Venison Jalapeno Cheese Sausage

Venison Jalapeno Cheese Sausage

     Even though sausage is probably one of my favorite smoked meats, its been awhile since we’ve made any. It’s just such a long process, but the results are well worth it. This past Christmas, I got a 5lb LEM Sausage Stuffer. Prior to that I was just using my grinder as a stuffer. While that works, it’s not really ideal. I had no idea how well my new sausage stuffer would work till we put it into action this past weekend. This thing is awesome!! If you are making sausage and don’t have a dedicated stuffer, I highly recommend picking one up.

LEM Sausage Stuffer. Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures grinding or stuffing the sausage, but I’ve covered that before.

     After the last batch of sausage, Mrs. G informed me that she wanted to try a jalapeno cheese sausage. I like jalapeno cheese sausage, so I was not opposed.

Pork Shoulder and Back Fat

     Friday, I was in need of some sausage casings and some pork shoulder. I’ve been wanting to try out Hirsch’s Meat Market in Plano for a while, so I gave them a call and they had everything I needed. If you are looking for a good butcher in Plano, I highly recommend them. Not only do they carry all kinds of meat, the carry a wide variety of wood from the basic mesquite and hickory, to pecan, peach, plum, citrus and grape, just to name a few. Super friendly staff and very helpful.

Look at the marbling in that pork shoulder!

     They set me up with 2.5 lbs of pork shoulder (that had a ton of marbling) and .62lbs of pork back fat to make up for the lack of fat in my venison (in sausage, fat is your friend).

Can you tell which side is the pork and which side is the venison? I figured you could. 

          Sr_Egor from the Texas BBQ Forum was kind enough to send me an Excel sheet for various types of sausages. You type in how many pounds of sasage you want to make, and it will calculate all the rest of the ingredients for you. Pretty cool, huh? If you ask nicely, I can even forward it on to you. I wanted to make 5 lbs, just to try it out, so this is what the spreadsheet told me. BTW, if you don’t have a scale, you are going to need to get one. (Did you know different salts weigh different amounts? That’s why using a volumetric amount for salt doesn’t make sense and weight does)

Ingredients

• 2.25 lbs (36 oz) pork butt
• 2.25 lbs (36 oz) venison
• 0.01 lbs (.12 oz or 1/8 oz) granulated garlic
• 0.02 lbs (0.38 oz or 3/8 oz) black pepper
• 0.09 lbs (1.44 oz or 1 and 4/8 oz) salt
• 0.03 lbs (0.40 oz or 3/8 oz) sugar
• 0.03 lbs (0.40 oz or 3/8 oz) dried jalapenos or 2 fresh jalapenos, seeded and deveined
• 0.43 lbs (6.80 oz or 6 3/4 oz) cheddar cheese, cubed small
• 3 to 5 oz of water
• 0.01 lbs (0.12 oz or 1/8 oz) of Cure #1

Very important to test fry a patty before stuffing. You know…quality assurance? Gives you a chance to adjust your seasonings.

Directions

1. Cube up your pork, venison and back fat into pieces small enough to fit through your grinder. Place meat and all metal parts of your grinder into the freezer for 30 minutes. (Heat is your enemy when making sausage. It causes the fat to melt and smear. You don’t want that). After 30 minutes, assemble grinder and using a medium grind attachment, grind all your meat.
2. Mix up the spices in a small bowl. Work the spices, jalapenos and cheese into the meat with your hands, adding the water in small amounts as you go.
3. Take a small portion and test fry a patty. Adjust the seasonings as needed.
4. At this point, the meat can be stuffed into hogs casings. I prefer to let it sit covered overnight in the fridge to allow the flavors to meld and marry and stuffing the next day, however.
5. Stuff the hogs casings with the meat mixture following your stuffer’s instructions. I chose to do my sausage in 1lb links this time (or as close as I could get them, LOL), but you can make them whatever length or size you want.
6. Allow sausage to sit out at room temperature for one hour to allow them to dry out. If you have a small fan, you can use it to blow across them. Meanwhile, set up your smoker as low as you can get it. 100F to 130 F would be ideal. Do NOT add wood for smoke at this point.
7. Add your sausages to the smoker and allow to further dry for one hour.
8. After one hour, bump the temperature to 140F and add wood chunks for smoke. We used pecan and some hickory chips. Every hour after, bump the temperature 10 more degrees until your sausage hits 155F.
9. When your sausage hits 155F, remove from smoker and plunge into and ice bath to stop the cooking. Allow to cool.
10. Once cooled, remove from ice bath and let bloom for one hour (Sit out at room temperature either on a drying rack or hanging up).
11. Refrigerate or vacuum seal and freeze for a later date.

