This is my second attempt at beef short ribs. The last batch was tasty, but not as falling-apart tender as I would have liked. This time I wanted the great smoky flavor, but I also wanted to move more in the direction of classic Italian braised short ribs – less barbecue and more red wine.

Thankfully, She Cooks He Cleans has a great braised short rib recipe that I thought would adapt nicely for the Big Green Egg.

4 beef short ribs
1-2 tablespoons Dizzy Pig Cow Lick Rub
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2-3 sprigs of rosemary
2 cups red wine
2-4 cups water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 cups beef stock

I seasoned the ribs with the rub and then set the grill up for an indirect cook at 350°F, using the plate setter to diffuse the heat and a little apple wood for smoke.

When the Egg was up to temp, I put a trivet on the plate setter, set a disposable foil pan filled with the wine and 2 cups of water on the trivet, then put the grate on top of the pan and arranged the ribs on top of that.

I smoked the ribs for two hours, then removed the grate and moved the ribs into the drip pan. I added more water until the ribs were halfway covered and let them braise in the pan for an hour.

I then moved the ribs out of the drip pan and back onto the grate over the pan and smoked them for another hour.

By now the meat was starting to fall off the bone but the meat itself wasn’t very tender. Flummoxed, I took the ribs off the grill and moved the cooking inside.

I took the meat off the bones and removed any obvious connective tissue and then put the rib meat into a Dutch oven along with the de-fatted liquid from the drip pan, the balsamic vinegar, and the beef stock. I brought the works to a boil on  the stove top, then reduced it to a simmer, put the lid on, and braised the meat for yet another hour.

I served the ribs with some of the remaining pan sauce ladled over top.

The Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars Not sure what I’m doing wrong here. The ribs had great beefy/smoky taste, but were still pretty tough and dry. When we get these at our favorite Italian restaurant, they start falling apart if you look at them too hard.

I’ve got one more pack of these left in the freezer, so I’d sure take suggestions on how to do the next batch. Thanks!

The Nutrition: 3 ounces is 11 Weight Watchers points, so they had better be damn tasty. These weren’t worth the calories.

One Year Ago – Shrimp Jambalaya
Two Years Ago – Spicy Orange Wings

It is astonishing that a company can throw a load of chemical crap together and still call it food.

Well, there’s no restructured meat product, ammonium sulfate, polysorbate 80, or azodicarbonamide here. Just some fine smoked rib meat picked off the bones from the Minimalist Rib cook, shredded a bit, loaded onto an Udi’s gluten-free bun, and topped with a little Honey Hog barbecue sauce.

Yummmmmm!

Every so often you just need to break a recipe down to the basics. I make some fine ribs (if I do say so myself), but I think I’m starting to get mired down in all the bells and whistles - mustard slather, spice rubs, misting, foiling, 3-2-1, saucing, blah, blah, blah…

In an attempt to pare down the ribs to their smoky/savory/tender essence, here’s my minimalist recipe:

3 racks of baby-back ribs
Fresh-ground sea salt
Fresh-ground back pepper

I set the Big Green Egg up for a raised direct cook at 300°F. I didn’t use a plate setter to diffuse the heat, but did use a Woo2 extender to raise the cooking grid up about 4 inches further from the heat.

While the Egg was getting up to temp, I seasoned both sides of the ribs with the salt and pepper. Yep – nothing but salt and pepper. And just a moderate coating, as you can see, they weren’t caked with seasoning.

I put in a good sized chunk of apple wood for smoke, and when the smoke changed from white (bad) to blue (good), I put the ribs on bone side down for an hour, then flipped them and let them go for another hour.

I figured it would take about 3 hours at 300°F, but when I flipped them at the 2 hour mark they were already showing signs of being done – the slabs started to crack when I picked up one end with a pair of tongs and the meat had also started to pull back from the bones. I left them on, bone side down, for another 30 minutes. By the time they hit the 2 1/2 hour mark they were so done that it was tough to take them off the grate in one piece.

I let the ribs rest for 10 minutes and served them dry with some Honey Hog Sauce on the side.

The Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars
I gotta admit, I was surprised at how good these ribs tasted right off the bone – no sauce or anything. They were smoky and tender and very flavorful. They even had a pretty good bark (that crispy crust on the outside) from just the salt and pepper.

