Thursday, 14 June 2007

Hmmmmmm…. Ribs done low and slow

Ribs need to be trimmed, see here, before you can lovingly apply your favourite/secret rub to them.









I've used some Iced Tea rub on these, but a rub is fairly simple to make, just blend a few of dried spices and herbs together, rub the mixture onto the ribs.










Use a "foodsaver" bag (one that seals) to place the ribs in, and refrigerate overnight.


Get the charcoal going and place the water pan in position as in the pictures above .

Remove the ribs from the fridge about an hour before you want to cook them, this will ensure that they are at room temperature, which will allow the smoke to penetrate the meat more easily. Baste the ribs, a simple sauce can be made by using Coke (not the snorting kind!), tomato sauce/ ketchup, honey and whatever herbs and spices you like.










If you have one, use a rib rack, this will enable you to fit more ribs on your Q and allows the smoke to get to all parts of the meat.
The cook should take at least 5 hours, so make sure you are using a full load of good quality charcoal briquettes and keep the smoker temperature between 200-250°F.

I used a ProQ Frontier Water Smoker for this batch of ribs.

Add wood chips or chunks to the fire to create smoke, this should be done for the first 2 hours. I used Hickory wood chunks for this rack.











You will need to baste the ribs every hour.
After 3 hours, remove the ribs from the smoker and place them on some heavy duty tin foil, baste heavily with the sauce, wrap the tinfoil around them, making sure there are no holes in the foil. Put the parcel back on the smoker for another 2 hours, keeping the temperature at 200 °F (there's no point putting any wood on the fire at this stage).

















After 5 hours total cooking time, remove the foil, baste for a final time, drop one of the grills onto the fire (as per the picture above)bowl brackets and quickly sear the ribs on either side for 30 seconds, caramelising the sauce.

The Ribs should by now look something like they do in the pictures below, but be warned…. They won't look like that for long!












Enjoy!

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Smoked Foods

There are 2 types of smoking, Hot and Cold. These processes are 2 completely different methods for preparing food. Hot smoking cooks the food, whilst Cold smoking is a part of the process designed to cure food that will, in most cases, be cooked at a later stage. No one can be sure of when it all started, but it was probably discovered, by accident, sometime during the Stone Age. In the case of Hot Smoking, you can imagine a group of hunters bringing meat back to their cave and hanging it above the fire they used for warmth. Cold Smoking/ Curing may have been discovered in this manner... picture freshly caught sea fish, being filleted on site and then left to soak in a rock pool for a few hours, before being returned to the cave where it was hung further away from the fire, possibly nearer to the roof, where the smoke gathered. In both scenarios, man might have been pleased with the resulting flavour (he may even have been given a hearty smack on the back, known as a pat, from the people sharing the meal, to show their approval). He may have also noticed, in the case of the fish, that the food lasted a lot longer, without spoiling. As with most men, he more than likely got impatient, whilst waiting for his meal and ended up by first moving the meat closer to the fire (Barbecuing) and finally, by throwing meat directly onto the fire (Grilling).