t has many names: bark, crust, and Mr. Brown - It's that dark, crusty-crunchy-savory crust that develops on good ribs as they cook. It's found on all barbecue, but can be particularly elusive on ribs.

Here are a few suggestions that can help; all suggestions are based on my experience with my well-modified offset smoker (first Brinkmann, then Char-Broil - they are identical), using charcoal or wood as fuel:



Your pit and fuel may require slight adjustments.

Sugar in the rub is a given, but too much will toss the flavour out of balance and also could lead to carbonisation; if that happens, the ribs will look bad, but still taste fine - however, if presentation is important, this is something to keep in mind. Turbinado sugar (also known as sugar in the raw) is better than brown sugar for preventing carbonisation, and light years better than white sugar.

Mustard slather before the rub is applied definitely helps! I've had the best results brushing on a thin layer of "plain, ol' yeller mustard" (French's or Wal-Mart each seem to work quite well - Koops was really good, too, but I have limited availibility to that one). I've tried olive oil and other things, but mustard gives the best results, and there WILL NOT be any "mustardy" taste on the finished ribs - believe me, if there were, I would know! lol

Go ahead and put a little more rub on when you throw the ribs on the grate - it can't hurt!

Where cooking temperatures are concerned, I keep them in the 240 to 260 range, with an average of about 242, probably. I tend to start the ribs at the low-end of the range (or even a bit lower, as long as it's above 212), and gradually work them over to the high end of the range as the cook progresses. The lower end at the beginning helps with the smoke ring, while the rub "sets." About 45 minutes or so before the end of the cook, they are as close to the heat source as they can get without scorching (in my offset, they would be almost all the way on the left-hand side near the firebox). The higher temp at the end helps with the bark and glazing.

I start the cook with a water pan in my offset (large-sized bread pan filled with boiling-temperature water) placed right in front of the "hole" between the firebox and the cooking chamber. I've found that the water pan REALLY improves not only smoke ring development, but also the way the smoke works into the meat. It's important to keep temps above 212 at a minimum to avoid creosote. more reading on this concept here:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeb...meats_topic2373.html

The water in the pan gradually boils away of course, but no need to refill it - as the cook progresses, smoke ring development loses its importance and bark development gains in importance. The gradually-dryer atmosphere as the water simmers away will dovetail with these priorities.

Please, please please - do NOT foil the ribs! The moisture from the steam in the foil will give you braised ribs with a soft exterior and a potentially-mushy interior. I know that "fall of the bone" ribs are popular in the big restaurants, and if you really want them to be that way, this is the way to do it - BUT! If a good bark is your goal, then save the foil for something else!

Spritzing/mopping - go ahead and do it, but keep it to once every 45 minutes to an hour. Two things that really help are a) to wait an hour or so into the cook, maybe even two hours, until the rub "sets." You will know when it happens, because the rub won't look like it's going to slough off at the slightest touch. Another thing is to have some sort of fat going onto the ribs at the same time that you're spritzing them. You can do this either by adding a little olive oil (or some other oil) to the spritz (be sure to shake or blend it right before applying), OR by brushing a little onto the ribs - by a little, I do mean a little. As the ribs start to render their own fat, brush it around on them as well. This provides a basting effect that works with the rub and the mop to really cook everything in and give you a nice bark. PS - it's easy to over-do the spritzing, but I think that the basting can't be over-done.

A glaze will indeed help - it can be anything you want as long as it is at least sorta thick and contains some sort of sugar element. It can be as simple as honey or quite elaborate. One really good one I've found that is well-balanced and works like a charm comes from Danny Gaulden - it consists of equal parts (about 1/4 or 1/3 cup each) of brown sugar, yellow mustard and apple cider vinegar. Heat on the stove, stirring often, until everything is incorporated and dissolved - and just starting to "cook" and darken; then let it cool. This tastes great and provides a beautiful, deep-mohogany colour along with a crackle and shine. Two common mistakes with glaze are applying too much and applying it too often; start 30 or 45 minutes before you expect to be finished. Brush on a THIN layer, then another 15 mintues or so later, and then perhaps one more. Each time, the heat (which is now much dryer than at the beginning, due to the lower moisture) will "shrink-dry" the glaze onto the ribs and cook it in. Keep an eye out to avoid blackening, which comes from heat that is too high or too close. Right as you pull the ribs off the heat, brush one final THIN layer on, and you're good to go; the residual heat will set it in and provide the final touch.