Would the ribs have been better if I had slathered/rubbed/basted/foiled/glazed them? Sure, but not necessarily a whole lot better. The ribs and smoke are bringing the majority of the flavor to the party all by themselves. The rest is mostly window dressing. Tasty window dressing, true, but simple recipes like this sometimes show you just how little tweaking and fussing the basic ingredients really need.

I knocked off half a point because the doneness across the ribs was a little uneven – the leaner flat end was pretty crispy while the fatter curved end could have used another 30 minutes on the grill. This might have been from using raised direct heat, but it also might have been from using smaller ribs that showed a big difference in thickness from one end to the other.

The Nutrition:
While ribs won’t ever be diet food, these weren’t that bad – 460 calories for 8 ounces of meat (4 to 6 bones worth), 12 Weight Watchers points. Leaving out the sugary rubs and serving them dry with the sauce on the side helped to cut a lot of carbs. Rather than the traditional sides, we lightened it up with corn (frozen from this summer) and cauliflower fauxtatos – look for a pre-Thanksgiving post on this great (borrowed) idea.

I wanted to try a version of my Sticky Hog sauce using honey as the main sweetener.

1 cup honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1/4 cup gluten-free Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until all the sugar has dissolved and the sauce starts to thicken a little bit (about five minutes).

Bottle and store in the fridge.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
This is maybe an even better sauce than Sticky Hog. It has plenty of kick, but the honey gives it a rounder, more mellow taste. I think the addition of mustard and reduction in the amount of black pepper also helps round out the flavor. The allspice brings a nice warm sweetness to everything.

Notes for version 2.0 – maybe a little more allspice, maybe regular chili powder instead of ancho, and maybe try 50/50 brown sugar and honey.

Labor Day is pretty much the end of summer up around these parts. The air is turning light and cool and we’re getting a lot less daylight. I fire up the Big Green Egg mostly year-round, so I’ll still be out grilling, but the days of sitting out on the deck in shorts and t-shirts are numbered.

We were supposed to spend it hanging out with my family, but my dear wife came down with the crud and we were both out of commission for most of the weekend.  I didn’t figure I’d be doing any cooking, but she perked up a bit on Monday and out of the blue asked if I’d make her some ribs.

Sure thing, honey.

I tried a variation on my Express Ribs technique; cooking the ribs hotter and faster, then braising them in foil, and finally finishing them unwrapped. I set the Egg up for a raised, direct cook at 300°F with some apple wood for smoke.

I seasoned a couple of nice racks of baby back ribs with a heavy coat of Tasty Licks Ribit Rub. The ribs went on bone side down for an hour, then I flipped them ribs bone side up and let them go for another hour.

Then I removed the ribs to a sheet of heavy-duty foil and wrapped them up tightly. I did the same thing with a second layer of foil. The ribs then went back on, meat side down, for an hour.

After an hour of braising, I removed the ribs from the foil and tried to put them on the grill bone side down. I got one rack moved over intact, but the other was so done that it had started to fall apart before I even touched it.

I got both racks over to the grill as best I could and sauced them with the new version of my Sticky Hog sauce and let them cook for another 10 minutes. Since flipping them was not an option, I gave them a final coat of sauce and (carefully) moved them off the grill.

I let them rest for 10 minutes before serving.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
My dear wife LOVED these ribs. I was just happy that she was feeling better, so I sure wouldn’t argue with her. As done as they looked coming out of the foil, I was afraid they’d be mushy or soft. But going with a raised, direct cook meant that they were falling apart tender, but they still had a good bit of bark and some nice chew to them. Perfect way to say goodbye to summer.

The new sauce is a real winner too.

Normally when I’m doing pulled pork I use Boston butt, but when we ordered our pig, I made sure ask for the picnic as well. Contrary to their names, these cuts come from the front leg of the pig. The butt is the shoulder and the picnic is the foreleg.

Because these cuts do the hard work of moving the pig around, they have big bones running through them and are full of connective tissue, fat, and multiple muscle groups. Doesn’t sound like anything that anybody in their right mind would want to eat, right? But that’s the joy of barbecue – taking something cheap and chewy and turning it into something tender and tasty.

