So, how did that cook go?

Really damn well!

( Food Porn Ahead )

All things considered, this was a fantastic meal, and it just makes me even more excited for the rib cook tomorrow!

Rib prep!

More food porn ahoy!

( Getting the ribs ready to go )

The ribs will go out around 5pm or so. We'll be doing a 2-2-1 cook. Two hours on the cooker, two hours wrapped in foil on the cooker, then one hour back on the cooker without foil to finish. I'll be spritzing them about every hour or so that they're not in the foil with a 50/50 mix of apple juice and apple cider vinegar.

When we come out to put the ribs into their foil wrap, I'll throw the ABTs into the smoker as well, and when the ribs come out of their foil I'll pull the ABTs to serve as an appetizer while we let the ribs finish.

Checking in.

One of the hardest things to do during this, aside from keeping an eye now and then on the temperature, is to keep myself busy so I don't mess with it too much, so I watched the Olympics for awhile, did my due dilligence, and now I'm sharing the current in-progress pics.

( MMmmMMMMmMMMMmmMMMMMMMMMM. )

One thing I noticed is that my issues with temperature fluctuating too high or too low pretty much stopped once I added the additional food, and locked steady right where I wanted it even after I added a bit more vent to make sure it wasn't going to start cooling down.

Someone said that the process of getting used to a new cooker is a lot like starting a new relationship - if that's true, she's certainly doing well at finding ways to surprise me.

1 hour to go on the ABTs (and probably the sausage, too), 1 hour in foil and then 1 hour back directly on the cooker to go for the ribs.

I smell delicious. I may never launder this shirt again.

(no subject)

OK! ABTs and the sausage are off, and the ribs are in the TERMINAL STAGE.

Good news: Smells like heaven. Alex actually just about dropped the pan in shock from how good the ribs looked and smelled as we took the foil off.

Bad news: Even with my diffuser plate, the hotspots burned up one ABT pretty badly, and the sausage got a lot crispier than intended, but still tastes quite good when sliced up!

Just hit the ribs with a spritz of the juice, and I'll be back out there in about 15 minutes to do it again.

( Peer within the smokey cavern. )

Final stages

And there we aaaaaaare.

( Finished products! )

...actually, you look at those. Imma go eat!

Final thoughts

Ohhhmygod.

flaggerx described it as "culinary ecstasy." I'm cool with that.



Dave was kind enough to provide bread and sides to go with the ribs. :>

The "taste test" rub went over very well and I sent the feedback and my thoughts to the guy. It's probably a better "dry" (unsauced) rub than the magic dust rub I've been using, but I think my rub will work better on a "wet" (sauced) rib because of the much higher sugar content in the testing rub, which caramelizes much more than mine did.



As you can see, people hated both. :D

Everyone was quite, quite praiseful and pleased. I'm real happy with all this...the experience of working with everything was fantastic, and I seriously am thinking about the idea of doing this as a thing...hooooooboy!