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| Get in ma belly! |
My friend Don in Baltimore (shout out to Artist DoLoBo) told me he chopped down his apple tree. (Actually, it fell on his house.) So all spring he's been chopping me apple wood ! I decided perfect for use in my smoker and do some Apple Wood ribs.
Here's what I did:
- Marinated full size pork spare ribs for 24-48 hours with dry rub seasoning (coating both sides).
- Filled a foil pan with 3.5 cups of Apple Juice.
- Filled my pit with apple wood.
- Put the ribs in the foil pan and cooked them low and slow, about 225 degrees for five and a half hours adding more wood as needed and turning them changing positions into the mixture of apple juice. Some of the juice will evaporate, but that's what you want, more apple flavor. Apple wood +Apple juice = Apple Heaven.
Now when I say smoking, I use a barrel smoker and the smoke flavor is what you want in your meat--gives it that mesquite flavor from the apple wood. So if you are using a large piped smoker, make sure your vents are adjusted or at half closed.
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| My ribs were very photogenic. |
- At the five and a half hour mark I caramelized them by taking the pan away for good, and searing each right on the grate over top the sweet apple wood with lid open.
- During this step, I was finishing my rips with a maple powder and sugar blend on both sides until the ribs were browned, cooking about 25 minutes more on each side, or until done. *If you don't have access to maple powder, cheat and use maple syrup but this will burn the outside a bit.
These were full size spare ribs, but because they were so tender from smoking for so long, I was able to easily cut the rib tips off and save those for another meal. (Under normal circumstances, you would need a machete to do this, but not if you cook low and slow, the bones turn into budda!!)
Here are more photos of me and the rib (you will be taken to other sites as they are on my twitter):
Me in the kitchen with the ribs.
The unaltered photo of my ribs.
The perfect compliment for 21 and up: Here.
Beware: After eating the ribs and having the beverage.
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