Onto the Egg at 12:00 pm!

     I’d like to say that with my Big Green Egg and pit controller, I was able to follow my smoking instructions perfectly. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I was having a problem getting that small of a fire started. It went out once on me while I was trying to get it stable. I ended up putting the sausage on at 145-150F and about 25 minutes later, I had to pull everything out and restart the fire.

One hour in (1 o’clock).

     At one hour in, my fire was now at 170 (way to hot, way to early). I added two pecan chunks and some hickory chips for smoke. I also wiped away any moisture from the outside of the sausage casings and flipped the ones on top with the ones on bottom. Being open for so long allowed the temp to drop. By 1:30pm, the temp was sitting at 150F which was not so bad.

Two hours in, developing a nice shade of red (2 o’clock)

At two hours in, my temp was around 165. A little high, but still acceptable.

3 hours in, getting close (3 o’clock).

 At 3, we were holding steady at 175 but now we were getting short on time. We had people coming over later and I still had to get to the store. So at 3:40, I opened the Egg up a bit to speed things along. By 4:10, we were up to 230F.

Finished at 4:30pm!

Once finished, the sausage was pulled and immediately plunged into an ice bath to stop the cooking.

Sausage taking a dip in an Ice bath.

     After cooling, the sausage was allowed to dry on some of those cookie cooling racks for an hour before most of it was sealed with a vacuum sealer and frozen for later. One link did go into the fridge to be sampled on Sunday. It was killing me to wait, but I had to get to the store and get some groceries and get cleaned up for company.

Sunday rolled around and I lit up the Egg to 400F and grilled up the sausage. Look at how juicy that is!!

     Mrs. G paid me high compliments on this sausage saying “This is the best sausage you’ve made so far!” and “This reminds me of the sausage my dad used to make when I was kid!” Can’t get better compliments than that, especially considering he used to have a BBQ business and made his own sausage.

     Me? I enjoyed it, but sometimes I’m my worst critic. It was plenty juicy and had great flavor. Good snap on the casing. But it just wasn’t perfect.

     For one, there wasn’t enough heat. I’d like to maybe had some cayenne or red pepper flakes or chipotle powder. Not sure, what do you think? I also didn’t really care for the jalapeno, it still had some crunch to it. Maybe sautee it down a bit or use dried jalapenos next time.

     Next comes the cheese. It didn’t melt away, but it did melt. I’m thinking I’m going to use high temp cheese (cheese specifically made not to melt, often used in sausage). Hirsch’s Meat Market has it, so I do have a local source.

     The final thing is the texture. I mean it was fine (not a pun, it was really coarse), but I’d like to see what a double grind would do. Once through the medium grind plate, and then a second time through the fine grind plate. But then again, I’m afraid it would end up with the texture of a hot dog, and I really don’t want that.

     Not sure, but I do know that I have enough deer in the freezer to make 15 more pounds. It was fun making sausage again, don’t know why we don’t do it more often. Oh yeah…’cause its messy (dish wise) and time consuming. But with the new stuffer, it was a breeze. Mrs. G said it was the fastest stuffing session yet. So expect to see more sausage soon.

And if you would like a copy of the spreadsheets, just let me know. There are plenty of other sausage recipes, I just haven’t tried any of them, yet.

Pork Tenderloins on the MINI Egg

Nothing fancy here, no special recipe or technique. This post is more to highlight what the MINI Big Green Egg can do.

MINI Big Green Egg sitting next to Large Big Green Egg

Decided to cook up some pork tenderloins Saturday night. They got a simple rub of DP Red Eye Express (a coffee-infused BBQ rub). I was going to  fire up the Large Egg, but glanced over at the MINI. It still feels like a new toy to me, and you know how kids are with new toys. I thought to myself, “Bet the tenderloins would fit on it.”  Got it fired up to 400F and tossed them on. Yep, they fit. Oh yeah, Jack Daniels wood chips for smoke.

