Meat Candy Time

                                       

5/4/14 Wife is out of town and the weather is perfect.  Time to fire up the pit.  I am ready for some meat candy ribs (See previous post Meat Candy)

                             

I have decided to abandon the meat thermometer and just monitor the smoker temperature.  A meat thermometer is pointless.  A slab has thick and thin areas and the bones heat up different than the meat.  A meat thermometer is not reliable to determine when they are done.  Instead I am using time and technique to decide when to pull off some super tender juicy ribs.

After 5 hours i will start checking for tenderness by using the bend test.  When I lift the thick end of the rack i will see if the skin splits and meat cracks.  I am looking for a 1/4in or larger crack as a sign to pull the ribs off the pit.

Also, I will no longer do the wet seasoning on the pit.  What's the point.  I wrap the ribs in foil for an hour and braise them in fruit juices.  I can easily do this in the oven.  Benefit, it provides a perfect intermission to clean the built up ashes out of the fire box.

                               

Score 28.25:  Very Good.  Beneath a soft jerky candy bark was rosy juicy tender rib meat.  I nailed it on tenderness (finally).  So much flavor!  First the bark was sweet, salty and smokey. It had a soft jerky texture. The rub was in full force adding flavor to every bite.  Pork flavor was excellent. Takeaways:  cut back on salt in rub.  Maybe remove the brown sugar from rub and apply at end.  Cut back on smoke to bring out the wet seasoning flavor.  Also will help in the bark color.  I am looking for bronze not black.