<<I rubbed them before I put them on with splenda, salt, chili powder, garlic, and onion.>>

when cooking, use the real stuff. real sugar, salt, butter, ect. I know people try and live healthy and cut back on a few things, but seasoning doesn't contribute much in the way of calories and such. Bland food is just, blechhh. Low quality ingredients will never lead to high quality dishes.

I can't help much with ribs, never cooked them in my restaurant career

Yamcer

---

"You know, while I understand the importance of seeing the (personal) validity in other's arguments, it's impossible for me to believe fully that others are correct. If their argument was correct, I'd change mine." - My GF

High quality food satisfies better.

You don't end up with people filling in the holes and trying to feel satisfied by consuming junk if they have had a good high quality meal that satisfied them.

In the end you are better off with the real stuff prepared right.


"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

My second batch was a lot better, I used brown sugar, garlic, onion powder, ground red pepper, and mustard seed. I let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours and then smoked it for three.

I have a shopping list now for rubs I am going to try, including Alton's rub you mentioned.

Thanks for the help!

Smoking food itself is an art form. Takes a long time to master. I have had my share of big time screw ups. Not so bad screwing up ribs, but I have screwed up close to 200lbs of salmon over the coars of the years.

When smoking food, make sure your wood is thoroughly soaked. Your wood will work better when it is more wet, I usually soak my wood over night before a smoke day. I prefer cherry wood, but I have used pear, apple, hickory, almond and walnut. For all around flavor almond is probably the best. It is a very versatile wood that doesn't drown out the other flavors with smoke as much as hickory does.

One thing you can do, is cook the ribs from a half hour to about an hour and a half depending on the type of grill before you smoke, it will cut down the smoking time in half. Ribs themselves on pure smoke take about 8 to 10 hours or more to do them right which makes it take forever. I generally on smoke alone will cook my ribs about 12 hours. I start around 4 or 5 am to have them ready for dinner time.

If you smoke you really don't need much rest time since the heat is low. If you BBQ food or bake or whatever give all your meat about 30 minute covered rest time before slicing and serving also remember even when you pull it out of the oven or off the grill it will continue to cook for a while and the temperature will rise in the center.


Arctuniol

Knowledge is like manure, it's only good when spread.

Here's a great site for you to check out

http://www.bbqu.net/

Yes, also, if you are cooking for other people, some people are allergic to specific woods.


"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

Being someone who's allergic to approximately everything, I make it my responsibility to check with friends that are cooking for me as to their ingredients. I know that it's me who could have the very expensive ER visit, and I don't ask 20 people to remember that seafood kills me. In return, they don't get offended if I bring something else to eat instead.


Meli

>>What I hate is when I do check and the person who made the food is not on the up and up. I have some relatives that think it's acceptable to do this to protect their 'secret recipies'. Needless to say I simply don't eat what they make and as far as I'm concerned the offense they then take is their problem not mine.


I know a guy that's deathly allergic to onions. Sometimes when he goes to a fast food place he'll ask for no onions and they'll say something stupid like "They're chopped real small, you won't notice them" or they'll just put them on anyway. Some people are inconsiderate

>>With seasoning, i always liked to use Kosher salt since the large granules don't fully dissolve into the dish and give your pallet flavor boosts.

It also contains about 20% less sodium per serving compared to table salt. Good stuff.

>>Yeah, some people just don't understand allergies. My cousin is allergic to a few things, including dairy. He regularly gets cheese on things even after he asks for no cheese. He's sent burgers back only to have them returned with the cheese scraped off.

I don't have any food allergies, but some of my friends do, and my girlfriend doesn't eat land meat as I call it, so I totally understand and it frustrates the heck out of me. It's sloppy and inconsiderate, and if the allergy is made known, it can lead to legal repercussions as well.

>>apple juice and ribs

You can also try a solution of apple vinegar and water. When I went to (east) NC, the SOP was to apply vinegar to the meat toward the end of smoking. Specifically, I got times from 30 minutes before taking it off the grill to doing it when you pull the pork, according to several restaurants and diners at which I feasted on their delicious smoky pork bbq. As when marinating, vinegar helps to tenderize the meat and it adds a great tang.

Also, I agree on using real ingredients in rubs. I wouldn't even use store-bought chili powder--I would make my own. Why? Most chili powders contain preservatives and often glutemates to enhance flavor (e.g. MSG), which I'm sure you know some people are allergic to. Really, it's just...not authentic and not necessary. Vinegar combined with good cuts of meat will give all the umami of MSG when used appropriately, if that's what you're looking for.

Good luck with your new smoker! I can't wait to do some beef barbeque myself this summer, so do be sure to share your results!

Buon appetito,

~Mike/player of Gulphphunger

Keep in mind that they might not actually know they are allergic. Particularly with shellfish and nut allergies, it can "spontaneously" start up and become fatal in the very first attack. These allergy deaths appear to be increasing in number, by the way, so you might need to start keeping an eye out if you have a lot of new faces coming around.

J'Lo, I'm a ranger.. I'd believe anything.....
The Manipulation List -- http://symphaena.com/index.html

Well, I did something wrong with the beef ribs, because they don't taste right. They smelled great, but didn't take on any smoky flavor.

Is it possible to put too much rub on the meat so the smoke doesn't get through? Here was the rub I used

dry rub:

One quarter cup dark brown sugar
Three tablespoons paprika
Two tablespoons ground black pepper
One tablespoon celery salt
One tablespoon onion powder
Two teaspoons garlic powder
Two teaspoons mustard powder
One teaspoon ground cumin
One half teaspoon ground cayenne
One half teaspoon chili powder
Two teaspoon mustard seed

pat ribs with 1 tablespoon Worcestershire, 1 teaspoon molasses, 1 teaspoon honey.

I am going to try another set of pork ribs try it on those before I try beef again. Any hints or observations are always appreciated.

As for allergies, I am no where near sharing my BBQ with anyone else. Once I get some good BBQ skills, I'll see about sharing.

Thanks all!

normally when i smoke i wrap the wood chips in foil and poke some holes. Dont know how the pros feel about that, but it works great for me.

You have to put new chips/chunks in every hour too

Try Tongs?

>>Do not toss out the slightly charred ends. Put em on a cutting board get urself a cleaver and chop em up, toss em with a bit of franks hot sauce and some BBQ sauce and put it on a bun with some pickles and a side of slaw. Now thats some good eats<<

I ate a bit on accident the first time, decided they were the best part anyway. Very very tasty.


>>Try Tongs?<<

I only have a small metal plate that sits on the burner at the very bottom of my smoker, not box or anything that I could pull out, empty, fill, and put back.

I am using pretty small pieces of wood, I don't know that I could get a good hold of them with tongs and it would take a really long time to remove all the old wood and put new in that way.

The burnt ends are totally the best part of the meat! My husband, who's from KC, introduced me to them. In fact, the one good KC-style place around here has both beef and pork as options for the main meat.

I totally want bbq tonight.

Meli