3-2-1, I say 3-2-1 ribs!

[addicted-to-smoke]

This thread title I find funny, but I'm laughing at myself. Before today I didn't know what "doing it 3-2-1" meant. I thought maybe it had something to do with how a snake of charcoal was setup, with the rows of stacked charcoal.

That's not what it means. At least not here.

This began as these things often do, with my eyes glazed over wandering around the grocery store in the morning. I spot pork ribs on sale, $2.50/lb and I've been sorta wanting to try them again after having so-so "luck" before. And they're "St. Louis style" which I later learned just means not baby backs and not the rib tips.

But I don't think that much about it really until I see that they are labeled COMPETITION STYLE. wait wut?

Competition thickness or whatever, I suppose. And that's also funny because I never really see any BBQ "competitions" around where I live even though I do own some Kingsford Competition charcoal. Maybe I'm a competitor after all, sez so right there.

Now the other night, @chuck s mentioned doing a cookup tonight since our house is bugging out on travel for awhile. And when I sees the competition-cut ribs I sez to myself I sez, chuck s and me ... we're nothing if not Competition Caliber are we not? Two racks into the cart, bam. I text chuck s to let him know "I have tomorrow night's dinner in the shopping cart." Later that day we finalize the plans and chuck s throws me a couple frozen beef ribs to add to the mix.

So last night I do a light slather with mustard on all of 'em and rub some of the pork with my friends' pork rub and some with The Squeal. (Beef details below.)




The BBQ sauces were used sparingly later, at the "1" mark.

I'm getting ahead of myself. I mostly followed Jeff Phillips on this, http://www.smoking-meat.com/april-23-2015-smoked-3-2-1-st-louis-style-spare-ribs

Rather than use a rib rack I cut the racks in half for my WSM, after trimming them and pulling the membranes best I could. Here's the basic initial setup with some KBB and some BBQ Wood Flavors hardwood charcoal (nice ...) and some BBQ Wood Flavors apple smoke wood,




Time goes on .......


Here's a mid-cook shot of the beef ribs and some of the pork ribs, just prior to foiling.




And here's the bottom grate, right towards the end,




I should also note that I glanced at what Aaron Franklin said about beef ribs here, http://andrewzimmern.com/2015/04/21/aaron-franklins-beef-ribs/ but in the end didn't really do any of that. Mine got seasoned with a Weber beef rub of some kind and rode the WSM along with the pork at whatever temps they saw.

Speaking of which, my top grate was initially 300 but I very soon got it to 250, then 225 where it stayed most of the 6 hrs or so the meat was cooked. With a toothpick test the meats were all pulled at the same time. Well that's not quite true, we did stick a thermometer into the beef and saw just over 180 but it was still pulled at the same time as the pork.

The beef incidentally also got foiled and spritzed with apple juice, along with the pork for Stage 2. For the last, uncovered "hour" the two BBQ sauces were divided across the meats. And I know that 3+2+1 doesn't equal 6. I can't help you there. Or maybe we did pull the meat at 3:30 and not 4:30 and I forgot. Chuck?


We fixed "Corn a la Chuck", whereby ears were tied back and much basting was done with butter, garlic, onion, salt etc.




The two char baskets might not be a "vortex" but they initially heated to 600 in the center, enough to pop a few kernels within a few seconds until we repositioned the corn better, and closed down the oven some ...




We "relaxed our meat" right out there in the neighborhood, while the corn chugged along doing what corn does best,

[addicted-to-smoke]

The flavor on everything was just crazy, with crock pot baked beans spruced up with secret hocus pocus. That corn ... what's better than food with a built-in handle?

The 2 BBQ sauces worked well I thought. The cherry-jalapneo was my favorite and the peach was chuck s' preference. I didn't sample the beef but was told it was very tender. The pork ribs almost fell apart coming off the smoker but were NOT falling off the bone. They had just the right amount of pull on them.

Really pleased with how it all turned out! I will be "doing 3-2-1" again for sure.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Oh and I have to mention another 3-2-1 I saw, which confused me.

http://virtualweberbullet.com/rib5.html

That reads like 2.5-1.5 to me ... is the "1" supposed to be the hour marinade? I also didn't understand why the recommended temp was 50 degrees hotter. I realize you can certainly do ribs at 275 but if it's supposed to be confined to the same timeframe, that's a 50-degree discrepancy, no?

[1buckie]

Oh and I have to mention another 3-2-1 I saw, which confused me.

http://virtualweberbullet.com/rib5.html

That reads like 2.5-1.5 to me ... is the "1" supposed to be the hour marinade? I also didn't understand why the recommended temp was 50 degrees hotter. I realize you can certainly do ribs at 275 but if it's supposed to be confined to the same timeframe, that's a 50-degree discrepancy, no?

Naw, that's the old 2.5 / 1.5 + 10 minutesez-z until they're the way you think they otta be....

The original intent of 3-2-1 was full spares, headbone & all, done @225 the whole way....that's why you see the 2-2-1's the 2.5-1.375-.75 type things all over the place....nobody cooks at the same temp, or that incredibly consistent of a temp (some do, with fans & electronic controllers, I bet) & there's all sizes of ribs, even ones that are generally called a certain style may be larger & fattier, for instance.....

Point of all this hoo-haw is you did your ribs by a set of standards & they came out peachy (some even had peach sauce, right?)......so, good job playin' the ball where it lies......

My personal favorite is full spare, 260f, 5-1/2+, no piddlin'....done.

[Jocool]

Nicely done. I can't believe you get pork for $2.50! I just today, paid near $60 for about 5kg of ribs, which makes it about 12lb.

[1911Ron]

Good looking ribs!  I don't mess with wrapping anymore (ok I got lazy)and I get rave reviews.

[SixZeroFour]

That last shot just sums it all up... great looking food!

[austin87]

Those lower rack ribs with the bone pulling back look excellent!

[addicted-to-smoke]

Good looking ribs!  I don't mess with wrapping anymore (ok I got lazy)and I get rave reviews.

My previous efforts were shorter cooks and no wrapping (but still with these lower temps), probably a doubly whammy for toughness. I'm sure I'll try it again, maybe unwrapped but "long cook" like this just to see what happens.

[Grill_Jitsu]

Looks great! Did you notice much difference with the comp cut of ribs? The one thing that I notice is that when the meat pull back on my ribs, they never quite look that uniform as your did in that pic above.

[chuck s]

"

Or maybe we did pull the meat at 3:30 and not 4:30 and I forgot. Chuck?

Not a clue .... ..... Could be for a couple of reasons ...
But, I'm thinkin' it was 4:30 cause we were startin' the coals for the corn....

[addicted-to-smoke]

... And I know that 3+2+1 doesn't equal 6.  ...

Oh geez I must have still been in a food coma when I typed that last night.

What's worse is I had to re-add it up twice just now, and have no excuses.

[1buckie]

... And I know that 3+2+1 doesn't equal 6.  ...

Oh geez I must have still been in a food coma when I typed that last night.

What's worse is I had to re-add it up twice just now, and have no excuses.

That's OK....that one corn picture keeps jumping around.....think I'm going nucking futz.......

[WNC]

Great looking cook, those ribs look perfect!
I'm on the not wrapping train now, I just like the texture better. I have wrapped after the cook to hold for about an hour, and boy did those ribs come out good.
You guys down in the ATL are just crushing it! Beers, ribs, beans, corn, Webers, and friends...how could life get much better!?

[VAis4BBQers]

dude, the pictures may be the best set of pics i've seen in awhile. Awesome job with the cook and the pictorial !