I had a request from some friends to cook for a small party, so I went with 2 butts (on the right) and 2 picnics. I seasoned them with a healthy dusting of Dizzy Pig’s Dizzy Dust.

Normally when I do pulled pork it’s low ‘n’ slow – 225°F for 16-20 hours until the meat hits 210°F internal and starts to fall apart. But I’ve also had good luck cooking the butts at a higher temp and then finishing them in foil. Due to weather and logistics, I decided to go the hot and fast route this time. I set the Big Green Egg up for an indirect cook at 350°F. This meant filling the firebox with lump and using a plate setter and drip pan to diffuse the heat. When the cooker was up to temp, I added some chucks of apple wood for smoke.

I put the butts on the bottom grate and the picnics on top of the extended grid and let them cook for 5 hours at 350°F, until they had developed a nice dark bark on the outside and had hit 160°F on the inside.

At this point the meat was done, but it was nowhere near tender. To get to tender I needed to break down all of that connective tissue into melty collagen. That’s where the foil comes in.

I set the first hunk o’ pig in the middle of a large jelly roll pan and started to pull it apart using a pair of bear paws. As I do more of these multi-butt cooks, I’ve started to refine my pulling technique a bit. The first pass with the paws was just to remove the bones and any large pieces of fat, and to start to separate the muscle groups.

Then I set up a second pan and started working by hand to to remove all the inedible bits and move just the meat into the second pan. As I did this I started to open up the muscles and separate the meat fibers.

When all the butts and picnics were done (I kept them separate for pulling so that I could compare the difference between the two cuts) I put the meat into a large roaster with a bit of finishing sauce mixed with pan drippings and went through it one more time with the paws to finely shred the meat.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
I saved a bit of the picnic for me (testing purposes, of course) and sent the rest on with our friends. They reported that the reunion went well and everybody liked the pork.

The picnic was good, though a little drier than I would have liked. It had good smoke flavor with a decent amount of smoky, chewy bark. The picnic meat was noticeably different from the butt – darker with more and thicker stands of meat. It didn’t pull as finely as the butt, but seemed moister. I’d definitely try it again, although next time I’d like to try a picnic shoulder (a whole shoulder with the butt and picnic still attached to each other) and do it low n’ slow.

I’ve been wanting to cook ribs, but the weather has been so cool and stormy that it’s been tough to find the time to get them done without getting drenched or blown off the deck.

It looked like I had a good opportunity coming up on Saturday, but I wanted to shorten the the cooking time just in case we had the change plans.  So rather than my usual straight 5 hour cook, I decided to speed things up by going with the 3-2-1 method at a higher temperature.

The 3-2-1 (or in this case 1.5-1-.75) method it is a great way to cook ribs long enough so that they are tender without drying them out. The first number is how many hours the ribs are smoked over indirect heat unwrapped. The second number is how many hours they are cooked after being double wrapped in heavy-duty foil. The final number is how many hours they are finished unwrapped. This combination gives the ribs a smoky flavor, breaks down the toughness of the meat, and adds a final crispy bark.

I had 2 nice racks of baby back ribs that I seasoned heavily with Tasty Licks Ribit Rub courtesy of Fred’s Music & BBQ Supply.

I set up my Big Green Egg for an indirect cook at 350°F (that’s right, three-fifty) – filling the firebox with lump charcoal and using an inverted plate setter to diffuse the heat and a drip pan with a little water in it to catch the fat. I used a chunk of guava wood for smoke.

I arranged the ribs bone side down on the grate, then closed the lid and let the BGE do its magic for an hour. I flipped the ribs bone side up, and let them go for another 30 minutes. Then I removed the ribs to a sheet of heavy-duty foil and wrapped them up tightly. I did the same thing with a second layer. The ribs then went back on, meat side down, for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I flipped the rib bundle over so it was bone side down and let it go for another 30 minutes.

After their braise in the foil you can see how the meat has really started to pull away from the bone.

After an hour of braising, I removed the ribs from the foil and put them on the grill bone side down. I let them cook for 30 minutes and then started checking for doneness. When ribs are done a slab will start to crack when you pick up one end with a pair of tongs. These were already at that point. All I had to do was look at them hard and the meat would start to pull away from the bone.

