I think I mentioned the last week about my local grocery store packing in a load of pork ribs. But at 18 to 22 dollars a slab, I passed. Day after day I stalked them, waiting patiently. Yesterday they were finally down to 8 to 10 dollars a slab, this I could do. And I did!
The St. Louis ones were the only style they had left, other than the baby backs. And I wanted the big ones.
It's been a long time since I've done an extended cook in one of these rigs, but I figured I could get the job done without much fuss. My digital probe temperature thingy was handy (I use it as a kitchen timer when not doing smoker duty). But as I found out pretty quickly, it has long since gone in another direction. It's ability to read the correct temperature reliably just wasn't possible this time. No biggie, the goofy built in one would at least give me a broad idea as to what the thing was doing.
I got out the rack of ribs about 2 hours before I thought I'd fire up the grill. Yanked off the membrane and rubbed Kosher salt on both sides and let sit out on the counter. Fire, Smoke, Meat and salt is all you need.
I used to use foil wrapped bricks to baffle the heat from the meat side, but it also would bow my charcoal wire rack pretty badly. Since this is a new grill, I didn't want to goof it up quite yet. I fashioned a medium sized wall with aluminum foil there in the center, to the left of the fire. Digging for a while, I found a chintzy little wire rack that held up the ribs pretty nicely.
Charcoaled mesquite for fuel, large hunks of seasoned hickory for flavor.
No, I didn't lower the grill down to 200 to 225. This was going to be a faster cook at 325 to 350. I used to only do pork ribs very low for about 5 hours. But after using the SRG for so long and so many racks of ribs, it was clearly obvious that it wasn't necessary to get juicy, smoky ribs. Is there a difference? Yes. Can I do it both ways and still have an amazing meal? Yes.
The fire tending in the 940x is really quite minimal. I ran through 2 large chimneys of mesquite with maybe 5 or so hunks of hickory. Not much to it and about 2.5 hours later, the ribs were done.
I cooked them a little softer, a tad overdone. My wife is suffering quite badly with a horrendous tooth ache and was thinking of her. They were plenty juicy, very porky and the smoky love was very sweet. The smoke flavor the 940x produces is so far superior than anything else I've cooked with. Sure, I got "smoke" flavor with other grills, but not like this. And it's not just me, my family (gets up to 5 for dinner on a regular basis) is blown away by the difference. I'm not doing anything different other than using mesquite rather than briquettes and large hunks of hickory rather than dust or small chips. There's a quiet calm about the 940x, it's like watching a fish tank. My other grills will take the hairs off your arms at any moment, even with smaller piles of fuel in them.
I'm truly in love with this grill and am very thankful it's built like a tank. I'm going to be able to enjoy this rig for a long time to come.
Biggles
ps - Here's an image from last night's grillage.