Pork Tenderloins on the MINI Big Green Egg

     OK…I lie. I will give you one cooking tip since you were kind enough to drop in and see what we’ve been up to. You notice the butcher’s string in the above picture? Go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait…if you are familiar with pork tenderloins, you know that one end is thick and it tapers off into a much thinner end on the other side. This can prove a bit tricky when cooking them. You don’t want to over cook the thinner end. So what I like to do is to take the thinner end and fold it back on itself and either tie it off with some string or use a toothpick or skewers to hold it in place. The doubling up causes it to cook slower and you are left with a more uniform cook throughout the tenderloin.

Getting done, the thin end on the tenderloin on the right slipped out of the string while flipping it. Going back to toothpicks next time.

     I thought I remembered tenderloins taking about 20 minutes at 400F on the large. On the MINI, they ended up taking about 30 minutes. However long it takes, make sure to cook to temperature and not time, though. My plan was to pull them at 140-5, but I got distracted watching my buddy’s kid. He just started walking 3 days ago and he was all over the place. He was having a blast and Bodi, our little Yorkie, finally found a friend his size to play with. So I think the tenderloins ended up coming off more around 160, but still plenty juicy, not dried up at all.

Finished and after a short rest under foil, will be sliced

     Didn’t get any plated up pics, but the wife whipped up some mashed taters and some of the Pioneer Woman’s mushrooms. Good meal for sure.

     We’ve had the MINI Egg for about a month now. I knew it was going to get used when I got it, but I really didn’t know how much. It is quickly becoming our work horse here at the casa. It maybe small, but it easily handles the food for just the two of us. A large steak that we can split. Chicken breasts. Sausage. Mini pizzas. Even the unexpected gift of a wok that we recieved for stir-fry. And now pork tenderloins. Is the MINI for you? Maybe not, especially if  you routinely cook for more than two. You’ll have to evaluate your own needs, but for us? We love it.

Pork Chops with a Whiskey BBQ Sauce

Pork Chops with a Whiskey BBQ Sauce

     Last week, I saw a post on the BBQ Bible forum from a friend of mine making the Pork T-bone with Whiskey BBQ Sauce from Weber’s Charcoal Grilling. It looked so good, I knew I wanted to try it out myself. Unfortunately, I don’t own a copy of that book. The great thing about the internet is that pretty much everything is out there if you know what you are looking for and how to do a search. So a few minutes of looking and I had a few recipes for it. I didn’t know if these were exactly the same, but I figured I would try one out. It’s not like I ever follow a recipe verbatim anyway.

Ingredients for the rub

Ingredients for the Rub

• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

In a small bowl, mix the ingredients together. Lightly coat the pork chops with oil and then season with the rub, pressing the spices into the meat. Allow the steaks to sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before grilling. (Make sure the pork chops are out of reach of any large dogs who are prone to counter surfing. He didn’t get them, but Olie was close when I had my back turned for a second.)

Rubbed and coming up to room temp

Ingredients for the Sauce

• 1/3 cup bottled steak sauce
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup whiskey
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp onion powder

Add the ingredients to a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce and simmer over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Onto the grill at 475F.

     Set up your grill for direct cooking at a medium high heat. I let my Egg settle in at about 475F and added some pecan chunks for smoke as well as some apple wood chips. Grill the pork chops for about 8 minutes per side or until the internal temperature reaches 140 to 145, depending on how well done you like your pork.

Resting

Allow the chops to rest for 5 to 10 minutes after grilling and then serve with warm bbq sauce on the side.

Plated up

     I was a bit skeptical about how this dish was going to come out while making the sauce. I’m such a big fan of steak sauce, that I had to go to the store to buy some (what I’m trying to say here is that we never have any at the house, nor do we use it). And this sauce tasted strongly of A-1. Maybe I should have used a different steak sauce? I don’t know, but I wasn’t digging the flavor. The recipe I found also called for an aged Scotch Whiskey. Well, I also didn’t have that on hand so I just used some bourbon that we did have. I can see where the Scotch Whiskey could have added some smoke flavor to the sauce. All doubts aside, I tried the pork chop with the sauce and it actually worked out ok. The sauce seemed to compliment the flavors of the pork and the ingredients of the rub. The addition of the ground cloves added a nice touch and the cayenne (original recipe called for a pinch) added just the right amount of heat. I served it up with some Texas Ranchero beans from Bush’s Grillin’ Beans line and corn on the cob.

