April 24, 2016 – Tried our first Spare Ribs (SR) and second Country Style RIbs (CSR) in the MES40.
Saturday mid-day, lightly salted the both and rubbed with Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub. Put back in crovac and into refer.
10:30 AM, Sunday the 24th – MES is at 225 steady and only a few apple chips and it is smoking. Added the spare ribs to the second rack and the country style ribs (CSR) in a shallow alum pan with cooling rack to the top rack. Air probe is on empty second rack on the MES’s right side of center. Readings cited below are with it in that position. Spares are on the 3rd rack from the top. They almost touch the rack supports on either side. Initial readings for it is 187 while the MES is showing 245+. Before adding the meat they both read 181 with the box empty and door having been closed for 15-20 minutes.
11:30 – Smoke from the chip tray has stopped. Replaced chips with a few fresh ones. Still did not start smoking. Maybe the new chips are damp from the humid air. While dumping the tray the door was opened twice and the MES cooled to 222. It came back to 250 and coasted only to 254 in 4 minutes. So chip tray did not have long to get hot and start new chips smoldering. Air probe is at 202 and IT on thickest CSR was 124.
11:40 – Lite and placed AMZNTS on lower bars with PitMaster plugs.
12:40 – MES at 250 steady, IT on CSR is 124 and 2nd rack air is 202.
~1:00 – Placed tomatoes on empty 2nd rack in front of air probe.
1:20 – Wrapped spares with foil and added large jalapenos on 2nd rack between tomatoes.
2:35 – Removed tomatoes and jalapenos. Tomatoes had split open and were almost too soft to pick up. Should have come off at least 30 minutes ago. Jalapenos were beginning to be soft but still solid. Had a dark smokey look. Mary put all the tomatoes in the blender and one of the large jalapenos that I removed the seeds. The jalapeno was rather mild so I minced a second one and added it to the blended puree mixture she had after she had blended cilantro, fresh garlic, cumin, …
2:40 – Removed foil from Spares. Before opening door air probe was only at 216 with MES at 250 steady. IT of thickest CSR is 140 per ChefAlarm and 138 per RT600C when inserted into same location.
3:00 – Raised MES set to 275. Not any real smoke as AMZNTS has burned up and chips are barely creating the apple smell.
4:15 – No change in stiffness of spares so moved them to inside over preheated to 300.
4:30 – Lowered oven to 250
4:45 – Spares still tough as knife pushed between bones has to pry its way in an the fibers do not move apart easily. Stringy. Added Stubbs Hot Sweet rub with apple cider vinegar and returned to oven.
5:20 – Pulled from oven and ate ribs that were not tough but not tender and bones pulled out easily.
Monday, April 25 – Reheat – Mary reheated them at 250 starting in a hot oven at 4:00 pm. Checked them at 5:00 and 5:30 with a toothpick. At 5:30 the toothpick went in and out easily so she turned off the oven and they stayed there until we ate a little before 7:00. They were tender but still firm with a nice bite. Not falling apart like an over-cooked roast. The bones actually would fall out but before they did they were protruding from the meat–i.e. the meat did finally pull back–only about 1/4″. Good flavor but not very smokey.
