that I need to make sure that my rubs complement the flavor of the meat as smoked and not try to overpower it.

I also did what I called "smoking wood tests." I had accumulated a variety of smoking woods including maple (box elder, actually) oak, hickory, black walnut, cherry, crab apple, mulberry and probably a couple others I'm forgetting. I performed a bunch of cooks in a small (18") kettle using one wood and a variety of meats including pork, chicken, fish and beef to see what kind of flavor the various woods imparted. It was interesting and worth doing. Of course I used no other seasonings because I wanted to see what the smoke provided.

[Hopweaver]

I have been wondering if it would be better wait until the end of the cook to add the rub (aka. salt) since salt pulls moisture from the meat.

[BillN]

There is something about the simplicity of fire and meat. Also I have seen where meat is fire roasted and occasionally basted/spritzed with seawater for flavor.

[W.I.T.W.A.G?]

back to basics! Awesome! This reminds me that I have to some S&P ribs this weekend for sure. The color on those is really nice too.

[AKMIMNAK]

Awesome feedback, guys! Thank you!

Don't get me wrong, I do like to rub and sauce my ribs too, I just wanted to try the meat and smoke thing and see what happened. It blew my socks off.

The testing different woods in a controlled setting has me intrigued. Love to see the results on that. Love to do it myself if I had access to more hardwood sticks.

[HankB]

Originally Posted by AKMIMNAK

The testing different woods in a controlled setting has me intrigued. Love to see the results on that. Love to do it myself if I had access to more hardwood sticks.

Too bad I didn't transcribe my notes somewhere I could find them today. <sigh> But the high points were

• Hickory is pretty strong, but good for Pork.
• Cherry tastes like cherry!

As far as running your own experiment... Last time I was in MN I saw lots of trees. Watch Craigslist (free stuff.) Whenever you hear a chainsaw in the neighborhood, check out what they're cutting. I've gotten crabapple, maple and cherry this way. If you're not a scrounger/cheapskate like me, check out the big box stores and Amazon for smoking wood. In general anything with nuts or fruit is good. Add maple to that list. Surely you have these around you.

[Mikhail]

My favorite local q joint does dry St Louis ribs. They are fantastic.

[jdtTX]

Originally Posted by BillN

There is something about the simplicity of fire and meat. Also I have seen where meat is fire roasted and occasionally basted/spritzed with seawater for flavor.

Salmuera! That's Argentine.. Basically baste with brine.

[sleebus.jones]

Originally Posted by HankB

Whenever you hear a chainsaw in the neighborhood, check out what they're cutting.

You also get every lawn chemical they applied in your smoke as a bonus! No thanks.

[HankB]

Originally Posted by sleebus.jones

You also get every lawn chemical they applied in your smoke as a bonus! No thanks.

Where do you get this?

[sleebus.jones]

Originally Posted by HankB

Where do you get this?

Atrazine, (which is what is in Scott's weed 'n feed) is one of those things that gets sucked up into the tree and doesn't go away for a very long time. It is a very common weedkiller. Any other pesticide that is put down gets sucked up into the tree. Systemic pesticides are designed to get sucked up into the tree and kill whatever bugs are chewing on the tree.

The problem with getting wood from residential areas is you can never be quite sure of what has gone down on the grass in the past. If it doesn't bother you, that's fine. Maybe I'm a bit weird but it's not worth it for me!

[Rocky Branch BBQ]

Great color!!!

[HankB]

Originally Posted by sleebus.jones

Atrazine, (which is what is in Scott's weed 'n feed) is one of those things that gets sucked up into the tree and doesn't go away for a very long time. ...
The problem with getting wood from residential areas is you can never be quite sure of what has gone down on the grass in the past.

(Thought I had replied to this but must have forgot to hit 'submit.')
Thanks for expanding on that.

It makes me wonder about the source for any of the wood we get. At least the wood I collect on my property hasn't had any pesticides/herbicides applied in over 30 years.

Edit: Nasty stuff when burned too. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/com...ullscreen=true