Today's cook: hanging ribs in an 18" WSM.
First off, I have to give a shout out and thanks to @Mr.CHPo for this rack. Without it, this cook wouldn't have been possible. Some stainless PBC hooks later, and we're in business.
I really didn't know what to expect cooking this way. I've never hung anything over open coals in this fashion.
I had to read up a little on how to cook in a Pit Barrel Cooker. But the PBC seems really straightforward...so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. For baby backs...3 hours at 290-310 would yield excellent results.
Ok...here we go!
From here, monitor the temp and wait about 3 hours. Pretty simple and straightforward. Each hour I sprayed with my "spritz" mixture of apple juice, vinegar, and Worcester.
At the 2.5 hour mark I pulled the ribs, brought them inside for a few minutes, and sauced them. They looked beautiful and smelled reminiscent of pan-cooked bacon. They were subsequently re-hung in the WSM for another 30 minutes.
Results:
How'd they turn out? Really good, but not quite what I was expecting. The ribs were perfectly cooked at the 3 hour mark.
First, I have to talk about the flavor. They had a flavor that took me back to my youth. It reminded me a lot of how my dad used to cook ribs on his old rectangular char broil grill in the 80's. I haven't had that flavor in 25-30 years. Maybe it's cooking over coals with the fat dripping on them? It's not something you taste at restaurants or with a lot of competition bbq. It has a "backyard" flavor that just reminds me of summer.
There was something sort of "honest" about the flavor. It wasn't doctored.
There also wasn't much of a smoke flavor or a pronounced ring. One rack was a little juicier than the other, but neither were exceptionally moist like you get with 3-2-1 ribs.
Not quite sure if this is my new "go-to" method for cooking ribs, but I do like it and it was kind of "fun." I loved the fact they were ready in 3 hours (as opposed to 5-6 hours). Next time, I'll use a mustard slather in the beginning and maybe skip the dry rub. Or perhaps try one of each. I can also see this method being great for Jerk pork/chicken. I could easily fit 6 racks of baby backs in the 18WSM without a problem. Just with every cooking method, there is a process that needs to be fine tuned.
Overall, a very successful "first attempt."
That's all for now!
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Topic: Hanging Ribs in the WSM (Read 2151 times)