I sauced the meat side with Sticky Hog and let them cook for another 10 minutes. I flipped them carefully, sauced the bone side and let them go for another ten. Then I flipped them meat side up and gave them a final coat of sauce and let them cook for a final 5 minutes.

I removed the ribs from the grill and let them rest about 10 minutes before serving tearing into them.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
Despite the short 3 hour and 15 minute cook time, these were some of the most tender and tasty ribs I’ve ever made. The meat had a bit of chewy bark and pulled away from the bone easily, but didn’t fall off in a soggy mess. The Ribit Rub gave the ribs a nice paprika-laden warmth.

I was a little disappointed that the ribs didn’t have more bark and were a little light on smokiness. The smoke I understand – less time in the smoke equals less smokiness. But I thought that the temp would make up for the time on the bark.

Update – The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars: I had a chance to do these again this weekend and used oak and apple wood for smoke. The added wood really bumped up the smokiness. I also switched to Dizzy Pig’s Dizzy dust for the rub, which gave me better bark , but less heat .

I don’t know if I like all the futzing around with the foil, but it’s good to know that if I need to I can crank out some quality ribs in a limited amount of time.

Pulled Pork Shortcut (April 16, 2010) – a year ago I was trying to figure out exactly how I was going to get 8 pork butts cooked for an upcoming graduation party. This first attempt wasn’t bad, but I eventually went with a hotter & faster cooking method that let me get all the cooking done in one weekend.

Gluten-Free Egg Rolls (April 12, 2009) – two years ago my dear wife helped me make up these treats. They were tasty, but a bit putzy and didn’t freeze well. I’d like to try them again, but fry them this time and then freeze off the extras.

Bacon – Buckboard and Canadian-style (April 15, 2008) – three years ago I took my first shot at curing my own bacon. It was such a hit that nowadays I regularly make 15 pound batches and freeze it off for later.

This morning I shot six holes in my freezer.
I think I got cabin fever…
I gotta go where it’s warm!

BOAT DRINKS, Jimmy Buffett

We’ve had continuous snow cover for over 120 days, 78.7 inches this season, and another 4 inches expected within the next couple of days. I’ve given up trying to clear the deck and have had to satisfy myself with shoveling a path to the Big Green Egg.

It’s supposed to warm up a bit this week, but it’s still a little too cold to do a whole lot of outdoor cooking. So since I can’t do it, I might as well talk about it.

What do you call cooking food over a live flame? Is it a barbecue, grilling, or smoking? It all gets kind of complicated when you realize that what Southerners call barbecue (slow cooking over indirect heat), Texans call smoking. What us Northerners typically call barbecue (tossing brats and burgers on the grill), everyone else rightly calls grilling.  And what Texans call barbecue (slow cooking over direct heat) Southerners also call grilling.

I tend to lump it all under the slightly politically-correct sounding term  of “live-fire cooking.” While the term is accurate, it’s not very descriptive. So maybe it makes more sense to define my terms a little bit:

Smoking - any low and slow cooking where the idea is to preserve or season the food mostly with smoke rather than heat. This includes cold smoking (under 100°F) where the heat source is removed from the smoking chamber, and hot smoking (under 190°F) where you are still primarily smoking the food, but also adding just enough heat to make it safe to eat (think hams).

Barbecue - any low and slow (225-250°F) cooking where the smoke and the heat work together equally. Especially when the goal is to turn a tough cut of meat into something meltingly tender. Ribs and pulled pork are prime examples. Barbecuing may include using a moist heat (via a drip pan or by mopping the meat with liquid) or wrapping the meat in foil for part of the cook.

Grilling – hot and fast (350°F+) cooking over a direct or indirect fire. Smoke plays into the taste a little bit, but it’s usually smoke from dripping meat juices, not smoldering wood chunks. Think satays and carne asada in additional to the previously-mentioned burgers and brats.

So what kind of live-fire cooking do I do? In the end, I guess I’m more interested in how the food tastes than in how I got it there. When I can actually get out to the Big Green Egg, I do a bit of all of the above, plus a good deal of Dutch oven cooking, roasting, planking, and even some baking (the BGE is a VERY versatile cooker).

