a. kesteloo

As you know from my earlier posts, I'm having trouble getting ribs
right. The ribs I can get my hands on have hardly any meat on the ribs
or come from the shoulder area which most Dutch people think are to
fat (we use them for soup). Smoking the thin ribs for a long period
makes them turn out dry.

I know boiling ribs before smoking is not an option. You lose taste
and we are smoking, not making soup. But did any of you ever try
steaming the ribs? It would sure keep them moist, and hopefully the
will keep their taste because they are not soaking in the water

Although I prefer smoking / BBQing the traditional way, I’m almost out
of options now, its this or buying a whole pig so I can cut it up any
way I like it ;-)

Hope you can help me out


Adriaan
The Netherlands

steve calvin

I'm having a bit if difficulty following.... you say the ribs are fatty
but coming out dry?!?

How long are you cooking them and at what temp?

I do mine around 250dF and cook them until they *just* break when bent.

Cooking by time is a fairly good way to come out with unpleasant results.

--
Steve

a. kesteloo

steve,

thanks for your response.

what I ment is; we have fat ribs that Dutch people don't like. when I
BBQ those, the do come out of the smoker moist, done and with a good
smoke flavor. downside, the are very fat. the other spare ribs, have
no meat on the ribs. when I use those, the are pretty dry when they
are done.

Adriaan

tutall

And, if I remember correctly, Adriaan. has had plenty of websites
given to him with diagram's showing where the various cuts come from.
And we can probably assume he's tried to get a few butchers to
accomodate his peculiar tastes. ;-)

Bummer that that didn't pan out. I'm thinking you need to find a
specialist Metzger (is that the word in Dutch too?) or simply one
further out in the country, away from the city where they may actually
have handled carcasses instead of already processed cuts.

Can you trim some of the fat off the fatty cuts to make them more
acceptable?

I'm not sure about the steaming thing, though on the other hand that
does render fat well doesn't it.

I would never criticize anything anyone who makes his own Q rig from
scratch does.

Good luck!

olde hippee

Before we started Qing outside I did ribs in the oven in a tightly
covered pan, with about 1/2" of water in the bottom, @250. Maybe a
combination of some cooking/smoking on the Barbeque then putting them
in a pan with tight foil over the top could be your answer. Just a
humble suggestion. Hope you find the solution that works for you.
Nan in DE

sqwertz

Generally, you can't cook meat by a moist method (braise, simmer,
steam) and then finish with a dry method. It turns out even drier.
This is one of the things that culinary schools (and good cookbooks)
stress - almost as popular a lesson as "fat is flavor".


The back ribs closer to the shoulder should work if they still have
that part of the loin extension attached. Here we call those
country ribs (not the ones from pork butt). Otehrwise you should be
able to get a bone-in loin roast with fat-cap, which smokes up very
nicely and will give you some pretty big meaty ribs.

-sw

sqwertz

Have you ever seen those 10-lb boxes of danish ribs on sale for
$10-$12? They're really dinky ribs. Svereal of us here have tried
smoking them with not very good results.

-sw

steve calvin

Nope, cain't say that I have. ;-)

Now, I can certainly understand something with too much fat and not
enough meat sucking but come out dry? That's what I questioned and the
OP clarified.

--
Steve

sqwertz

He mentioned two kinds of cuts. You questioned why one of them came
out dry, and I clarified which cut that was.

-sw

steve calvin

Yup, got that from his reply but thanks

--
Steve