BBQ

I do love some good Baby Back Ribs. And these are pretty good. This recipe is based on one from Steven Raichlen’s Basic BBQ Rub.

To start off, you need a good rub. I don’t sauce these ribs, so the dry rub is critical. You can always add sauce when you eat them if you so desire.

Here is my modified recipe:

Ingredients

1/4 cup coarse salt (sea or kosher)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sweet paprika
3 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic flakes
1 tablespoon onion flakes
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like some heat)
1 teaspoon silicon dioxide to prevent caking (optional)

Instructions

Step 1: Combine the ingredients in the bowl and mix, breaking up any lumps in the brown sugar with your fingers. (Your fingers work better than a whisk or wooden spoon.)

Step 2: If not using the rub right away, store it in a sealed jar away from heat and light.

Now you’re ready for a nice rack (or two) of baby back ribs. I buy mine in two-packs at Sam’s Club and have excellent luck with them.

Cooking Instructions

This is based on the 2-2-1 method: 2 hours of smoke, 2 hours wrapped, and 1 hour on the grill.

Step 1: Remove the thin, papery membrane from the back of each rack of ribs.

Step 2: Generously sprinkle rub on both sides of the ribs, rubbing the seasonings onto the meat

Step 3: Place the racks of ribs in the smoker bone side down at 225-250°F (I usually run around 235°F). Smoke the ribs until for 2 hours or a bit more.

Step 4: Wrap ribs in heavy duty foil and add about 1/4 cup of apple cider. Put them back in the smoker for another 2 hours.

Step 5: Remove the ribs from the foil and put them on a hot grill and cook until they reach your desired doneness. When the ribs are done, the meat will have shrunk back from the ends of the bones and will be tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. The exterior will be dark, but not burned. This step usually only takes me 10-20 minutes over medium heat.

Step 6: Transfer the racks of ribs to a large platter or cutting board and cut the racks in half or into 2 or 3 bone portions. Serve the ribs with your favorite Barbecue Sauce on the side.

Step 7: Enjoy!

Our local Fareway grocery store had ordered some pork belly for a customer, and had some left over, so I decided to try smoking some. My original plan was to make bacon, but I got up one day and the weather was perfect to sit outside smoking meat, and I hadn’t cured my pork belly (which takes 7-10 days) so I decided on Pork Belly Burnt Ends.

I started with 1/2 of a pork belly (about 7lbs) with the skin removed. There’s a lot of fat on pork belly, and you want to leave a fair amount, but trim away some excess. I probably had over a pound of fat that I removed.

• Trim excess fat
• cut the meat into 1 1/2 to 2 inch cubes.
•  apply Extra Virgin Olive Oil (enough to coat the meat) and your favorite dry rub (if you don’t have a favorite I recommend making up some Raichlen’s Rub #2) – Be generous (use about 1 cup of dry rub for 5 lbs of meat).
• Smoke for three hours at 225-250 degrees or until you like the color of the meat. A nice bark will form starting around the three hour mark.
• Next, add the cubes to a pan (we like a heat-proof disposable pan). Into the pan add the braising liquid. We use BBQ sauce to really add that extra flavor (about 1 cup), 3-4 tablespoons of butter, which adds richness and acts as a fatty binding agent for bringing the sauce and honey together, and then 2 tablespoons of honey (or agave) to bring a stickiness and sweet characteristic. Then mix them all together
• Then cover and braise in smoker for another 60 – 90 minutes. You will find that the liquid braises at or near a boil and that the fat renders down in the burnt ends keeping the pan moist.  Again, you have added additional fat in the butter, the honey as a binder and the sauce for flavor to really render out the fat that is in the pork belly.
• Finally, remove the foil pan cover and cook for another 15 minutes to let the heat tack up that sauce,

• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoon honey

Notes:

I smoked these for 3.5 hours at 235°F using Apple wood in my Masterbuilt electric smoker. I then followed that up on the Weber Kettle charcoal grill using Kingsford charcoal with some apple wood chips thrown on top over indirect heat for 30-40 minutes to get a better bark on them. I then sauced them up and braised them on the Weber gas grill (mainly because I could control the temperature better than on the charcoal grill) for 45 minutes at 250° before removing the cover to tack them up.

This recipe is based on one I found here: http://www.vindulge.com/2017/05/smoked-pork-belly-burnt-ends-recipe-and-video/