If it’s not clear, I love cooking, particularly outside cooking with fire and smoke. That latter element is one I’ve been particularly keen on exploring of late and the latest attempt happened today: smoked pork ribs.
I cheated a little in that Costco had a special on St. Louis marinated ribs that I used. So the marinade/rub part was already taken care of for me. To smoke them, I followed what I’ve seen called the 3-2-1 Method:
3
The 3 is all about getting the smoke in the ribs. To do it you first have to get the smoker up to temperature: 225 F. You’ll leave the smoker at this temp for the duration of the smoke, fyi, so that makes it easy.
Once it’s up to temp, throw the ribs on it (as seen in the picture above). Close the smoker, keep an eye on the temp and pellet level and resist the urge to open until the end of 3 hours. After 3 hours though open and you should see something like this:
2
To start off 2, pull the ribs out of the smoker and wrap them in foil. Before you close them though, baste the ribs all over. You can do different bastes - I used a bit of butter, olive oil and vinegar. Once it’s basted, seal the foil and put it back on the smoker for 2 hours.
Again, resist the urge to open the smoker. Keep an eye on the temp and pellet levels but other than that - let it be. At the end of 2 hours, you should be left with something like this:
1
As implied in the above picture, for 1 you are going to put it back on unwrapped to finish the slow cook and develop a nice crust. You can baste again at this point, but I like more of a crust so I didn’t. Let it be for an hour. After an hour open the smoker and check to see if the bones are falling out. If they are, you’re done. If not, let it be a bit longer. You should end up with something like this:
Enjoy!
Let the meat rest a bit. I served it with potatoes (roasted in some of the rendered beef fat from last weekend) and smoked corn, smoked in the husk with the ribs during the last hour of cooking. Note: to finish the corn well, turn the smoker to high for 15 min after you pull the meat off. This is what our plates looked like tonite (and we have leftover meat that will make dinners a good chunk of the week!):
==As easy as 3-2-1!==
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