Six Full Racks of Baby Back Ribs on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

I smoked six full racks of Baby Back Ribs today for my get together of guitar friends.

The gathering was a success as was my ribs!  I used a new rub... Rufus Teague - Meat Rub.  Not bad! Purchased a bottle of 6.5 oz at Jewel for under $5 if I'm not mistaken.  A bit expensive, but it's even more expensive on Amazon!  The rub was a lot milder than other rubs I've used in the past, but that's ok.

I put six full racks on the top and bottom grates of my Weber Smokey Mountain smoker and they all fit just fine.  Because the weather was colder today (around 39 degrees at 6:30 AM), it took a lot longer for the smoker to get up to my normal grate level temp of 275 on average.  Instead, it hovered in the 220 degrees range for the longest time.

For Baby Back Ribs, I had intended to do a 2-2-0.5 smoke (2 hours on the grate, 2 hours covered and 0.5 hours back on the grate) but due to the lower temperature, I ended up doing 2.75 hours - 2 hours covered (with apple juice added in an aluminum pan) and 0.75 hours uncovered in the pan.

I used Apple Wood for the smoke.  Sweet Baby Rays sauce was applied when the ribs were covered in the aluminum pan.  Apple juice was added in the pan for moisture.

Overall, the ribs had a good smoke ring and it also had a little bit of a bite to the texture.  My guests really seemed to like them.

No photos this time since I was rather busy smoking and also doing odds and ends for the party.  But I had a lot of positive comments about the ribs and my guest took ribs home with them.  Six racks for only 10 people is a lot of ribs, but I'd rather have more than not enough.  Homemade egg rolls and potstickers were also served.

Bavarian Burger Once Again at RAM Restaurant & Brewery

Once again, I went to RAM Restaurant & Brewery in Wheeling, IL, but this time, I went with my wife.

I had signed up for the restaurant's MVP program which entitles you to a free meal on your birthday (with the purchase of a similar item up to $12.99).  But, for signing up, you also get one of these promotions as well.  So, for the second time in a week, I decided to get another Bavarian Burger.

Per their menu:

BAVARIAN BURGER

Seasoned & grilled fresh USDA all-natural burger patty, basted with stone ground garlic butter, topped with “eye of the round” sliced corned beef, Wisconsin creamy havarti, bacon’d red onion sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, pretzel bun. 12.95

Two Racks of Baby Back Ribs on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

I purchased two racks of ribs from Aldi for $2.89 per pound and smoked them up on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain.  I smoked them at around 285 degrees on average for 2 hours on the rack, 2 hours wrapped and another 0.5 hours on the rack unwrapped.

Not bad, but I should have spread the sauce out more to make sure all surface area was covered.  The areas not covered in sauce were a bit dryer than they should have been.  Still, the smoke ring was very deep and the flavor was just fine.  I did not use any wood for smoking, but rather just the charcoal to flavor the meat with smoke.  I also used my typical modified Pork Barrel BBQ All American Seasoning & Rub that contained more salt and paprika.  The water pan has water in it at 3/4 full.  The pan was lined with aluminum foil to make it easier to clean afterwards.

I am learning that you can't cut corners when smoking.  Even something as simple as spreading the sauce evenly across the meat when wrapping can make a difference.  I also did not add apple juice this time in the wrapped pan and so the meat was not as moist as it probably could have been.  Next time, I'll have to remember to do every step for success.

Bavarian Burger - RAM Restaurant & Brewery

Every quarter year, my brother, two high school friends and I get together for a birthday lunch.  Each of our birthdays just happen to be about a quarter year apart.  So to celebrate, we do a lunch together.

Our usual place for the past several years has been RAM Restaurant & Brewery.  It's a convenient location between all of our locations for work or home.

Today, we celebrated another birthday and while I usually order the Reuben sandwich, I decided to try their limited time burger special, the Bavarian Burger and fries.  Not bad!  A bit greasy, but some might call that juicy (I call it greasy).  By the way, I always like the pretzel buns on burgers!

Per their menu:

BAVARIAN BURGER

Seasoned & grilled fresh USDA all-natural burger patty, basted with stone ground garlic butter, topped with “eye of the round” sliced corned beef, Wisconsin creamy havarti, bacon’d red onion sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, pretzel bun. 12.95

Ginger / Scallion Blue Crabs - Salt & Pepper Squid - Shrimp Egg Rolls

Blue crabs with ginger and scallions! I had turned down the flame a little too much before adding the crabs, but the wok heated back up really quickly right after this video ended. With 65,000 BTU's, the outdoor wok can heat up really fast!  (By the way, the video has higher resolution if you click the YouTube link on the video.)

I made Ginger / Scallion Blue Crabs for dinner!  I also made Salt & Pepper Squid and my wife made Shrimp Egg Rolls!

The crabs were on sale for $2.99/lb, so I bought 10 crabs (3.3 lbs).  Interestingly, they were all female crabs.  You can tell by turning the crab over and looking at the "apron" of the crab which is wider than a male's apron.  Also, female blue crabs have red tips on their claws.

The raw squid was pre-cut and packaged and only had the bodies, but we were ok with that.  We dipped them in a raw egg and then coated them with corn starch that was mixed with salt and pepper.  Not bad!  We hoped it would be crunchier, but it did have a modest crunch.

The egg rolls were made the standard way with shrimp added.  Always good.

6.5 lb Pork Butt and a Rack of Pork Back Ribs

I decided to smoke a 6.5 lb pork butt and also a rack of pork back ribs.

The rub was from a modified Pork Barrel BBQ All American Seasoning & Rub that contained more salt and paprika.  The water pan has water in it at 3/4 full.  The pan was lined with aluminum foil to make it easier to clean afterwards.

I started the butt for pulled pork at 8:15 AM this morning and placed the ribs on the grate at 11:15 AM.  I wrapped the butt at 153 degrees, about 5 hours 45 minutes into the cook.  I wrapped the ribs after 2 hours on the grate.  The second photo shows the ribs with the Sweet Baby Ray's sauce just applied before wrapping.

The ribs will not be monitored with a temperature probe, but rather by time.  I'm doing a 2-2-0.5 cook on the ribs today (2 hours unwrapped, 2 hours wrapped with sauce, 1/2 hour unwrapped on the grate again.)

The pork butt is being monitored by temperature and will stay wrapped until it hits 198 degrees and then it will be removed from the grate.

The grate temperature has been staying rather high this time at 290 degrees on average during most of the cook.  The wood added for the smoke was cherry wood at the beginning of the butt cook but it had burnt out by the time the ribs were added to the cook.  Not a big deal.

I used the 18.5" smoker's charcoal ring in the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker.  Additional Kingsford Original charcoal was added after 5 hours of cooking time.

Total cook time for the butt was 7.5 hours.  Total cook time for the ribs was 4.5 hours.

Interestingly, the ribs had pull-back on the meat area of the ribs rather than at the end of the bones!  Haven't had that happen before.  These are called "shiners".  It happens when the butcher trims too much meat off the ribs.

For the pulled pork, when the bone comes out cleanly... you know you are done!