Smokin' all night long

There are certain recipes that take time and are not for the patient. Anticipation doesn’t begin with what boils in the pot on the stove or marinates in the refrigerator. The meal begins with that spark at the supermarket, realizing what you can do and how you could push yourself to accomplish a meal long term, outside of a slow cooker. 

I hadn’t been brave enough to learn the art of slow cooking and smoking meats on my new Weber charcoal grill since I had bought it six weeks ago. Thumbing through pages in cookbooks at home and at a Barnes and Noble, I even asked friends who had smoked for advice. Assured in my educational prowess, it was time to leave school and take on the first smoke job. A full slab of baby back ribs would be a good start.

Before you even prepare the ribs, you must flip them over and remove a saran wrap-like layer of membrane from the back to assure your smoke and rub will penetrate. The fool that I am wasn’t focused on my knife skills. Because of that I nearly sliced my left thumb to the bone. Wearing the gold medal of dumbassery in knife skills for that day, I needed Ally to be my assistant in the kitchen for what would be a meal we’d share anyways. I started with a sprinkle of white wine vinegar on the top. Then, Ally covered the top in healthy dashes of a barbeque rub I bought from Real Urban Barbeque in Highland Park. Topping off the spice layers, I had her add a sprinkling of smoked paprika. Once done, it was rubbed into the meat to perfection.

If you are smoking, the temperature should be between 225 and 250 degrees, though I’ve found you can get as high as 275 if you are pressed for time. This process will take many hours so don’t do what I did and start cooking the ribs between 6:30 and 7pm. Once you light the charcoals in an in-direct fashion, with your coals stacked on one side of the grill, place your meat on the opposite side of the grill. That way the heat and smoke will percolate around the inside once the lid is closed. Keep the exhaust open on the top of the grill or smoker (depending if you have the four hole slot or a chimney) -if you don’t the fire will lose oxygen and burn out. The coals radiating off a heat that the temperature reading on my drop-in thermometer find to be just right, I add a handful of chips onto the coals. These chips, of which I chose the good all around wood, Hickory, have to be soaked in water for 20-30 minutes and patted dry. You don’t want soaked chips on charcoal to put out the fire. Once these chips are placed on the charcoal, place the lid back on top and watch as billows of smoke flit out the chimney holes like a steam train at full throttle. 

Be wise and check your progress every half hour. I say this because at first you need to treat the grill like a baby for maintaining heat on a grill longer than 30 to 45 minutes requires that same attention you would give to an infant – constant! I had to place 5-7 charcoal briquettes onto the fire every 45 minutes to maintain temperature and assure that we wouldn’t be eating at midnight. Flip the ribs a few times to ensure you are cooking through without drying out the meaty ribs. Do add some more flavor in the last hour of cooking, I spread around brown sugar on the top layer. As I had read, the sugar melts into the meat under the pressure of the smoke and heat, creating that nut brown and beautiful caramelization on top. Adding barbeque sauce should be the last step as a layer of the Carson’s rib sauce I placed on half of the ribs only needed ten minutes to turn from loose sauce into the top layer of my creation. 

After you are finished cooking the ribs, rest the meat on a metal tray or large wooden cutting board for at least five minutes. Use a large knife to separate the ribs into slices. Pour some BBQ sauce on the side for dipping and heap praise upon yourself for the scent of the smoke when you bite into what could be succulent to fall off the bone ribs. You’re allowed to gloat – even if you begin eating when some people are turning in.