I recently had a lot of fun doing this courtesy of Iowa Pork with Darren from Smokey D. Great guy, Cyclone fan, who I learned a lot from. Enjoy!
Smoking with CW: Pork rib tips from Smokey D
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
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Looking good! In the past, Darren has been involved in BBQ spring training through the ISU meat lab (don't know if they still do this). I was fortunate to attend two years in a row. The first year he provided some great instruction on brisket (which if you look at the competition results, its kind of what he is known for) and Moe Cason provided instruction on ribs. These men definitely know their BBQ.
Cool videos and good guy to get tips from as Smokey D's is one of the best competition teams in the country lately. Are you going to do more videos and any chance you are going to do a Q&A video from comments possibly? I'm always trying new things when I smoke so always like to see if there is something different I can try to get a better result.
Ribs I don't mess with too much anymore, I have a pretty good method I've figured out that I rarely am disappointed with how my ribs turned out. I do a lot of the same things Darren showed but 275 is a bit too hot for me, usually like 225-250 range - I use a charcoal/wood offset smoker not one of those fancy set it and forget it pellet smokers so takes me a little more effort to keep my temp in range but always felt you can't beat the flavor of a "stick burner" smoker. Another good tip for anyone out there is don't sauce your ribs. If you do it while you are still smoking them you probably are going to get a bit of a burnt flavor from the sugars burning. Serve sauce on the side or lightly coat them right before serving as a good rib doesn't need to be covered in a bunch of sauce if you put a good rub on them and cooked them right.
Ribs I don't mess with too much anymore, I have a pretty good method I've figured out that I rarely am disappointed with how my ribs turned out. I do a lot of the same things Darren showed but 275 is a bit too hot for me, usually like 225-250 range - I use a charcoal/wood offset smoker not one of those fancy set it and forget it pellet smokers so takes me a little more effort to keep my temp in range but always felt you can't beat the flavor of a "stick burner" smoker. Another good tip for anyone out there is don't sauce your ribs. If you do it while you are still smoking them you probably are going to get a bit of a burnt flavor from the sugars burning. Serve sauce on the side or lightly coat them right before serving as a good rib doesn't need to be covered in a bunch of sauce if you put a good rub on them and cooked them right.
May have to try this method once. I'm always at 150 start temp for an hour then 200 for a couple hours then 250 couple more. The last hour I will sauce if the family wants them "wet". Not really into the hot and fast method. My normal check for doneness is the bend test. Take you tongs and hold the rack parallel with them and see how far they bend and if they start to crack, they are done.
Maybe it's me being lazy but to add foil, honey, brown sugar or whatever just adds more work. I want to taste the meat not all the rub/sugar/spices.
Maybe it's me being lazy but to add foil, honey, brown sugar or whatever just adds more work. I want to taste the meat not all the rub/sugar/spices.
I was driving from KC to Des Moines and drove by Mo’s bbq rig and his truck bbq rig is awesome.
Besides the bend test usually can tell when some of the bone ends have been exposed you are probably close to done too. I always wrap ribs now after a couple hours of smoke as after 2-3 hours they really aren't taking in much more smoke flavor. I think that is the 1 thing that when I made the change to wraps years ago really made my ribs better as not only does it help keep the moisture in but really helps with the tenderness too I think. You don't have to add a ton of stuff either and only takes a few minutes to wrap them. I usually just use some squeeze butter then depending on what flavor I am shooting for just a little bit of honey and brown sugar or a little bit of apple juice. Have tried this peach preserves concoction I found once too that wasn't bad and also sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon in with my butter once too that added an interesting spice flavor to the end of the cooking. If I want my kids to eat it I have to be careful not to use rub or ingredients with too much heat spice to it or use something sweet to counter balance the spice but I also try not to make things too sweet either as I can always use some sweet BBQ sauce on them before serving if needed.
I love doing pulled pork but to do it right have to have a good chunk of time to let a pork but render down enough. Will do chicken sometimes, that is 1 of the things I would like to do better as it is not nearly as forgiving as pork is if you mess it up. Have done some awesome beer can chickens, usually like to do some hind quarters once in awhile as dark meat is harder to mess up than white breast meat IMO. Chicken is one meat I would like to do more often and try some new things to get better at. Brisket is the 1 thing I haven't done much of mostly because of the cost and time commitment to make it right. I figure if you are going to spend that much money on a big chunk of meat better get it right so have shied away from doing it and when I have it's been a smaller cut that doesn't take as long as a whole brisket.
I'd love to have some of the smoking rigs the competition guys have. My wife once asked me if I had ambitions to do some BBQ competitions and I told her unless she was OK with me spending a bunch of money on a professional grade smoke pit then no. She was shocked just how much some of those custom smokers can cost.
One book I really got a lot of good ideas from was "Smokin" by Myron Mixon who is one of the winningest BBQ pit masters out there. Just a lot of the methods and concepts really helped me find a "sweet spot" with how I smoke some of my meat cuts. You don't have to follow his recipes and methods to the T but he hits a lot of good topics about why he does certain things like his prep work and cooking methods and even why types of rubs and woods to use when smoking. His book is one of the reasons why I don't use a lot of hickory anymore and when I do it's just a little bit to add another type of smoke flavor. I use mostly apple and peach wood now with my charcoal smoker and maybe through a bit of pecan or hickory in but apparently fruit woods have a lot less impurities in them and make for a better flavor.
Love this type of content. Glad to hear he's a fan of hot-and-fast. I do that too, mostly because I'm impatient and don't like waking up early sometimes. 
You beat me - agree 100%!Thermapens are awesome but $$$
... i have two of them
I got lucky when I decided to buy one, they were selling them for something like 15% off so it was like $80Thermapens are awesome but $$$
... i have two of them
Threw a half a pork loin on the smoker at 1. Need it to be ready at 5:30. Started at 150 for 2 hours and just bumped it to 170 at 3. Will do a temp check at 4:30 and adjust temp as necessary. May need to reverse sear it.
Note: loin was about not thawed all the way. Dry brined for 8 hours with kosher salt. Washed off, dried with paper towel, rubbed a little syrup on it, and added my BBQ rub. I'm a risk taker when it comes to determining doneness on things.
Note: loin was about not thawed all the way. Dry brined for 8 hours with kosher salt. Washed off, dried with paper towel, rubbed a little syrup on it, and added my BBQ rub. I'm a risk taker when it comes to determining doneness on things.
You need to go to a Sam's if you can to get your brisket. I've done a few and from what I can find, its the best price unless someone has really good sale. The Sam's in Ankeny has Prime full Brisket for $3.28lb. I'll take one of those over the Angus Choice they have even though its about $0.30 more per pound but that's not a lot of money. I also go with the Prime because its going to be better marbled and usually those briskets are not as big as the Angus ones. I have a vertical offset so I have to split my point and flat to get them to fit.
Also, my last 9lb pork butt took 15 hours to come up to 195...it was a battle. Lol.