Those are some ideas - I have tried them all; some alone, some in combination and sometimes all within one cook - good results every time.



Look everything over and if you have any questions, just ask. Any or all should help improve your bark development. The key, I think, is to "stick to basics" and not be too elaborate. Everything up there looks back to the old school, and the little things they would do to make good ribs just a little better, edging toward great barbecue!

Any "rub" recipes suggested??

Looking at replacing my Weber with a Char Broil to give me the option of smoking are you happy with yours?

Heh, I was just going to get an opinion on the feasibility of using a Weber 22.5" kettle grill for smoking, or at a minimum adding some real smoky bbq flavor to ribs, etc. I have lump charcoal and lots of hickory, cherry, maple etc. on hand.

The sight of those ribs is making my mouth water!

quote:

Originally posted by Evan K.:
Heh, I was just going to get an opinion on the feasibility of using a Weber 22.5" kettle grill for smoking, or at a minimum adding some real smoke flavor to ribs, etc. I have lump charcoal and lots of hickory, cherry on hand.

The sight of those ribs is making my mouth water.

WEBER GRILL PERFECT FOR SMOKING!!! I use it all the time. Here's how:
On the inner bottom grate, place 2 bricks on their long edges, such that they point outward from the center to 1 and 4 o'clock. Imagine the face of a clock, with the bricks being the hands of the clock. Put burning coals (maybe 20-25 of them) into the triangle formed by the bricks and their arc of the outer rim. Onto the coals place your smoking wood. Apply top grill in place...put your meat on the grill on OPPOSITE side of the coals. Leave vent holes open at bottom, but put grill cover on, with cover vent holes CLOSED. Walk away. Check all in an hour to see if wood needs replenishing.... coals will need adding a little later.
You can smoke a fryer in 2.5-3 hours ...will emerge with skin chocolate brown and meat perfectly moist. NO SALT/PEPPER/ANYTHING NEEDED.....serve with cranberry sauce....mind-blowingly good!!!
I did a brisket this way.....rubbed with Lowe's Brisket Rub .....and smoked for 3 hours....result was awesome.....perfect bark....perfect everything.

quote:

Originally posted by conifer:
WEBER GRILL PERFECT FOR SMOKING!!! I use it all the time. Here's how:
On the inner bottom grate, place 2 bricks on their long edges, such that they point outward from the center to 1 and 4 o'clock. Imagine the face of a clock, with the bricks being the hands of the clock. Put burning coals (maybe 20-25 of them) into the triangle formed by the bricks and their arc of the outer rim. Onto the bricks place your smoking wood. Apply top grill in place...put your meat on the grill on OPPOSITE side of the coals. Leave vent holes open at bottom, but put grill cover on, with cover vent holes CLOSED. Walk away. Check all in an hour to see if wood needs replenishing.... coals will need adding a little later.
You can smoke a fryer in 2.5-3 hours ...will emerge with skin chocolate brown and meat perfectly moist. NO SALT/PEPPER/ANYTHING NEEDED.....serve with cranberry sauce....mind-blowingly good!!!
I did a brisket this way.....rubbed with Lowe's Brisket Rub .....and smoked for 3 hours....result was awesome.....perfect bark....perfect everything.

Excellent, thank you! Love that Weber!