     Would I do it again? I’m not really sure. I wasn’t really sold on the sauce. It tasted too much like steak sauce and I think next time, I’ll pass and save the bourbon for the cook. The rub worked, so I might keep that, maybe tweak it a bit. I’m still a big fan of brining pork chops, though. I think it helps keep the chop moist and juicy, so if I did do it again, I think I would incorporate that step into the process. As for Mrs. G….she took one taste of the sauce, shook her head and walked away without putting any on her plate. I’ll let you interpret that how you will.

 

North Carolina Pulled Pork Barbecue from Gourmet Magazine

     The next blogger I have the pleasure to introduce you to is Christiane, aka The Mom Chef, from Taking on Magazines. I honestly can’t recall the first post of hers that I read. Something on the now defunct website Foodbuzz (good riddance) must have caught my eye, probably something to do with grilling or barbecue knowing me, although it could just have easily been some mouth watering dessert. That’s not important, though, her style and her real life stories kept bringing me back over and over again. Something about her site just says home to me and I feel like I know her and her family and could walk right in, sit down at dinner and talk like old friends.

     The Mom Chef’s take on blogging is a very unique and interesting one. She. Takes. On. Magazines. If you are like me, you’ve probably seen a recipe in a magazine, clipped it out and maybe even tried it (or maybe it’s sitting on your recipe rack in your kitchen or has made it into a file folder or a binder where it may never see the light of day again). Not the Mom Chef, oh no. She takes them on. In her own words,

“What decided me to do this was the number of times I’ve made recipes from magazines and the results just don’t match what the articles say they should. Whether it’s the look of the thing, the taste or the amount that it should serve, I’m surprised at how often it happens. It made me wonder if these recipes should be tested in a regular kitchen with kids underfoot, animals prowling the room, husbands peering over shoulders and all the interruptions that the regular Mom Chef has to face.”

And she tells you how it is. She’s not paid by these magazines. She’s not paid to glamorize the recipes or help sell more magazines. She’s honestly critiquing them. Aside from her stories, my favorite part of her blogs are “The Verdict” and “What I’d Do Different Next Time”.

     Now before I release you into her more than capable hands, I want all you Texans to be on your best behavior and show her how polite we are down here in the Lone Star State. She lives in North Carolina and seems to have some mistaken beliefs about what barbecue is and what we do. Them folks back East seem to have this silly notion that barbecue only means pork shoulder or whole pig, maybe it’s because they can’t figure out how to treat a brisket or have had the pleasure of pulled beef (I kid, I kid). And she seems to think we get grilling confused with barbecue. We all know that ain’t true and we know the difference between the two and can do them both.

     After you read her post for me, meander on down to Taking on Magazines and take a gander at some of her mouth watering recipes. I know you can find something to please your palate, whether you are craving some home cooking or a sweet tasting dessert. And let her know I sent ya.

North Carolina Barbecue

You’d think that when someone asks you to do a guest post for them, it’s a pretty basic deal. You come up with a recipe, you write about it; done.

My husband obviously thought that, because when I received the note from Jason, asking if I’d do a post while he was out of the country, I immediately launched into my ever-increasingly embarrassing to my daughter happy dance. Then I had a heart attack. And he looked on with his jaw hanging to the floor.

You see, I had been asked to cook and write for a griller; a really great griller. That’s an honor. Hence, the happy dance. And the heart attack. Don’t get me wrong, I can grill alongside the best of them. In this world where men belly up to the fire more often than women, I am happy to be the exception, letting my pony tail bob alongside ya’ll with spatula in hand.

The thing is, Griffin’s Grub is based out of Texas, the land of beef. I live in North Carolina, where hogs rule. I can grill a steak; flank, rib eye, or otherwise like it’s nobody’s business. With other cuts of beef, however, the range is my home. The range in my home, that is. Beef short ribs? Of course; braised in wine with a chile puree in a Dutch oven; they’re divine. Chuck roast? A family favorite; slow cooked in my deep ceramic pot; it comes out tender, juicy and delicious.

