Direct and Indirect cooking

Wet Weekend continued:

Ok where was I?

Go back to wet weekend and read that, then come back here.

I'll wait for you...

Back already? I left off talking about wood and pre heating your grill. For ribs if I use my Holland grill - ribs are done in a hour an a half. This grill cooks at 325 to 350. That's ok, but a little hot for ribs. That's why Henry calls them an outdoor oven. Very true, but very consistent as far as temperature and time. Even in cold weather.

My smoker is what I use for ribs. I pre heat it to about 300, I do this to get the heat up because the door will be open while I'm putting the ribs on the shelves and some heat will be lost.

I soak 2 chunk's of Pecan wood in water for over an hour, taking them out as I pre heat.

The smoker came with a chip box - I took that out and put a 10 in. Cast iron skillet in its place.

This works really well, easy to deal with, easy to remove when hot, and easy to add more wood if needed.

Once everything is back up to heat (220 to 230) the ribs are in ( bone side down) I add a chunk of pecan and watch my temperature, I try to keep it in this range - no lower than 220 and no higher than 235.

At this temperature it will take 4 hrs. to cook. The chunk's will smoke for about an hour and a half - which is good. I put pork and beans or baked beans on the top shelf for about 3 hrs. they get that smoke and I tell you smack your momma they are good.

Now I cook them 2 hrs. Naked ( this meaning not covered)

Then for 1 hr. Wrapped in double foil - at this point the ribs get rotated - what was on top goes to the bottom - bottom to the top- and so on.

After 1 hr. they are unwrapped - sprayed with apple juice - rotated again - and cooked naked for 1 more hr.

After this hr. the temperature is lowered to 200 and the ribs are sauced a couple of times and removed after 20 mins. Let them sit for a tad ( we just stick them in the microwave to sit)

Now for a grill you want to cook them with indirect heat , to do this you must have 2 burners.

Or if you use charcoal it must be spread to 1 side. Indirect cooking means away from the heat source, whatever that source may be.

Pre heat your grill ( light it up and turn it to the lowest setting ) close the top - see what your temperature gauge settles in to. You can get an oven gauge and place it on your grill grate and see what the indirect side temperature is.

Just remember not to get it to hot. It should take about 3 hrs. any quicker than that and they will be tough ( hard to pull apart) You want tender almost fall off the bone ribs.

Anybody can cook - but you must love to cook and be willing to wait to make great BBQ

Low and slow...

I will share my BBQ sauce recipe with you in the next post.

Macdaddy