A lot of my cooks are kind of a hybrid with a raised direct set up – direct heat (no diffuser or water pan), but with a small fire and the grate raised up about 4 additional inches. This lets me grill foods at higher temps without burning them and barbecue foods low and slow while getting both the flavor of wood smoke and meat drippings. It also lets me put a pan of veggies under my chickens and roast both to perfection at the same time.

Well, all this writing about food is making me hungry. I hear we might hit 41°F this weekend! That’s almost shorts and t-shirt weather up here. Maybe Spring could just be right around the corner. I won’t believe it till it happens, but even a thin sliver of hope is welcome right now.

Just one big unsolicited plug here for Dizzy Pig Barbecue Company. Over the years I have had nothing but good luck and tasty results using their barbecue rubs and it’s about time I told everybody out there how good they are.

Dizzy Dust is my “go-to” rub for ribs and butts.
Raging River is a huge hit on salmon.
Spicy Swamp Venom is great on wings.
Shaking the Tree is a better-than-lemon-pepper rub for chicken and pork.
Red Eye Express, Raising the Steaks, and Cowlick are all in my rotation for  steak and burger seasoning.
Jamaican Firewalk is the jerk king, mon.
Pineapple Head rocks on sweet potatoes.

They have a new newsletter out this month and they’re in the running for About.com’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Award for Barbecue Rub (vote early and vote often). They’ve also just moved into a new production facility and have great plans in the works.

Thanks to Chris and the gang for producing some of the best fresh, hand-blended rubs out there!

While it has been awfully freakin’ cold outside, and I feel myself called by the siren song of our new pans, I have not forsaken my BGE. During a brief break from the cold, I fired up these barbecued thighs.

As any grillmeister worth their kosher salt knows, barbecue is a style of cooking, not a sauce. To make these barbecued thighs, I went with a low ‘n’ slow cook to give them that rich, smoky flavor and bite-through skin.

8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
2-3 tablespoons of your favorite barbecue rub (I used Tasty Licks Original BBQ Rub)
1/2 cup Sticky Hog barbecue sauce

At least 2 hours before cooking, dust the thighs with the rub, lay them out in a single layer on a sheet pan, and let them sit uncovered in the fridge. This step seasons the thighs and also helps to dry out the skin a bit to keep it crispy.

Set the grill up for a raised direct cook at 250°. On the BGE I didn’t use a heat diffuser or drip pan, but I did set my grate on a Woo 2 rig to give me another 8 inches of clearance above the firebox. So the thighs would smoke and not get too crispy, I filled my firebox about 1/2 of the way up and made sure I had a uniform layer of well-packed lump charcoal. I added a chunk of apple wood for smoke.

Put the thighs on the grill skin side down, close the lid, and let them cook for 30 minutes. Flip them and let them go another 30 minutes.

Check to make sure that there aren’t any hot spots and that none of the thighs are cooking too fast. Rearrange them on the grid if needed. Leave them on skin side up for another 30 minutes.

Check for doneness – when the juices run clear and the internal temperature in the largest thigh hits 180°F (after 2 hours total in this case), brush the thighs on both sides with the barbecue sauce. Let them cook 10 minutes more and brush them again. Let them cook  5 more minutes, brush one last time, remove them to a warm plate, and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
This wasn’t just grilled chicken with some sauce slapped on it. This was proper barbecue – smoky, sweet, spicy, and tangy. The thighs were very juicy, and while the skin wasn’t as crisp as I would have liked, it wasn’t rubbery either. Just a little longer cook once the sauce was on, or maybe a longer rest uncovered in the fridge, and they would have been perfect.

When I first decided to cook ribs for the weekend, it was a balmy 19°F and I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. By Saturday an arctic airmass had dropped in. When I took the ribs off the Egg for dinner it was 2°F and I was wearing my barbecue gloves more to protect against freezing than flames.

But I was dying to try out my new Sticky Hog barbecue sauce,  so I turned the other frostbitten cheek to my wife’s concern, bundled up, and treated it as one of those “character building” experiences.

I set up my Big Green Egg for a direct cook at 225 to 250°F. I didn’t use a heat diffuser or drip pan, but I did set my grate on a Woo 2 to give me another 8 inches of clearance above the firebox. So the ribs wouldn’t get too crispy, filled my firebox about 3/4 of the way up and made sure I had a uniform layer of well- packed lump charcoal.

