Two of my absolute favorite articles that we have published over the years have been the ones involving some of the awesome BBQ available right here in Beaver County. Marc has been able to capture video of the process Chef Rich uses to smoke his ribs at Heirloom Restaurant, and he also brought us this story on the awesome BBQ from Piper’s Pit.
I added to the conversation a bit by talking about how much of a hit Piper’s Pit was when I ordered food for my birthday last summer. But since I tend to be a do-it-yourselfer, I’ve always wanted to have the ability to make my own ribs and have them turn out as good as some of the pros. This past weekend, I took a big step in the right direction.
That’s right, I finally broke down and bought a smoker.
A few weeks ago, I made the trek out to Home Depot and picked up this bad boy from Weber. From everything I have read, I knew that I wanted to go with a charcoal smoker. I also knew that the Weber version was significantly more expensive, but was supposed to be worth the extra money in terms of quality.
For my first project on the smoker, there was no choice to be made. It was going to be ribs…and lots of them. I picked these ones up the day before and rubbed them down using the basic technique that Chef Rich talked about and demonstrated in his video. I even made the rub from scratch using a bunch of different spices like chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, and brown sugar.
(Take note that I also ordered a Weber rib rack. I think it was like $15-20 on Amazon.)
While I was buying the smoker, I also picked up this charcoal chimney for about $15. I figured that since this was what Chef Rich uses at Heirloom, it had to be a good investment. Since then, I’ve watched numerous videos and can confirm for myself that this thing is a great way to get your charcoal white hot in just a matter of minutes.
I also borrowed from Chef Rich the idea of mixing standard charcoal briquets with lump charcoal. I purchased both at Lowe’s, along with some hickory wood chips that I started soaking in water a little while before starting the fire.
Once the smoker got up to about 225 degrees, I loaded up the ribs and let it do its thing. I was actually very surprised at how easy it was to maintain the temperature throughout more than six hours of cooking. I suspect that this is because I purchased the Weber smoker instead of the cheap $100 one.
I also took Chef Rich’s idea of smoking the ribs for a while and then wrapping them in foil with some BBQ sauce and putting them back in the smoker that way. Upon further research, I found out that there is a popular concept called “the 3-2-1 method” where you smoke the ribs unwrapped for 3 hours, wrapped for 2 hours, and then unwrapped for one hour. So that is the basic plan of attack that I followed.
During those first three hours of smoking, once I got the vents right and the temperature consistent, I started making the BBQ sauce. Earlier this year, I found a habanero BBQ sauce recipe that I really like, but for the occasion I cut the habaneros in favor of jalapeños. The basic idea is that you cook a bunch of sweet onions and spicy peppers in cider vinegar for a while, then puree that mixture in the food processor. After that you slowly stir in some ketchup and lots of brown sugar and you’re on your way.
Since I always attempt go above and beyond, I also found a recipe for bacon-wrapped, cheese-stuffed jalapeños. So yeah, I totally bought Giant Eagle out of peppers. 🙂
The recipe for these called for about 2 hours on the smoker. Unfortunately, I misjudged the amount of space available in the smoker, so they didn’t fit. I did have plenty of room on the grill though, and these bad boys came out fantastic.
After all of that work, the ribs came out absolutely fantastic. Spending the entire day working on this project was a LOT of work, but man…that food was so good. After a few more sessions working on perfecting both by rub and my sauce, I think I should be ready to go toe-to-toe with Chef Rich and Piper’s Pit!
Are you a smoked meat fan? Want to help me decide what to do for my next project? Have any ideas? I’m thinking that the next smoker session is either going to be a pork shoulder or a beef brisket, but I am definitely open to suggestions and recipes!