Pork. That’s a different matter. Slap a slab of any pork product in front of me and my first thought is, ‘Oooooh, where’s the charcoal?’

For you folk that live in the LoneStarState, over here on the East Coast, we have two terms for what you do with that outdoor oven. Grilling is a verb used for everything that isn’t what I’m about to do. Chicken, beef, bison, lamb, even pork tenderloin and chop. They all get grilled.

Barbecue, however, is a noun and a verb and means only one thing. Pork shoulder. If your party includes less than ten people, yes, you can use just the butt or picnic, but for bigger parties, the whole shoulder (with skin) is the way to go. For those who are curious about  where the whole pig pickin’ term comes into play, it’s used when a whole hog is smoked. If you’re ever invited, don’t decline, even if it means you have to drive hours to attend. Picking hunks of perfectly cooked and seasoned pork straight off the grill is amazing.

Today, though, is about regular barbecue. I could go into all the things wrong with the title up there, but since it’s not my recipe, I won’t. Well, not much. Just a little. You see, since it is barbecue, there’s no need to say ‘Pulled Pork.’ That’s a given. Also, this isn’t North Carolina barbecue. It’s eastern North Carolina barbecue. Note the simple vinegar sauce. That’s what makes it so. Head west in my fair state and you’ll see mountains instead of beach and tomato in the sauce instead of vinegar.

So, are you ready to head to eastern North Carolina for some good barbecue?

The Process

If you had to choose the perfect day to barbecue, it wouldn’t be this one because it rained cats and dogs. Since the pork stays on the grill for 8+ hours, it’s nice to have some sunshine instead of needing to dodge raindrops every time you need to flip the butt and mop it, but I didn’t have the choice. Luckily, my grill sits under a nice overhang so while I got a little wet every time I went out to mop the meat, the grill itself stayed dry and at its perfect temperature.

Everyone who does a fair amount of barbecue has their own rub, mop and sauce to go with the pork. However, the main thing I do at Taking On Magazines is to, well, take on magazines. I make the recipes, as written, and review them for ease, taste, clean-up factor, etc. To stay true to my reason for being, I went back to an old Gourmet Magazine, because I knew it was their special grilling issue and that there was a recipe for barbecue in it.

Gourmet Magazine decided to go with a simple salt and pepper rub, which is fine. Mine usually includes a little brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and paprika as well. The magazine’s mop is pretty standard and the since some of the mop is kept out to use as the sauce, all is copasetic.

The idea, as with most low and slow grilling, is to keep the meat off direct heat and to keep the coals at a constant temperature. Because you love your pork, every half hour you have the pleasure of giving it a mop bath and flipping it over, whether it’s raining or not. Once it’s reached the right temperature, it’s a simple matter to let it sit for a few minutes, then shred it with a pair of forks. While the recipe says to serve the remaining sauce alongside the pulled pork, we prefer to just pour it in and let the meat soak it up.

Oh yeah, the coleslaw. I’m still working on getting used to it in the sandwich instead of a side, but coleslaw as a condiment is a must with barbecue. If you want the recipe for the Coleslaw that was provided alongside the pulled pork, you’ll need to visit me to read about it.

Pork Shoulder Roast

The Verdict

Ironically, I had to leave for a few hours to attend a birthday party (my husband took over the mop and flip for that little while) and the host had made barbecue, western style, for the shindig. It was a treat to have that available so I could compare East and West varieties on the same day.

The tomato-based barbecue was definitely delicious; sweet and a little tangy, but I really missed the oomph. The griller admitted to me that he prefers the eastern variety, but not knowing what level of heat the various guests would appreciate, and considering the extra spiciness of the vinegar sauce studded with red pepper flakes, the tomato-based version was the safe route. Additionally, he’d only rubbed the shoulder with salt and pepper.

I have to admit that I feel the same way. I prefer the vinegar-based sauce and this one didn’t disappoint. With a tablespoon and a half of hot pepper flakes infused into the vinegar, it made our mouths tingle. The added sugar did enough to keep the heat from being too much. It was tender, moist and delicious, cooked exactly the way North Carolina barbecue is supposed to be.

My husband must have thought so as well because he wolfed down two sandwiches without stopping for a breath. Dudette liked the tenderness of the meat but found the spiciness a bit much for her six year-old palate.

