01
Jun
Smoked St Louis Ribs
Grill Master: Jean Alexandre | Short URL: This is the short link." />Winner of the
Memorial Day Battle 2011

My first smoke of the year. Had quite the time getting our hands on some ribs as people love to buy em all up around the holiday weekends. Being my first cook of the summer fair to say I missed a few key points. More on that later.
The Ingredients

I like to serve my ribs dry and let people pick their sauces. I find these two cover the spectum from rich & sweet to tangy & wet.

Easily my favorite cut of ribs. Some people like baby backs, I like St Louis cause they have more meat and take the smoke better in my opinion. A technique I use is to roll em up and let them dry into a paper towel lined tray. When the ribs are a dry as possible more of the rub actually stays on the ribs. Try it!

In regards to wood and charcoal. I rarely grill with lump charcoal. I find it's difficult to control the heat. However for smoking, using the minion method and wood chunks, you can get a pretty consistant burn if your smoker has a firebox.
The Cook
So this is where things got a little dicey… My thermometer batteries died. I forgot the water pan and didn’t add it until about halfway through the cook. I planned on using the minion method for the smoking and put the lit coals in first and the unlit ones on top (good thing I didn’t have the meat on, it would have been a disaster). In the end I got everything under control. The takeaway? Use a cooking log, seriously… Enjoy the pictures!
Battle Armor:
Type of Technique: | Smoking |
---|---|
Type of Grill Used: | Charcoal |
Type of Charcoal: | Cowboy Lump Charcol |
Type of Wood: | Apple |
Type of Pork: | St Louis Cut Ribs |
Type of Sauce(s) Used: | Stubbs Spicy BBQ, Sweet Baby Rays Honey BBQ |
Side Dishes: | Rice & Beans |