Smoked Baby Back Ribs

Mr Smokerson was feeling a bit neglected I think, starved of attention for at least a few weeks, maybe longer... Poor guy. Until I spotted some baby back ribs in Waitrose that was. I've smoked some once before and it was an effort to find them; now I see them everywhere, Morrisons, Waitrose, The Grainger Market. They are small, tasty and cheap. This lot only cost £2 and there were smaller racks for less... rude not to I thought...

It was a match day, expectations were high... (not that high as we were playing Man United), but high enough to bet on Newcastle to win and get up early to light the smoker and pop some ribs in. The sun was shining, autumnal colours were dancing around the yarden, wood smoke was puffing out of Mr. Smokerson, I could smell smoky delicious ribs, I was happy, Mr. Smokerson was happy, everyone was happy...

That was until about 4 minutes into the match, but the less said about that the better, I still smelt a bit of wood smoke and hadn’t forgotten the good times entirely...

You don't necessarily need a smoker to make these as there are two methods, one for the smoker and one for the oven. I haven’t tried the oven method yet, but the smoker way is pretty damn good, so I'm guessing that is too. The recipe is from the Joe Beef book, my current obsession and inspiration for my Pop-up Feast on the 3rd November at Ouse Street Arts Club.

My ribs weighed about 350g. Mix together a teaspoon of smoked paprika, one of garlic powder, one of mustard powder and one of black pepper, and add some crushed bay leaf. Rub this mix all over the ribs, whether you are putting them into the oven or the smoker.

For the oven method put them in a tray, pour in half a bottle of beer and cook for 2½ hours at 165°C covered with foil, for the smoker method bring the smoker up to about 240°F and smoke for 4 hours, keeping the temperature between 210°F and 240°F. For me this involves lots of faffing, opening and closing of vents and messing around with probe thermometers... but actually Mr. Smokerson is pretty reliable kind of guy when you leave him to his own devises, I just like faffing around pretending I'm some kind of all American smoker guy... For a fuller explanation of how Mr. Smokerson works see my 'Experiments in Smoking part 1' post.

We added an overly large handful of apple wood chips at the same time as the meat went in, and a few more half way through just for good measure, the aim being to smoke the hell out of them. This resulted in a pretty bloody smoky rib; soft, sweet, delicious. Just all round delicious. Next time I'll make more as well as coleslaw, buns, bbq sauce... I want more already...