I have 3 large Webers in the back yard. They are incredibly versatile. And although I have 1 of those fancy smoker grills with the offset firebox, I always use the Weber.
Try "this" for smoking fish:-> Prepare a brine of 1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 3 bay leaves, and 1/2 tsp chile powder (the supermarket variety) all in 1 gallon water. Dissolve the salt and sugar. Soak large, whole fish overnight (12 hours) in brine in fridge. Soak small fish or filets for about 6 hours. Rinse well under tap, and blot dry with paper towels. If you use filets, brush flesh with oil before putting in smoker, in order to preclude drying the flesh.
Smoke in Weber as I described above, for 2 to 3 hours, while monitoring to make sure the fish is done without being dry. The fatter the fish...the better. My favorite to smoke is lake trout, but that isn't available here. So, try salmon or steelhead.

Do you have a thermometer set up to keep track of the temp? when you replenish the wood and or the coals is there a concern in "interrupting" the cooking process?
My little Weber needs replacing so I have looking at others grills and find this topic helpful....
I like the idea of the Char-Broil as it appears you have the better of two worlds grilling and smoking yet you Weber boys are enlightening me I have also cast a eye towards the Treager but am under the impression that they will not get hot enough to really sear a piece of meat.
All thought s are welcome as the summer is apon us

no thermometer.....I seem to have just developed a habit of doing it a certain way. There is NO problem when replenishing anything.....the process appears to continue functionally unaltered.
Obviously, the method I use is not a cold-smoke; it is a baking/roasting with a smoke application.
But, I truly love the results I get. And doing a chicken is so easy, so good, so simple ....and so gratifying. I have done (smoked)2 fryers together at once in a Weber....process is prolonged ...to maybe 4 hours. My doneness indicator is the color of the skin....a bronze-chocolate brown.

Hey, guys - sorry I missed these replies; I'll try to address them, but it looks like conifer has given some great advice.

quote:

Any "rub" recipes suggested??

The rub in the photos above was one that I made as part of an experiment in finding a "Greek-style" rub., It worked pretty darn well, actually. It contained equal parts of kosher salt, turbinado (raw) sugar, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper and oregano. One tablespon of each ingredient seemed to work very well, although those tablespoons can be scant or generous as to your preference. During cooking, I mopped/basted the ribs with a 50/50 mixture of lemon juice and olive oil - perfection!

To be honest, my go-to rub comes from Mad Hunky Meats. The guy who came up with it, a friend named Rich, has pretty much created the barbecue flavour that I am looking for. He uses very high quality ingredients and the smallest amount of salt (read filler) necessary, for wonderful, old world flavour that goes perfectly with traditional southern barbecue. Plus, the bub goes well on everything, from potatoes to popcorn to fish, to other meats to eggs - and everywhere in between. You can find his rub at www.madhunkymeats.com, and I highly recommend taking a look. He is usually willing to send a sample of his rub, and after that, you will be hooked.

quote:

Looking at replacing my Weber with a Char Broil to give me the option of smoking are you happy with yours?

I am indeed very happy with this smoker ~ my wife got it for me as a replacement for my Brinkmann SnP, which is basically exactly the same as this, except the new one doesn't have a tree sticking out of it:



It works very well right out-of-the-box, and there are a few, very simple and very cheap modifications that you can do to make it work even better. If you're willing to spend a little money (or if you know a welder who can do it for little or nothing), you can add three or four other modifications that REALLY make it whistle Dixie. Basically, it's good, can go to better, and has the potential to put out some of the best barbecue you've had. See my other "barbecue" poets for some results. For the money, it can't be ebat, if you are looking for something like this.

Having said all of this, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using the kettle as a smoker - it does a bang-up job of it, and is designed very well for it - so if it is just you or you and the Mrs., a full-on smoker may not be necessary, depending on your needs. But if you ever want to cook for a crowd, this unit will do it!

Conifer - I like your method for smoking in the kettle - will give it a shot, as it looks to make great use of the coals and the bricks! I agree, the kettles are extremely versatile - I had one long ago, gave it away, went to gas, and have now come back to the kettle. If yo're only going to have one unity, it is the one to have. The smoked fish idea sounds good, too!

quote:

Do you have a thermometer set up to keep track of the temp? when you replenish the wood and or the coals is there a concern in "interrupting" the cooking process?
My little Weber needs replacing so I have looking at others grills and find this topic helpful....