While the Egg was heating up, I seasoned the ribs with a generous coating of Dizzy Pig’s Dizzy Dust into both sides.

Once the fire was well-established across the entire firebox – giving me a low, even heat – I added a couple of chunks of smoking wood (guava and apple this time) and adjusted the vents to bring the temperature at the grate down to 225°F.

I arranged the ribs bone side down on the grate, closed the lid, and let them smoke undisturbed for an hour. I flipped them meat side down. I let them cook for another hour. I flipped them again so they were meat side up and let them cook until they had been on 4-1/2 hours total.

I started checking for doneness. Doneness with ribs is determined more by feel than it is by time or temp. A slab of ribs that are done will “break” or almost fold in half and start to crack when you pick up one end with a pair of tongs. The meat should also have pulled back from the bone at least half an inch from the end of the bones and tugging on a bone should show that it’s ready to come apart.

One of the racks was done at 4 1/2 hours, but the other two where lagging behind, so I slid the larger racks together, stacked the little one on top to protect it from the heat, and let them cook for another 30 minutes.

All of the racks where done at about 5 hours. I flipped them bone side up and brushed them with Sticky Hog barbecue sauce and let them cook for another 15 minutes. I flipped them meat side up sauced them again and let them cook for another 15 minutes. I gave them one last light coat of sauce, removed them from the smoker, and let them sit 10 minutes before serving.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
My dear wife proclaimed these to be the best ribs I’ve ever made. I thought they were just a touch dry, but who am I to argue with her . Doing them raised over direct heat makes them more crisp than tender. They didn’t fall off the bone, but they did surrender gracefully to the bite.

The sauce was pretty remarkable on the meat as well. It stuck (froze?) right to the racks and tightened up into a nice glaze. The tangy sweetness really complimented the meat. This is definitely a keeper sauce.

We get some really nice beef from my brother-in-law and you’ll see it featured a lot on this site. When we ordered up this last quarter of a beef from him, the butcher asked if I wanted the ribs. Of course I did. So when I started loading meat into the freezer, I expected to come across a big ol’ pack of dino-ribs.  Nope, just a half dozen little packs labeled ”Ribs.”

Hmmmm… must be short ribs. Now I’ve eaten short ribs, but never cooked them before. I quizzed the fine folks at the Egghead Forum and Fearlesskitchen pointed me to his version of Adam Perry Lang’s short ribs. They looked so promising that I decided to use it as a starting point for my own version.

Mustard Rub
8 pounds bone-in beef short ribs
3 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Your favorite brisket rub (I went with Tasty Licks Black Bart’s Brisket Rub courtesy of Fred’s Music & BBQ Suppy)

Combine the mustard, Worcestershire, and vinegar. Moisten all sides of the ribs with the mustard mixture, then dust the ribs heavily with the rub. You can do this right before the cook, but I like to do it the night before to let the rub melt into the ribs.

Set your smoker up for at least a 6 hour indirect cook at 300°F. On the Big Green Egg this means filling the firebox with lump charcoal and using an inverted plate setter to diffuse the heat and a drip pan with a little water in it to catch the fat. You are going to smoke the ribs first to give them that wonderful flavor and render out a lot of the fat, and then braise them in aluminum foil to make them tender.

Once the smoker is up to temp, toss in your smoking wood (I used pecan), and arrange the ribs bone side down on the grate. Close the lid and let the smoker do its magic for 4 to 5 hours, or until the ribs reach 160°F internal.

Wrapping Mixture
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon butter

This is for the braise. While the ribs are cooking, prepare the wrapping mixture. Start by pouring the beef broth into a small saucepan and bringing it to a boil. Let boil for about 10 minutes, or until the broth has reduced to about 1/2 cup. Reduce the heat to low and add the sugar, honey, Worcestershire, vinegar, and butter. Stir and cook just until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

When the ribs are ready, lay down a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil in a 9×13 baking pan.  Add the ribs, meat side down, pour the wrapping mixture over them. Put another sheet of aluminum foil on top of the ribs and crimp to seal the two sheets together.

Put the pan full of ribs back on the smoker for an hour, or until the ribs reach 190°f internal. Remove the meat from the smoker, and allow to rest in foil for 15-30 minutes.

