Southeast Texas Smoked Pork Spareribs ~ ramblin's

When it comes to pork spareribs quality is very important.  Butchers offer ribs in various cuts.  They can be rough cut with a lot of bone, St. Louis cut without the chine, tail and tips, back rib cut also without the tips, flap and chine.  What is sold as a baby back rib is simply a small pig with the ribs cut with a band down both sides.  The added cost more than makes up for the loss of the flap, tips and chine bone.  Years ago a fresh, rough cut 2.5LBS and down pork sparerib was my favorite product.  These days you are lucky to find 3.5LBS and down frozen ribs.  Obviously, the more bone the meat markets sell the more profit they make.  The older the pig, the bigger the rib.  The bigger the rib, the heavier the rack.  Here in Southeast Texas the Asian food market has dominated consumption.  Paying the cost of a case of 2.5LBS and down is prohibitive if you can even find them.  Custom orders are very expensive.  In a perfect world I would order cases of young pig ribs carefully cut with a small chine and leave the tips alone.  As we all know, this is not a perfect world.  All that said a chef could butcher the 3.5LBS and down and saw off some of the tine and a bit of the end if that was the final product they were after.  The cheapest way to buy ribs is cryovaced in the meat case at your local grocery store.  This product has been frozen and thawed and has sat for a while until purchase.  Usually it is a pretty cost effective way to buy large qualities at reasonable prices.  Smaller racks can be cherry picked from the case and they will work. 

Prior to smoking ribs I like to prep them first.  Make sure you remove the membrane on the bone side.  The membrane is very easy to remove with a sharp knife and a paper towel or rag.  The paper towel is necessary to get a grip on the membrane.  You can simply peel the membrane off and move on to the next rack.  Removing this membrane allows the bone side to absorb rubs, liquids and smoke.  It is my opinion; it just makes for a better final product. 

There are many ways to take a rack of ribs to the chef’s idea of perfection.  The chef can cook low and slow away from the firebox for many hours and occasionally baste with his version of sop.  Some chefs use spray bottles to baste their ribs.  Some common liquids used are apple juice, coke, Dr. Pepper, root beer, beer, lemon juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, the list is as long as your imagination.  Typically, people have a perception of the direction they want to take a rack of ribs.  In Texas, folks like them in just about every way.  I like them in just about every way.  I call a tender, dry rib, the jerky style method.  They are very good and low on moisture.   

Some chefs smoke jerky style and at some point in the cooking process they wrap the racks in aluminum foil to finish them off.  This method can be varied in 100’s of ways.  You could smoke them for a short period of time and wrap.  You could take them half way then wrap.  You could take them to 75% then wrap, on and on.  This method produces a very tender rib with various levels of moisture in the meat.  

Other methods include boiling the rack prior to the smoking process.  Some old school chefs swear by this method.  An old timer out of Liberty County used to boil his ribs in a pot with a little apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper.  He would then smoke them until they reached his idea of perfection.  The one thing I remember about his outcome is the fact you could actually taste the meat.  It was not slathered with brown sugar and hot pepper hiding the true flavor of the pork.  Barbecue sauce on a perfectly executed rack of ribs is down right insulting.   

The key point in cooking a rack of ribs is the method you utilize.  There are 1000’s of methods and even more flavors.  Ribs have a very delicious flavor left alone.  Deviating off the true flavor of the meat is not what I personally like.  I do like some heat and a little sweet so I keep things pretty natural.  Natural sweetener can include apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice etc.  Although I do not like things overly salty, I do like to add a very little salt to my ribs.  Adding a small amount of sodium can be achieved by just laying off the shaker.  However, I like to use a small amount of soy in the cooking process.  It is my opinion; a subtle hint of soy enhances the flavor of the pork.  I also enjoy the flavor of garlic and onion.  I try to never over season; I try to keep the flavor profile subtle.  When it comes to adding some heat I usually stick with cayenne pepper.  A little cayenne pepper will fire up the rib and not dominate the flavor.  The final outcome can go anywhere the chef desires.  Personally, I do not always prefer ribs that have been smoked over a long period of time.  If I am in the mood for a very tender rack of ribs, high in moisture, with a hint of smoke, I have a method for that.  To achieve this I fire up the pit with pecan wood and get it steak cooking hot.  I prep and marinate the ribs in a triple thick heavy duty aluminum foil “boat” for an hour of two.  I throw the ribs on the fire bone side down and brown them and then flip them and brown them on the meat side.  Do not burn them, just brown them.  During the searing process you pretty much have to look at them often being very careful not to burn them.  After they are well browned on both sides I then place them back in the marinade in the individually made aluminum boats.  Each boat should have a cup or 2 of marinade/liquid in them.  For each rack I pull out a very large amount of heavy duty aluminum foil a little longer than twice as long as the boat.  I set the boat on top of the foil and completely seal the whole boat lengthwise.  When I say completely sealed I mean no air transfer at all.  A small leak will ruin the process.  When you put the boats back on the pit they will steam for about 3 hours.  I try to keep them away from extreme heat.  The liquid in each boat should be more than enough to last the entire cooking process.  After about 3 hours at 250 to 300 open up one of the boats to determine how well they are done.  I like to remove them after the number 2 rib will wiggle just a little away from the meat.  This may be too tender for some chefs.  Make sure you check them and remove them at the tenderness you desire.  After they cool down a little they will firm up a bit.  That’s it for now. 

 

Bon Appetite!