I like the idea of the Char-Broil as it appears you have the better of two worlds grilling and smoking

Once again, conifer has put up some great answers, so I'll just add a couple of thoughts. I do use a thermometre for monitering the cooking temperature. It's more of a crutch for me, as I have found that if I pay attention, there are plenty of other indicators to let me know when things are going right. The heat and especially the smell of the exhaust/chimney/outlet is one very helpful indicator, and you can learn a lot by observing that. I do not really mess with thermometres in the meat except, occasionally, when the meat is close to being done. I know what it's doing until then - it's cooking, so no need to mess with it. But for some meats such as brisket, I do check them toward the end. For other meats, there are some great indicators:

fish - flaky, opaque meat when twisted at the thickest point.

pulled pork: the bone will twist and usually pull right out; the meat will be just about ready to fall apart and the fat will be greatly rendered out, leaving the meat juicy, tender and wonderful. If you check with a thermometre, it should read between 195 and 205 for pulled pork.

chicken - i'm able to "shake hands" with the drumstick - a thermometre is a good double-check on this, though. 165 in the thickest part of a thigh is a minimum; I've seen people go up to 172, and it seems fine.

ribs - i don't know, they just look and act "done." there may be some pull-back, exposing the bones a little, and some people can tell by lifting them and gauging the bend. I'm still working on that, but on the other hand, my ribs are usually done just right anyway.

brisket - i use a thermometre here - 185-190 for sliced brisket, 195-305 if I want to shred it for sandwiches.

Those are some ideas - your mileage may vary. I think if you go with the chargriller/SnP, you will be happy with it - it can be used for grilling, but I never use it for that, having the kettle right thee and handy. It will turn out some beautiful stuff, for sure, but so will the kettle. If you have the money and see yourself using the larger capacity (we have a family of 6), I say go for it, but keep your kettle nearby for smaller jobs.

My dad smokes salmon fillets with pretty much that same method. Yields delicious results.

Beer can chickens are almost foolproof on the Weber too. I have a little wire rack that holds the bird and can upright, and you hardly need to season them- but I try various dry rubs (a little different each time). I use lump charcoal with a handful of thumb-sized wood chunks around the perimeter of the kettle for added smoke. I started using cherry last year and like that flavor.

A 5-lb bird takes about an hour and a half to reach 165 internal temp, and the skin will be a crispy golden brown too.

Before I had the 22.5" Weber, I used a little 14" Weber Smokey Joe. They are way too small for a chicken to stand up in it, so to cook them I had to make a cylindrical riser for the lid with some sheet steel riveted together. It fits between the kettle and lid and works beautifully- it doesn't let heat escape and there is plenty room for a bird now. The Smokey Joe is still great for when you're only grilling a little bit and don't need/want to use a lot of charcoal.

I have two racks of pork ribs in the freezer and some other goodies too, so thanks to this thread I think I'll be giving some smoking on the Weber a shot with my next free weekend.

Lots of REALLY GOOD barbecue advice here:

http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2-w97.zip

That link will take you to a SAFE zip download of a word document of the BBQFAQ - it's from 98 or 99, so some of it seems dated, but for flat-out useful, fundamental information about old-school barbecue and cooking over fire, it's absolutely the thing to read. I'll put it this way: a lot of you have seen what I can do with charcoal, smoke and pork - I wouldn't be able to do nearly as well if it weren't for that document, so it's worth a look!

Hey guys:
I messed up my description for smoking in a Weber (then just corrected error). Put smoking wood on COALS.....and Not on bricks. ....a stupid error. Sorry

I tried making ribs on my Weber grill for the first time today, using tips from tasunkawitko. I dry rubbed them last night and kept the heat on the grill for around 250 degrees for almost five hours. The dry rub was equal parts seasoned salt, brown sugar, garlic powder, and spicy cajun seasoning. I also slathered the ribs in spicy brown mustard prior to the dry rub. I soaked some cherry, maple, and hickory chips in water and kept some dry too. Oh yeah it was the perfect opportunity to smoke some of the venison brats I made earlier this year and grill some corn on my little Weber too.



