FEED YOUR FACE: Baby Back Ribs

Dinner last night was really good. Kathi made some 'tater salad and I smoked up some ribs.

Course, to be honest about the ribs, they had been pre-cooked. No matter. I took the two racks of ribs and did a dry rub on them, then wrapped them in plastic wrap and left 'em in the fridge overnight.

The next day (yesterday), I removed them from the fridge and let them set. Once they were at room tempature I then went out and cranked up the smoker. I set the tempature on the smoker to 220 degrees then placed the ribs on the rib rack. Closed the lid and went and laid in the hammock and enjoyed some of our nice fall weather.



After two hours I went and checked on the ribs. MMM MMM!! Did they look good! I smoked them for those two hours because I like a really good smokey flavor on the meat. Now if I had started with the meat being raw, I would of smoked them for about six hours, at 200 degrees or so.

If you have a smoker, you can smoke the meat before cooking and still have that smokey flavor. Like, if you are going to do a roast, rub the roast with a dry rub of your likeing, then you can place the roast in the smoker for 15 minutes or so for a light smoke flavor, or leave it in for a while longer for a more smokey flavor. Then remove it from the smoker and place it in a pan and finish cooking it in your oven.



Or you can leave your roast in the smoker and let it cook and smoke. It about 20 minutes per pound. And if it is not done well enough, let it stay in the smoker for a few more hours. Now when you pull the meat out of the smoker let it set for about 10 minutes. When you slice it up, you will see how about and inch or so on the outside part of the meat is a different color than the rest. That is the smoke ring.

When smoking meat, I never turn the meat. Also, if it has fat on it trim it back but leave some on the meat. After the dry rub you can put it right on the smoker or rub it the night before you smoke it. When you place it in the smoker you want the fat side up. As the fat renders down while it is smoking and cooking it will add to the flavor of the meat.

So, that's a fast lesson on smoking meat.

Our meal was great and we only left half a rack untouched. Well, gotta have something for lunch the next day, right? Maybe I can talk the wife into sharing. Maybe.

So if you got a smoker, use it this fall and winter. And feed your face!