What I’d Do Different Next Time

I missed my rub. Next Time I would mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar, salt, brown sugar, cumin, chili powder and black pepper, 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper and 4 tablespoons paprika, rub that all over the pork, wrap it tightly in plastic and put it in the fridge overnight before I’m going to barbecue it. (See, two recipes in one.)

North Carolina Pulled Pork Barbecue

from Gourmet Magazine, July 2012 

31/2 cups cider vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons hot red-pepper flakes

1 8-10 pound bone-in pork shoulder roast (preferably butt end) with skin

Bring vinegar to a boil with sugar, red pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 tablespoon pepper in a small nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved; then cool. Set aside 2 cups vinegar sauce to serve with sandwiches.

While sauce cools, score pork skin in a crosshatch pattern with a sharp knife (forming 1-inch diamonds), cutting through skin and fat but not into meat. Pat meat dry and rub all over with 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.

Prepare grill for indirect heat cooking over low heat, leaving space in the middle for a disposable roasting pan.

When coals have cooled to about 300F (45-minutes to 1 hour; when most coals will have burned out), put disposable roasting pan on bottom rack of grill between the 2 remaining mounds of coals, then fill pan halfway with water. Add a couple of handfuls of unlit charcoal to each charcoal mound, then put grill rack on so hinges are over coals.

Oil grill rack, then put pork, skin side up, on rack above roasting pan. Grill pork, with lid ajar (for air, so coals remain lit), basting meat with sauce and turning over every 30 minutes (to maintain a temperature of 250-275, add a couple of handfuls of coals to each side about every 30 minutes), until fork-tender (a meat fork should insert easily) and an instant-read thermometer inserted 2 inches into center of meat (avoid bone) registers 190F, 7-8 hours total.

Transfer pork to a cutting board. If skin is not crisp, cut it off with at least 1/4 inch fat attached (cut any large pieces into bite-size ones) and roast, fat side down, in a 4-sided sheet pan in a 350 oven until crisp, 15-20 minutes.

When meat is cool enough to handle, shred it, using 2 forks. Transfer to a bowl.

Serve pork, cracklings, and coleslaw together on buns. Serve reserved vinegar sauce on the side.

Cherry Smoked Ribs

Cherry Smoked Ribs

“Ribs. I had ribs for lunch, that’s why I’m doing this.” (as he’s picking his teeth) ~Ron Burgundy, Anchorman

     I’ve been having a craving for ribs for a while. It’s not something I make all the time, just because it takes so long to smoke spareribs, but Sunday we had no plans and it was the perfect day for it. Just lay around all day, read the paper, watch TV, maybe take a nap and let the Egg do its magic and slowly smoke the ribs for 5 or 6 hours. Perfect day.

Pork Spareribs

     In the picture above you can see a rack of untrimmed pork spareribs. These are not baby backs, but spare ribs. They are bigger, tougher and meatier in every way compared to baby back ribs. As a result, they need to cook longer than baby backs, generally in the 6 hour range, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. I’m going to show you how to trim your spare ribs into what are called St. Louis Style ribs. I don’t know where they got that name, probably a butcher in St. Louis would be my guess, but a quick scour of the internet didn’t really produce any results for me.

Remove the skirt or skirt meat

     The first thing you want to do is remove the skirt or skirt meat. This is a flap of meat that sits in the middle of the rack on the inside of the rib (bone side). This flap of meat cooks differently than the ribs and will burn if left on, not to mention it makes a good taster or cooks treat while the ribs are smoking. To remove this flap, lift it up with one hand, and holding a knife parallel to the ribs slowly carve it away as close to the ribs as possible.

Trim away the rib tips and square up the ends

     The next step, is to trim away the rib tips. In the picture, it is the top of the ribs, but in actuality it would be the bottom of the rib cage. The rib tips contain the cartilage and the sternum. These also cook differently and are more difficult to carve off after the ribs are done. In order to trim this section off, locate the ends of the ribs and trim at that line. It might be difficult at first, but it gets easier with practice. Finally, square off the ribs by removing the last few smaller, bones. This is more for appearance sake than anything else. Don’t worry about waste, we are going to smoke all of these parts, or you could reserve them and use them for other purposes if you so choose.