Serve drizzled with pan juices or your favorite barbecue sauce.

The Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

These were some very tasty ribs – rich and peppery with plenty of smoke.  The Black Bart’s added a bit of background heat from the cayenne and a good bit of back pepper spiciness up front. This is a great beef rub.

The 3 stars are my fault. I ran short of time and didn’t leave the ribs on the smoker long enough and didn’t return them to the smoker after the braise like Lang suggests. As a result – I didn’t render out as much fat as I should have and didn’t cook the ribs long enough to make them really tender. They were good, but if I had done them right they should have just melted on the plate. Better luck next time.

Fred, of Fred’s Music & BBQ Supply, was kind enough to send me some of his Tasty Licks rubs for me to try out. Since I was dying for wings (when am I not dying for wings?) I decided to try a batch with his Original Rub.

I usually cook wings in the medium-high range (350°F or so) without any added wood smoke, but this time I decided to slow smoke them for a couple of hours over apple wood before cranking the heat up to crisp the skin.

6 fresh chicken wings
Olive oil
1-2 tablespoons Tasty Licks BBQ Company “Original” All Purpose BBQ Rub and Seasoning

In  medium bowl, lightly coat wings with olive oil. Dust the wings with some of the rub and give them a toss. Dust and toss again, making sure that all of the wings are covered with the rub.

Set a cooling rack on a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan. Lay wings out on a rack and let them sit uncovered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, and preferably overnight.

Set the grill up for an indirect cook at 250°. Once the grill is up to temperature, add your smoking wood and arrange the wings on the grate top side up. Close the lid and smoke for an hour. Flip the wings and smoke for another hour. Now bump the heat up to 350°F and cook for 15 minutes. Flip the wings and cook for another 15, or until they are brown and crispy.

Serve them hot off the grill with some Horseradish Mustard Sauce for dipping.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
This is a great rub! I tasted it right out of the bottle and it was a lovely blend of heat and sweetness. You could really taste the chili powder, but it wasn’t overwhelming – kind of a nice, long, low burn. The sugar and salt hit you right up front and really helped balance the spice in the rub.

The wings were very tasty done low and slow. The skin stayed crisp while the meat was melty and tender.  I loved the smoky flavor and the rub really complemented that. You could call them barbecue wings, but not in that just-slap-a-sauce-on-them kind of way. They had that true barbecue taste that you can only get from the blending of spices and smoke over low heat.

Thanks for sharing, Fred!

We got some great looking rump roasts with our last order of beef. I wanted to do a saucy falling-apart dish like my Italian Beef, but  with more of a smoky, barbecue base. So I decided to smoke the roasts first before braising them.

Barbecue Beef
2 boneless rump roasts (3-4 pounds each)
2-3 tablespoons barbecue rub (I used Dizzy Pig’s Cowlick)
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (12 ounce) bottle of beer
1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I used John Henry’s Honey Barbecue)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed

Dust the roasts heavily with the rub. Use your hands to work it into all the sides.

Set your grill up for an indirect cook for at least 4 hours at low (250°F) heat with a drip pan under the meat.  I set the Big Green Egg up with an inverted plate setter to diffuse the heat, a trivet on the plate setter, and the roasts in a v-rack roasting pan on top of that. Pour the beer into the roaster pan.

Add some wood chunks for smoke (I used pecan) and smoke the roasts for about 3 hours, or until they reach 160°F internal temperature.

Remove the roasts to a large dutch oven. Deglaze the roaster with a little water to loosen up all the brown bits. Pour the pan sauce over the meat. Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, barbecue sauce, and enough water to come half way up the roasts.

Put the lid on the dutch oven and move to the grill. Cook for an hour at 250°F. Remove the lid and flip the meat over in the dutch oven. Cook for another hour with the dutch oven lid off.

After an hour, check the roasts for doneness. They should be 200+°F internal and have started to fall apart. Remove the dutch oven from the grill. Cut or pull the meat apart into serving sizes. Serve as a main dish, or atop a crusty french roll as a sandwich. Top with additional barbecue sauce if desired.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
Very tender and a great, rich, smoky taste. Could use a more vinegary sauce. The meat stayed very moist, but I’d like to try it with a chuck roast that has more internal fat and will fall apart more.