Started to pull the membrane off the slabs at 10:00am. For the now 30 slabs of meat, the baby backs were the easier to prepare. The spare ribs had the meaty 3-4 inch piece attached so I cut them off and trimmed fat. What a job it turned into ...messy and started to get about 10 lbs of trimmings. Once we cleaned up, mustard and rub flew everywhere.
As it turned out, the racks were a bit over 2x4' each and there was zero room left on either. 30 full racks of ribs. The smoker performed flawlessly... Like a freakin' digital temperature controlled oven!!! Of course I managed the fire with luck...GREAT LUCK. At the two hour mark the foiling was a major chore but with 3 of us and these terrific gloves, it only took about 25 minutes to add some apple juice and seal them up. At that point there was an overlap in the placement. There was no room on the racks. But prior to this, they had started to smell really good. You could tell they were starting to cook.
During the foil period, I used only charcoal since there were 4 big bags of it thinking that we could not absorb smoke anyway. Saw a post by SoloQue suggesting that since there was a lot of meat, it might be good to bring the temperature up, so I did. The charcoal made it easy. The UN-foiling part was a real PITA as the heat was up and it was a warm day. The upper rack was just a tad high up and made for a sore back. The wrapping was very non symmetrical ... But nicely sealed .
Two hours in the foil REALLY softened up the meat and at times a few racks almost started to break apart. I did get them all neatly placed back on the racks. With another hour to go they started to dry up a just enough that they looked spectacular. Sauced only one rack and left the other dry. Filled a load of foil pans with sections of 3 ribs per cut. The day before I'd made up 5 quarts of different sauces. Vinegar, mustard, KC red, maple (about $12.00. Worth of real VT. Maple syrup) and one I had added ground clove to. It tasted like the old Beemans chewing gum flavor.
The reviews came in and everyone just loved them. They were fall off the bone tender. In fact several bones fell out while we cut them up. I started and 9:30am and got home only 12:30 midnight. It was such a tremendous success that I was asked by 4 other people to cater a party for them.... I had to turn them all down but knowing everyone enjoyed the ribs and pulled pork so much was very ego satisfying. One 9 year old boy came up to me and said" these are the best ribs I have ever eaten"
Geez... I came home happy and pooped
Hope the get together is going well.... Thanks to all a big big thanks