Spare ribs trimmed St. Louis style

     One thing I did not show you is how to remove the membrane located on the inside (bone side) of the ribs. Some people say it’s vital to remove the membrane, others claim it doesn’t matter. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. I didn’t take any pictures of this, because my hands were all messy….plus I forgot. But there are plenty of website that will walk you through it and even videos on youtube, so check those out for more details.

     Why should you remove the membrane? The membrane is a water proof film that separates the chest cavity of the pig from the muscle/rib area. It keeps everything from passing in or out of the chest area. When smoking ribs, it keeps out the smoke and seasoning flavor and holds in the fat that needs to be rendered. Not to mention you really can’t chew it. That is why I choose to remove the membrane.

     Do you really have to trim your ribs? No, but I think it makes them easier to cook and looks better. Can you get a butcher to do it for you? Sure, but it’s gonna cost you more for something you can easily learn how to do on your own.

On the smoker at 250F

     For these ribs, I decide to use a rub from a lil place outside of Austin. Maybe you’ve heard of it….the Salt Lick? Maybe you’ve seen it on Food Network or The Travel Channel? We’ve visited a few times, and while the BBQ can be hit or miss, and it’s not quite as good as the Big 3 in Lockhart, they do sell some quality rubs and sauces (and their sauce is quite unusual, try it if you ever get the chance). So I decided to use their rub today for these ribs. First I slathered on a layer of mustard. This helps the rub to stick and helps form a nice bark on the ribs. If you don’t like mustard, don’t worry, you won’t be able to taste it at all by the time the ribs are done. The generously apply the rub.

     The ribs (and trimmed sections) went on to the Egg at 250F. For this smoke, I decided to branch out a bit. Normally with ribs (or brisket or pork butt), I would go with a wood that produces a heavier smoke, like mesquite, hickory or even pecan. This time, I tried using cherry wood chips for the smoke. This produces a lighter smoke flavor and I’ve had great results with it in the past with chicken and turkey. And because this was a lazy, take it easy kind of Sunday afternoon, I hooked up my Auber Instruments Pit Controller so I wouldn’t have to worry about or check the temperature of the Egg throughout the cook. The controller takes care of the hard work and makes it almost seem like cheating. perfect.

     There is a lot of talk in the barbecue world about using a 3-2-1 method when cooking spare ribs. Smoke the ribs for 3 hours, then wrap in foil, maybe with a little juice (apple or other) or beer to braise them for 2 hours, then remove from foil and smoke for another hour to “firm up” the bark again. I don’t buy into it. Hasn’t worked for me once. Everytime I have tried that method, I’ve ended up with over cooked, fall off the bone mush. BTW….fall off the bone….that’s a sign that your ribs have been overcooked. Don’t buy into that advertising hype. Ribs should have a bit of pull to them when you take a bite, they shouldn’t fall off the bone. At least that’s the way I see it, you can cook your ribs fall off the bone if you want to. I’ve tried modifying this method and have found a 3-1-and then however much time is needed to finish them off method works best for me.

4 hours in, after removing from foil.

     After 3 hours of smoke, one hour wrapped in foil with some liquid to braise it, the ribs came out almost done. I left them on the Egg for about another 20-30 minutes for the bark to firm up before pulling them off. Notice the missing skirt and rib ends in the above picture? Of course not, they were already done, pulled and eaten by this point. Cooks treat.

Done

     Look how far the meat pulled back from the ends of the bones! These were almost over done.

Cutting up the ribs

     And check out that smoke ring! We plated them up with some corn that we grilled after the ribs were done, some pasta salad and some baked beans.

Plated up

     This was a perfect Sunday dinner for us. The cherry wood really complimented the ribs well. It left a nice smoke ring, but was a strong smokey flavor like you sometimes get using a heavier wood. I had forgotten how peppery the Salt Lick rub was and I might have used it a bit heavily on the ribs, but the sweetness of the corn and the coolness of the pasta salad played off it nicely. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water, glad I packed some of the leftovers for lunch today.

     (If you happened to notice, I apologize, but some of the pictures are blurry. My camera lens got a smudge on it somehow and I didn’t realize that until I looked over the pictures Monday. If you didn’t notice it, nevermind. The lens has now been cleaned. )