Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Now summer is approaching what is everyone smoking

Tonight I'm smoking beef ribs for the first time. My first thought is "where have you been all my life ?"

These are the brontosaurus ribs I remember seeing on the Flintstones as a kid. Half the price of pork spareribs, which in turn are half the price of baby back ribs, and at first glance they seem to be extremely good cuts of meat. Obviously a lot of that weight is bone, but 7 ribs / 4 pounds is my idea of a barbeque !!

It's turning out to be surprisingly easy to get a 6 hour burn on a single basket of coals using the "Minion Method". Best practice so far seems to be a Weber basket of tightly packed lump with a dozen or so lit briquettes on top plus a couple of chunks of smoke wood. Lid temperature has been solid at 250F for a couple of hours now.

OK, so the beef ribs were a disappointment. The cook itself went well (6-1/2 hours or so) but there was essentially no meat on the ribs, just fat. I put enough rub on for meaty ribs, so the few little scraps of meat were way too salty.

Oh well.

Did a practice cook of some pork spareribs this afternoon trying out a new technique for long cooks on the Weber -- alternating between the two baskets so I can do top-down burns and run for 3-6 hours unattended instead of adding a few lumps of charcoal every hour.

Some people are getting 12-13 hour burns on a single load of charcoal by filling up one whole side of the bbq and doing a top down burn with that, but if all the coals light (it happens) you go from 250 to 400F in a flash and there's not much to be done other than shut all the vents and hope it goes out soon.

The spares worked out great -- certainly the best ribs I have ever cooked -- and now I'm 1/2 hour into my first smoked brisket. Roughly 8 pounds after trimming, covered in BRITU rub and sitting awkwardly in a foil pan two sizes too small 'cause everything I read says you gotta use a foil pan if you don't have a water smoker or offset smoker.

The pan is supposed to prevent shrinkage, but if the brisket doesn't shrink a lot it ain't gonna fit in the pan.

Fingers crossed. Time to check the temps then get my first hour or two of sleep.

Beef ribs are hard. I've had the same experience as you once, charcoalized another set, and I think I've managed to do them properly once. I'm still learning my new grill, so I'm not going to try them again just yet... especially considering how well my father in law does them.

Interesting. I initially assumed the problem was technique (or lack thereof) but I couldn't explain how cooking technique could explain what I was seeing. The beef ribs I cooked were nothing but fat with occasional bits of very tasty (but salty) meat.

Sounds like overcooking is something to watch out for with beef ribs ?

It might be worth finding out where your father in law buys his meat.

Near Santa Maria. ;-) And some of the ribs I did were bought by him...

You guys have inspired me. I've decided it is time to make ribs for the first time this season. I don't smoke them, but they are the only food I make that I can say the way they are done is the best I have ever had.

I make my own BBQ sauce first. That is simmering as I type this. Then I will take four lbs of baby backs and marinade them, wrap them in foil, and put them in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow they go in the oven at a low temp for 2-2.5 hrs, then they come out and go on the grill for a couple of minutes per side. They just fall right off the bone...soooo good.

I won't even mind how unhealthy they are, since my wife wants to just make a big fruit salad for dinner tonight. Tonight's healthiness will balance out the yummy ribs tomorrow night!

Getting slightly off topic (is grilling ok here?), one of my favorite things to grill is artichokes. Here's the recipe I use.

Corn is also killer on the grill.

Do you grill the corn in the cob, wrap it in foil, add salt/butter in the foil?

I've had mixed success with corn, but I did buy corn on the cob to go with the ribs tomorrow night, so if someone has a good way to do corn on the grill I'll give it another shot.

I get corn with the whole husk on. Peel back (not off!) the husk, cover the corn with butter, and replace the husk. Tie the tops of the husk together weith twine so the don't peel back. Soak them in a pan of water for about 30 minutes. Grill on the main rack of the grill. Grill for awhile. (10-20 minutes?) I usually just take them off when everything else is done. The husks shouldn't catch fire, but the ends will blacken and smoke nicely.

This has never failed me (famous last words...)