I kept the lump charcoal together in one "corner" of the grill with a couple of bricks and used the open space at the end of the grill to add wood chunks. Put a pie tin under the meat, filled with water and apple cider vinegar. I also kept a spray bottle with hand filled with equal parts apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, olive oil, and lemon and gave the ribs a light coat every half hour after the first hour.



I have to do this again. Little less sugar and cajun seasoning in the rub next time, but holy cow was I surprised at how well the ribs turned out. The texture was great- they came off the bone but still held together well and were juicy. I wish the bark had built up a little better but that's what the next time is for. Gotta get a probe thermometer and do away with the oven thermometer too- it was a pain having to open the grill to check it and now it is filthy too.

I’ve been watching this thread for a while, and decided that Father’s Day was the day to try it myself. Here’s how it went.

I would have liked a bit cooler weather for tending a fire.


I made a relatively simple rub consisting of five tablespoons of kosher salt, five tablespoons of raw sugar, and two tablespoons of Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning.


Following Ron’s advice, I slathered on some basic ol’ yeller mustard (French’s to be exact), followed by application of the rub.



Then it was out to prep the smoker. A couple years ago we had a pretty cold winter (for southern NM anyway), which unfortunately killed my big nectarine tree. The only good thing about that is that I ended up with some nice smoking wood. I used some of that, and an old Folger’s coffee can for water to set the smoker up as previously described. I lit the fire and warmed the grill, then put the rack of ribs on the top rack.




While the ribs were smoking, I set out to mix up the meat’s accompanying dish – a simple classic potato salad of just a few basic ingredients. The potatoes and eggs were boiled and diced, the red bell pepper and green onions were diced, and the mayo, kosher salt, and fresh black pepper were added to the mix to create a pretty decent side dish.




After the ribs had been smoking for a couple hours, I started spraying them about every ten minutes or so with a 50/50 mix of water and lemon juice to keep them moist. It took about three hours of smoking with temperatures ranging from 225 to 300 (when the fire got away from me while I was occupied making the potato salad). At the end of that time, I deemed them ready and pulled them off.



Joined by the chilled potato salad and a cold Blue Moon, these ribs made for a real nice looking (and tasting) place setting.


I was pretty pleased with my first rib-smoking event, but there are a couple changes for next time. First, I’ll cut back on the kosher salt. I’m a bona fide saltaholic and thought these were a bit salty. Second, I’ll skip the Chachere’s (or cut it way back) because it made the ribs spicier than my kids liked. In fact, my daughter called it quits about half way through hers and called on an old standby for her meal.


Overall, this was a fun experience that I can’t wait to repeat with the lessons learned. Thanks fellas for giving me the inspiration to tackle this culinary project.

Makes my mouth water !!!

My favorite rub recipe Big time BBQ rub

It is of utmost importance to have fresh spices. Spices lose their flavor rather quickly and good rub is only as good as the spices used. Every spring I throw out the spices from last year and start over with fresh.

I started to mop my ribs in the last 1/2 hour of cooking, I use Sweet Baby Ray's or a home made sauce that I like. Moping makes the ribs sticky and sloppy.

My daughter gave me a Smokenator for my Webber kettle on Fathers day. Have had excellent results with Pork Butt and STL ribs. Check out the Smokenator video on You Tube. Cheap way to buy a Smoker and will also do a 25# turkey.

hey, guys - i've been out of the loop for a while ~ came back to the sight of some REALLY good barbecue! wow!

great job!

Lots of other good BBQ info at The Smoke Ring

Mr. t, Evan and DesertRam:

DesertRam, man am I jealous of that pile of nectarine wood!
I had a small one die on me a couple years ago and it is hands down the best smoking wood I have tried.
The species of wood is not so critical on ribs but a turkey with nectarine wood can't be beat.