Let's Talk BBQ
Tips, Tricks & Just Good Advice! => Burn it in the Back Yard with Hub! => Topic started by: Hub on February 09, 2016, 09:30:54 AM
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CAN YOU REALLY COOK WITHOUT A RECIPE?
Life has it ruts, and when it comes to cooking ribs I'll admit I tend to live in the rut I've perfected over the years and, most of the time, I'll stay in that comfortable rut because I know my ribs will come out the way I want them or at least pretty close. The problem is, I get to thinking there's no other way and that I MUST cook ribs per my habit or they will be a dismal failure :-X
For at least two weeks before this year's Super Bowl I knew I'd have to fix a huge batch of ribs and that I'd have minimum time available for both preparation and cooking. I lost sleep. I pondered several ways, even including pre-cooking and re-heating (not my favorite thing to do to ribs although it works okay on some other stuff). I agonized and sweated. Finally, I decided I had to crawl out of my rut and start thinking creatively. Duh :o
Fact of life: I had about four and a half hours of available time to include getting the smoker going, prepping the racks, cooking them and then delivering them to the recipients. My "rut" time takes about six and a half, all told. Yeah, I know. Your rut may be shorter or longer but you may still have one, so I'm gonna tell this story, anyway :D
I decided I had to develop, on the fly, without testing it, an approach for ribs that please the two parties I was "catering" and that it could be done. Imagine that ???
The first thing I did was skip the tedious trimming. If it wasn't a huge chunk of fat or gristle I just left it on.
The second thing I did was skip the skinning. The membrane stayed on the back. Heresy!
The third thing I did was leave the foil in the drawer and go the whole cook "naked" -- no time for wrapping and unwrapping.
The fourth thing I did was shake the rub on fast, not trying to get it perfectly even.
The fifth thing I did was cut the racks in half so I could move them around for even cooking.
The sixth thing I did was move the temp setting up so they'd finish faster. Heresy again.
The seventh thing I did was keep monitoring the between-bone temperature after about the 3rd hour.
The eighth thing I did was skip "glazing" on the sauce by returning the done ribs to the cooker following saucing.
You know what? It worked! ;D
A few more details: I started out with moderately heavy smoke for the first hour of the cook then went for more rapid temperature gain in the meat. This is easy in a pellet cooker but can be done on some other types, too. My smoker chamber ran around 150 degrees (controller set to 180) the first hour and the ribs went from an internal temp of 41 to low double digits. At the start of hour two I cranked it up to 285. Somewhere around the start of hour three I cranked up to 325. My goal was to control the rise of the meat temperature so that I'd still get smokiness and tenderness and not get bark (I hate that on ribs). Yeah, I know I could have grilled them in under and hour, but that wouldn't have produced the flavor I wanted and it would have violated my "rut" so badly I would probably have passed out.
Somewhere during hour four my instant read digital thermometer began giving me reads of 199 to 205 on the thinner slabs. I tossed these in a pan, gave 'em a quick brush of some popular sauce, and parked them in the oven (170 "warm" degrees -- no more cooking) and concentrated on getting the thicker racks to that "zone". About ten minutes before "deliver time" I had two huge aluminum pans full of ribs that were juicy and tender, had no char, didn't fall off the bone into mush, smelled wonderful, didn't push up the price of Alcoa stock and didn't push up my blood pressure. Man, that rut was easy to crawl out of. 8)
Now, these would not have won in competition. They weren't that pretty and they weren't that perfectly done for taste and bite. But, they certainly matched some of the best I've had in restaurants and the folks who ate them had nary a complaint. I made it to the party before the kick-off and I didn't embarrass myself by trying to do the impossible.
