Rib Smoking Review

After my fairly successful venture with smoking brisket, I decided that my next pursuit would be a few slabs of spare ribs.  I started out by buying about 9.5-lbs of spare ribs.  Click on over to my posting on dry rub prep to see how I got these delectable pieces of meat ready.

You can read about the rest of the cooking process after the jump.

8th Annual Big Apple BBQ Block Party

For more information, visit http://www.bigapplebbq.org.

The Eighth Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party takes place in Madison Square Park June 12-13, 2010, from 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM. The weekend-long event takes place every June and brings together the country’s top pitmasters who cook up their award-winning food for over a hundred thousand barbecue enthusiasts. Set against the beautiful backdrop of Madison Square Park, the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party attracts people from near and far to sustain and celebrate America’s authentic culinary and musical traditions.

Admission to the event is free. Take in the sights, sounds and smells of the event – from great live music to engaging seminars and cooking demonstrations – without ever dropping a dollar. The country’s best barbecue is available from top pitmasters for only $8 per plate.

Proceeds from the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party support the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the organization responsible for the beauty, ongoing maintenance, and programming of this historic park.

The Novice Smoker will be in attendance – taking pictures and testing all the food – for quality control reasons, of course 🙂 If you’re in the area, come on down for some good music and great food. And, the best part is that it all goes towards a great cause.

Dry Rub Pork Spare Ribs – Prep Time

My second adventure in smoking will be two slabs of pork spare ribs.  Once I again, I am deferring to the knowledge of the good folks over at Smoker Cooking.com for recipes and smoking suggestions.  It’s been so far, so good with these folks and they haven’t steered me wrong yet.  Unlike brisket, I have actually cooked pork spare ribs before.  However, the last time I cooked them, I used a slow cooker recipe that basically had me put a lot of BBQ sauce and some dark beer into a crock pot, dump the ribs in, let em cook for a hell of a long time, and then finish them on the grill.  They turned out quite well, but I now know that I could have increased the quality of my final product significantly just by preparing the ribs correctly.

Image courtesy of Smoker Cooking.com

Click on through to see how I went about getting the ribs ready for smoking.

We Have Takeoff!

Ever since I bought my smoker – and, truth be told, for a long time before that – I’ve wanted to make restaurant quality brisket. Brisket, to me, epitomizes what true BBQ food is all about. It’s just a tasty, hearty, succulent meat that, when prepared correctly, just makes your mouth water. So, I decided to jump in the deep end and see if I can swim. With my first run on my new smoker, I decided to give a 4.5-lbs piece of brisket a shot. Results after the jump.

Brisket Prep

I’m going to prep my first brisket tonight.  I’ve got a 4.5lbs slab o’ meet and I can’t wait to get this train moving.  I’m still up in the air over dry rub vs. marinade.  Any suggestion?