bbq

Based off a Meat Church recipe with some tweaks.

Trimmed, pulled membrane and dry brined with kosher salt the day before.

Took ribs out of refrigerator about an hour before I wanted to put them on to get the rub(s) on them and get them closer to room temp.

Starting on underside of ribs, gave a light spray with duck fat as a binder. Applied a pretty good coating of Meat Church Honey Hog Hot. Let ribs sit about 20 minutes to let rub become wet looking.

Flipped ribs over, hit with duck fat spray as a binder again. Applied a very light coat of Honey Hog Hot, then came in with a heavier coat of Meat Church Texas Sugar rub. Finished the top side of the ribs with some more 16 mesh black pepper (Texas Sugar has pepper but I like pepper).

Camp Chef Woodwind Pro had been turned when rubs came out of refrigerator. Using Knotty Wood Almond pellets. Started at 250 F with smoke setting on 10.

After rub on top side of ribs looking wet (about 20 minutes again) put ribs into smoker. Added 50/50 mix of pecan and cherry wood into Woodwind Pros smoke box. Feed chucks at same ratio into smoke box for first 3 hours, check smoke box every 30 minutes of so to add wood chunks.

After 2 hours, checked tops of ribs to see if rub was set and rotated the 3 racks of ribs, swapping positions and rotating front to back. Since rub was set I started spritzing with 50/50 water/apple cider vinegar (ACV).

At 3 hour mark rubs we’re cooking faster than I wanted to hit my mark for serving, so I turned down the heat to 225F. Was getting more bone pull back than I expected for 3 hours.

At hour 4, pulled the ribs to wrap them. Turned smoker up to 275F. Wrapped each rack in 2 sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil with a light spritz of ACV and a small amount of Blues Hog Tennessee Red BBQ sauce (vinegar based sauce). Turned ribs meat side down on sauce and wrapped up. Repeated for all 3 racks. Back into the smoker, turned down smokers smoke setting since I didn’t want to add more smoke and temps are more accurate with a lower smoke setting.

Checked at about 30 minutes and temped with the Thermapen. One rack looked good, good destruction on underside bones and was temping about 207F. Other 2 racks needed more time. After about 10 minutes more, destruction looked good but they were temping a bit low at 203F. I pulled them anyway.

Took all 3 racks from foil and put back in smoker meat side up. Basted ribs with Meat Mitch Naked Whomp! Sauce I had warming up in the smoker. Normally I would add, as per Meat Church, some Rib Candy Apple Cherry Habanero sauce to BBQ sauce. As Matt Pittman says, makes to ribs look “sexy like a show cat.” However, we had a guest to day who doesn’t do hot well and I was worried the ribs alone might be too spicy for her (they weren’t) Turned smoker down to 225F and let sauce tack up on ribs for about 10 minutes.

After sauce tacked up, piled and rested 15 minutes before slicing. Picture shows 2 racks sliced, last rack was in reserve if needed (it wasn’t).