What I learned (and share here) is that you can squeeze the time/temperature conundrum and get away with it. Maybe even more than I did, but that'll be another experiment. Measuring rib temperature is tedious and inexact -- you've got to get right between the bones in the center of the rack and it often takes several tries and some mental approximations of what you see. But, I decided, the thermometer is smarter than I am. :'(
Hub
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Hub if you had TendaRub you could have trimmed 3 1/2 hours on your cook time :P
I have made my ribs before at 300F and they turned out not bad. Great story :)
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A few years ago I rubbed some ribs and run a rotisserie rod thru them and hung them in the center of the SRG to cook, forget how long it took to cook, but ad libbed, probably close to using the PBC, hanging meat. And they were very good, I always sauce after, but the bark on the outside was fabulous. We still talk about it at the campground. .☆´¯`•.¸¸. ི♥ྀ.
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Good for you--I want to see the "law" that says we have to do this and we have to do that! What you did makes it more enjoyable to do the actual cooking/smoking. I did my ribs differently this past Sunday, too. First, bought four racks of baby backs at the Meat Lab facility of West Texas A & M here in Canyon. All evenly sized and VERY meaty. Yes, paid a bit more per pound, but felt it was worth it.
Every thing you buy from the lab is frozen SOLID. Thawed them Friday afternoon, prepped them Saturday morning--like Hub, I wondered why I should waste my time TRYING to get the membrane off. It is ALWAYS a frustrating experience for me. Since I had four I gave up after almost cutting the first rack into individual ribs from the get go.
Because Sunday was a busy day, with church in the morning and a forecast of strong winds with colder temps, I smoked them for two hours Saturday afternoon. Brought them in and did foil them with a small bottle of apple juice poured in. After cooled, they were refrigerated overnight. Pulled them out Sunday afternoon about 1:30. heated LOW and SLOW for two hours, then opened up and broiled for about five minutes.
Took them to the party we were invited to attend, and they were devoured! Almost didn't get any myself! Did basically the same with the ABT's, only shorter times all around with no heating--just smoked for an hour and broiled for about five minutes. They also disappeared in a hurry. Point is it is much more fun to kinda play around than adhere to strictly to a recipe or other crutches. Cooking/smoking is and should be FUN.
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Good article Hub!!! I think I cook that way about all the time! :) Don
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The more experienced we are in anything...the tendency is that we become less "flexible". Because we have become comfortable - albeit complacent - with "what works" well for us....
Hub,you demonstrate that it benefits us to stretch ourselves, experiment, break the mold...That just maybe it is a good thing to exercise "culinary contortionism" occasionally to keep ourselves limber and agile when thinking about cooking.
Bvavo!!!
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What a relief to know someone of Hub's rank and smell will get out of their rut and take a chance with something new. I thought I must be weird for doing that.
B T W, a rut has been defined as a grave with both ends dug out.
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Great article, Hub.
I have been there when he went through his "normal" routine at a competition. Tedious, yes. The final product looked like you should be taking pictures for a magazine cover. And it tasted pretty DAYUM good, too.
I've got some BB's in the freezer. I need to cook them soon. All this talk about ribs is making me hungry!
Art
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I like it. I am also in a rut cooking bbq. This article show there are lno limits to what we can or cannot do. I'm still cooking my ribs between 250°-275°. Lol..... Great post hub.
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Absolutely awesome write up... Great Job... I'm new to smoking and/or roasting, and i love trying new meats and learning new ways to try the next cook... I hope I never find my sweet spot and end up in a rut, cause I think the best part is lifting up that lid and seeing what it looks like, but if you already know what to expect, it will take the excitement out of it... I do have to give you kudos though, for going outside the known when cooking for others, that can be scary... Thanks for the write up, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
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Great story and inspiration, HUB!
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Lots of ways to skin a cat!
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We all have the ruts that we drive comfortably in. Mine is steaks. I've used the same preparation for steaks for 20 years. Hub, you may remember the bowling banquets we hosted back on Arrowood. I perfected my system cooking 80-90 NY Strips, to order, in one hour.
Everyone loved my steaks. Family. Friends. Customers. Everyone.
But what I've found hanging out here is that I need to try some other options. Doesn't mean I'm not going to cook steaks my way again, of course I will. But, like LA said . . . . .
Great story, Hub.
BD