Second Smoke

So the first smoke really got my attention and I had to try again. After all I had no where to go but up. I had been having many discussions on smoking with S.O. and doing a lot of research.

I decided to stay with baby back ribs and purchased a commercial rub. I found that while I liked the Cookies BBQ Rub I used the first time was good, it proved a little to spicy for me. I lightly rubbed the ribs and let sit for about two hours.

I was still using a grill, however this time the weather was a little cooler and I had an easier time regulating my temperature .

I tried to say between 200 and 225 and for the most part I succeed and I cooked for about 6 hours.

When my temperature of the meat was around 185 I took them off the grill and cranked the grill up as hot as I could get it in 15 minutes. I then turned off the grill and put the ribs back on along with saucing the ribs with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce.

As you can see the results looked a little better this time.

While the ribs were great and fell off the bone I did not realize at this time that even though I and everyone I knew would like these ribs, they were not ready for competition (not by a long haul)

My First Reciepe
I plan on putting many recipes in my blogs and I am not claiming to have invented all of them. Most I have found on the Internet or in books, however most I will have tweaked. With some hints from P.T.I decided to smoke as many of my sides as possible.

Bourbon Baked Beans
77 oz can Campbell's Pork and Beans
1 Medium Sweet Onion
1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
12 oz Ketchup (the original recipe called for chili sauce, but this would be to hot for me)
1/2 Cup Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 Cup Four Roses Bourbon
1/2 Cup Four Roses Bourbon to drink while you continue to smoke ;)
8 (or more) Slices of Bacon

Heat Smoker to 350
Combine all ingredients except bacon in a foil pan
Place Bacon on top
Smoke about two hours or until all the bacon on top is crisp and brown

Cheers

The Beginning

So, how did I start this adventure? Well I own a lot of what I know and my desire to start smoking to two individuals (S. O. and S.M.) both of which will be credited for their contributions as this blog progresses. The first, S.O. started smoking before I did and tweaked my interest. He started with a smoker box for a backyard grill.

We had a contest (actually I was just learning about smoking anything See the Rib Cook-Off) to see who could smoke the best Baby Back ribs. The problem we had was it was about 100 degrees that day and it was impossible to keep our grills at the appropriate temp to smoke! We kept turning off the grills and firing them back in an attempt to keep the temp at 200 - 225. As you can see in this picture

The end results while making a decent presentation were a little over done. However I had never tasted anything as good as these ribs (oh yea, S.O. placed first in the contest and I placed second. Those were the only entries)

What this did was to really get my interest going in smoking and as you will see in the coming blogs I have made some good progress with much more to follow.

Cheers
Randy