Smoked Pork Ribs in the Pit BarrelINGREDIENTS:
- One rack of pork spare ribs - Olive oil or... - Prepared yellow mustard (optional) - 1/4 cup of Gusto's Memphis rub + more for aftercare if desired - Two cherry and two apple wood chunks - Fogo Super Premium Hardwood Charcoal |
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*** A look at sourcing your pork follows this recipe. ***
We smoked the ribs in a Pit Barrel smoker. They took approximately 3 hours from start-to-finish. We prefer the ribs to 'give' a bit when taking a bite but some prefer their ribs to "fall off the bone" when eating. It's up to you! We also used hardwood charcoal instead of charcoal briquettes as briquettes tend to leave a bitter taste on foods.
DIRECTIONS:
Light half a chimney starter worth of charcoal wood and allow charcoal to burn until 3/4 of the wood is burning. Fill your PB charcoal basket with coal and pour lit coals over the basket of coals. Place rebars in appropriate holes and allow a couple of minutes for the PB to warm.
1) Trim the ribs of excessive fat. (If desired, remove the silvery lining from the back of the ribs by loosening it with a butter knife and pulling the skin off by pulling it straight across the ribs with a paper towel.)
2) Brush the ribs with olive oil then sprinkle evenly with BBQ rub. (tip: to help the rub stick to the ribs, brush the ribs with the prepared yellow mustard instead of oil. Your BBQ will not taste like mustard at the end of the cook!)
3) Place a PB hook at least two ribs in on fat part of the ribs and hang on hook in middle of smoker. Smoke covered until you can see at least 1/4'-1/2" of ribs breaking away from the meat. (tip: check the ribs every hour)
4) Carefully remove the pork from the smoker and brush with BBQ sauce. (If you don't make your own sauce, we recommend Dinosaur Original Sensuous Slathering sauce or Williamson Brothers Original BBQ sauce.)
5) Place ribs back into smoker, covered, for 30 minutes or until the ribs are caramelized.
6) Cut ribs into desired pieces and serve!
Tip: The Pit Barrel smoker tends to run hot, especially if the lid is opened at any time during the smoke. To help tame the temperature you can make the vent hole smaller and/or place tin foil around two of the holes coming out of the rebar to prevent a bit of air circulation.
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DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR MEAT?
In January 2017, a truck in Wisconsin carrying unmarked, but recognizable red Skittles, spilled out onto the road. The candies were slated to go to a farm... to feed cows. Feeding cows and pigs junk food is nothing new, but what does it mean for your final product? Is there really a difference between pigs being fed candy (or even corn & grain) and grass fed pigs when it comes solely to the taste of your meal?
PROPONENTS SAY: As the price of corn continues to rise, feeding candy to pigs is cost effective. Candy, such as ice-cream sprinkles, can cost half the price of corn.
OPPONENTS SAY: It's a cheap way to fatten already sick animals for a quick harvest.
So what's the answer? Well, it may depend on your personal values and perhaps what you can afford to prepare.
Here at Gusto we conducted an experiment. We purchased a store brand rack of pork ribs (package stated animals were fed "an all natural diet") @ $1.99/lb. and a rack of Heritage ribs (purchased from a local farmer who feeds his pigs only grass) @ $4.50/lb. We treated both racks of ribs the same: Approximately the same basic poundage of ribs, amount of fat left on the ribs, and amount of rub. We had to cook the ribs for different times in the smoker because of the difference in quality, but here are the results:
The store brand ribs took longer to cook and were still very fatty to the bite. The Heritage pork tasted very clean and took less time to cook. We did not feel the "heaviness" of the more fatty store pork when eating the Heritage. Both achieved a nice smoke ring but the quality of the Heritage meat was superior to the store bought. Overall, we preferred the Heritage ribs over the store bought, by a mile.
We smoked the ribs in a Pit Barrel smoker. They took approximately 3 hours from start-to-finish. We prefer the ribs to 'give' a bit when taking a bite but some prefer their ribs to "fall off the bone" when eating. It's up to you! We also used hardwood charcoal instead of charcoal briquettes as briquettes tend to leave a bitter taste on foods.
DIRECTIONS:
Light half a chimney starter worth of charcoal wood and allow charcoal to burn until 3/4 of the wood is burning. Fill your PB charcoal basket with coal and pour lit coals over the basket of coals. Place rebars in appropriate holes and allow a couple of minutes for the PB to warm.
1) Trim the ribs of excessive fat. (If desired, remove the silvery lining from the back of the ribs by loosening it with a butter knife and pulling the skin off by pulling it straight across the ribs with a paper towel.)
2) Brush the ribs with olive oil then sprinkle evenly with BBQ rub. (tip: to help the rub stick to the ribs, brush the ribs with the prepared yellow mustard instead of oil. Your BBQ will not taste like mustard at the end of the cook!)
3) Place a PB hook at least two ribs in on fat part of the ribs and hang on hook in middle of smoker. Smoke covered until you can see at least 1/4'-1/2" of ribs breaking away from the meat. (tip: check the ribs every hour)
4) Carefully remove the pork from the smoker and brush with BBQ sauce. (If you don't make your own sauce, we recommend Dinosaur Original Sensuous Slathering sauce or Williamson Brothers Original BBQ sauce.)
5) Place ribs back into smoker, covered, for 30 minutes or until the ribs are caramelized.
6) Cut ribs into desired pieces and serve!
Tip: The Pit Barrel smoker tends to run hot, especially if the lid is opened at any time during the smoke. To help tame the temperature you can make the vent hole smaller and/or place tin foil around two of the holes coming out of the rebar to prevent a bit of air circulation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR MEAT?
In January 2017, a truck in Wisconsin carrying unmarked, but recognizable red Skittles, spilled out onto the road. The candies were slated to go to a farm... to feed cows. Feeding cows and pigs junk food is nothing new, but what does it mean for your final product? Is there really a difference between pigs being fed candy (or even corn & grain) and grass fed pigs when it comes solely to the taste of your meal?
PROPONENTS SAY: As the price of corn continues to rise, feeding candy to pigs is cost effective. Candy, such as ice-cream sprinkles, can cost half the price of corn.
OPPONENTS SAY: It's a cheap way to fatten already sick animals for a quick harvest.
So what's the answer? Well, it may depend on your personal values and perhaps what you can afford to prepare.
Here at Gusto we conducted an experiment. We purchased a store brand rack of pork ribs (package stated animals were fed "an all natural diet") @ $1.99/lb. and a rack of Heritage ribs (purchased from a local farmer who feeds his pigs only grass) @ $4.50/lb. We treated both racks of ribs the same: Approximately the same basic poundage of ribs, amount of fat left on the ribs, and amount of rub. We had to cook the ribs for different times in the smoker because of the difference in quality, but here are the results:
The store brand ribs took longer to cook and were still very fatty to the bite. The Heritage pork tasted very clean and took less time to cook. We did not feel the "heaviness" of the more fatty store pork when eating the Heritage. Both achieved a nice smoke ring but the quality of the Heritage meat was superior to the store bought. Overall, we preferred the Heritage ribs over the store bought, by a mile.
