Pig of the Month

Linda hasn't gone back to work yet and sometimes watches Good Morning America to stay in touch with the news. A few weeks ago, GMA featured Pig of the Month Club, which is a bbq business based out of Dayton, Ohio. As a part of the holiday promotion, GMA announced a 50% off sale. Those of you who know Linda probably already know that she's got a soft spot for bargain shopping. She ordered some baby back ribs and four kinds of barbecue sauce to give it a try.

From the website:

By recreating our favorite barbecues from different regions, we’ve decided to make our own perfectly smoked barbecue ribs and lip-smacking sauces—and share the goodness with you! Pig of the Month offers ribs just the way all barbecue lovers want them: perfectly seasoned, tender-on-the-inside but crispy-on-the-outside, smoky, and mouthwatering—just tear-off-the-bones good barbecue. Our smoking technique is one that was perfected over many decades. (We didn’t just stuff ourselves full with all the barbecue; we also did research.)

Customer's can use the Create a Package feature on the website to pick and choose between pulled pork, ribs, and bbq sauce for home delivery.

Our ribs arrived pre-cooked and packed in cryovac and dry ice. She also ordered 4 kinds of barbecue sauce as a sample pack. The ribs can be reheated and served straight from the package and topped with some sauce in a few minutes time.

We ate a rack for supper and I took one for lunch the next day.

BBQ Ribs for the Superbowl

I cooked two racks of babybacks and a rack of spare ribs for the Superbowl.  The Hen and Hog rub from Spicewine Ironworks was very good.  If you live in Missouri, you can get that rub from Hy Vee grocery stores. You can also order some from their website.

Baby Back BBQ Ribs as Christmas Presents

I cooked six slabs of ribs today and thought I'd share a couple of pictures. They're vacuum sealed and in the freezer awaiting a Christmas delivery.

These ribs are without bbq sauce, since I planned to freeze them and reheat them in a few weeks. I usually reheat ribs in the microwave and brush on some sauce prior to serving them.

I cooked them 2 hours at 250 degrees. Then I wrapped them in foil with some honey, brown sugar, and mixture of apple/grape juice and cooked until the meat began to pull away from the bones.

Backyard BBQ St. Louis Ribs

Final results

Honey makes everything taste better


Adding a little hickory wood

Ribs going on the WSM

Trimming the flap off the St. Louis ribs

Start a Catering Business

July Fourth Menu Ideas

Linda has been reading Dr. BBQ’s Big-Time Barbecue Cookbook again. When I arrived home today, I found the book sitting near my laptop computer. She's planned our menu and even made a trip to the grocery store for supplies and ingredients. I'm sure lucky, aren't I?

Here's our menu for Independence Day:

-Backyard Championship Ribs
-Whole Smoked Cabbage
-Bonesmoker Potatoes
-Sibbie’s Baked Beans (Family Recipe)

There are some items on tap that are not traditional bbq foods, but every once in a while I like to spread my barbecue wings a little. Two of these items will be first timers for me.

We'll post some pictures on July 4th so you can see how it all turns out.

What is one your weekend menu?

Free Clipart or Photos

Cooking Ribs on a Kettle Grill

You don't have to buy an expensive bbq smoker to begin cooking your own mouth watering ribs in the backyard (or in the front driveway in my case). Traditional style charcoal grills like those manufactured by Weber, Charbroil, and numerous others, are perfectly capable of producing excellent barbecue.

To get started, go to Sam's Club, or your favorite other source, and purchase a three-pack of baby back or loin back pork ribs.

Rub both sides of the ribs with your favorite bbq rub mixture. Pat the rub into place to make it adhere to the meat. The meat should be completely covered with rub. Wrap each rib in several layers of plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 10 to 12 hours until ready for cooking. Overnight works well.

Start warming up the kettle grill, when ready to cook, by placing a large fist-sized amount of charcoal coals on one side of the grill and heat them until they turn grey.

Check the temperature of the cooking surface with a meat thermometer poked through the air vents until you achieve a stable temperature between 200 and 250 degress.

Fill an alumimum pie pan with water and place it in the bottom of the kettle grill, or partially over the coals. Refill as needed.

Cook the ribs on the opposite side of the grill away from the charcoal coals. Using a rib rack, you can fit all three racks of ribs on the grill at one time.

Once the cooking process starts, just monitor the temperature and water levels. Add charcoal to maintain 200 to 250 degrees and maintain water levels in the alumimum pan.

To check for doneness, gently tug at the bones of the ribs. If done, the bone and meat should separate with minimum effort. Using this method, cook times should vary between 4 to 5 hours depending on the heat of the fire and outside temperature.

Brush some bbq sauce on the ribs prior to serving.

BBQ Ribs

Here's some ribs from a test cook we did on Saturday. The ribs were made with two different types of rubs and two types of bbq sauces.

Our favorite included Ole Ray's Apple and Cinnamon sauce with Blues Hog bbq rub. The sweetness of the Ole Ray's sauce combines nicely with the Blues Hog rub.

The ribs were cooked for 3 hours meat side up, wrapped in a honey and dark brown sugar mixture with a little apple juice and then foiled for an hour. I unfoiled and applied finishing sauce for the last 15 minutes. They came out tender and juicy just like I like them.

BBQ Pork Ribs and Boston Butts

For stock car racing fans there are very few NASCAR races that compare to the night race at Bristol and for southern bbq fanatics there isn't anything that comes close to good old fashioned bbq pulled pork and ribs. And when you combine the two....you had better watch out because things just might get out of hand! I'm in the middle of preparing some pulled pork and bbq ribs for tonight's festivities.

It's also a good time to test some new competition recipes and validate some of the old standbys. We'll be eating well this week. Ummm...leftovers!