Pork Spareribs

[applor]

Re: Pork Spareribs

I'm cooking beef ribs tonight so I'll give the smoking part another shot.

[david s]

Re: Pork Spareribs

As long as your door seals pretty well the chips just smoke rather than flame. At least that what happens in my little oven. Pork spare ribs are just so ridiculously expensive here and you are paying mostly for bone. An alternative is to slow cook some pork chops, which are way cheaper and have plenty of meat. After the fire has died and the sting is out of the oven I throw some in a baking dish with half a glass of red, throw half a handful of hickory chips on the coals, close the door fully, when they're done baste with pork spare rib sauce and put them back in for a good long roasting.

[rsandler]

Re: Pork Spareribs

You make a fire, once the fire has reduced to embers, you place the wet wood chips on the embers and once they heat up you get smoke. Throw them on a flaming wood and you`re get fire.

There is an easier way, if you can lay hands on hickory chunks, rather than chips. These are roughly fist-sized pieces of wood. In the states you can buy a 20lb bag for ~$17 and Home Depot; not sure what's available in Oz.

I fill a quick-start chimney with hickory chunks, and put that in the WFO (depending on your entry, this may be a touch awkward). Light it with a newspaper, and let it go until the chunks are all lit (10-15 minutes). Dump the coals out onto the floor of the oven, then shove them to the back with your oven rake. If you want, throw a couple of soaked chunks on top of the pile now. Put the meat in, then close the door all the way for a few seconds to extinguish the active flame. Then crack the door open. The chunks should smoke for 1-2 hours before dying out, which gives you plenty of smokey flavor. Once the smoke is all the way gone, wrap if you want to and then close the door all the way to retain heat.

[Laurentius]

Re: Pork Spareribs

You make a fire, once the fire has reduced to embers, you place the wet wood chips on the embers and once they heat up you get smoke. Throw them on a flaming wood and you`re get fire.

[applor]

Re: Pork Spareribs

Yeah I did try and start by smoking but I couldn't get the wood to smoke so I had to leave it!
I am asking how you get your hickory wood to smoke in a WFO...

[Laurentius]

Re: Pork Spareribs

Hi Applor,

Smoking is not an afterthought! Normally you start by smoking, the foiling of the meat is to retain juiciness, if you want to sauce and add a glaze, then you unwrap coat with sauce and cook uncovered for a few minutes not allowing it to dry out.

[applor]

Re: Pork Spareribs

Doing pork spare ribs myself right now.

Had them in the oven for a few hours and are now wrapped.

My problem: How do you light the hickory wood for smoking?

I have some which I soaked in water for 25m as per instructions. I drained and put them on the coals/ash but they didn't started smoking.
I tried lighting them with my butane torch but that didn't work either.
Oven was around 130c (265f) when I put them in. It's now at 115c or so I think.

How do you guys get your hickory wood to smoke in a WFO after it's been out for 16 hours?
Do I need to buy some coals and fire them under the wood wrapped in alfoil with holes?

ps. ribs will still be awesome coz they are marinated and slow cooked, just wont be smokey.

[GrahamG]

Re: Pork Spareribs

You ain't another Brethren are ya' ...........

Gulf, I am though...tried different things but being in the UK is a drawback

[Brad English]

Re: Pork Spareribs

Thinking cooked to long. Not long enough it would not have been so dry. One more thing ....it could have been one tough pig.

I think I would have smoked early then wrapped in foil. I think the last 1.75 opened did the drying out.

I agree with you on this Faith. I smoke a decent amount of ribs in a Smokey Mountain Bullet smoker. The best results I have is getting the smoke on them early and then wrapping them in foil for the last 3 hours or so in a 4-5 hour smoke.

I haven't tried this in my WFO, but hope to soon.

[sslandry]

Re: Pork Spareribs

I will have to try the low heat approach and then crank it up with them foil covered with apple juice and brown sugar. Sounds delicious.

Until now, I have been having good luck with them being tender and moist cooking them uncovered using higher heat than you guys describe(less than 300)for a shorter time by brining them while firing the oven in a 5% salt and brown sugar solution. They were turning out dry and tough until I started brining recently. I am impatient and usually decide to do ribs too late in the day to cook so low and slow, but I will definately try it when I have more forsight.

[mrchipster]

Re: Pork Spareribs

You ain't another Brethren are ya' ...........

Gulf,
No but thanks for the link it looks interesting.

[Gulf]

Re: Pork Spareribs

You ain't another Brethren are ya' ...........

[mrchipster]

Re: Pork Spareribs

Smoke penetrates better into raw meat at low temps 185-250 for 1-3 hours depending on how smoky you like it, After the smoking increase the heat and wrap in foil as others have indicated to tenderize and moisten another 2-4 hours at 250-300.

Slice them into the shape of the photo to really impress your finger food guests.

[sslandry]

Re: Pork Spareribs

I cook mine for about 2 hours when the oven is around 250-300. I agree that you overlooked them. Better luck next time.

[V-wiz]

Re: Pork Spareribs

Do this and you will love your ribs.
Set the oven at 250-275. Smoke for 2-3 hours, if the smoke dies out its okay just let it ride, Then Foil the ribs for 1-2 hours, when foiling sprinkle some brown sugar, adding honey is optional, then pour some apple juice into the foil, wrap it tightly in heavy duty alum foil, make sure nothing drips out, double wrap if you have to. After the 1-2 hours in the foil remove them from the foil and let it ride for another 30-60 min to get a nice bark on the outside. If you do this you will have soft, moist, smoky, juicy and fall off the bone ribs. Good luck and have fun.