Barbecue Beef Ribs

I went to the store today to buy a boston butt, or a front pork shoulder roast for those of you that don't know barbecue jargon.  Now, if you are looking at the photo to the left you are probably saying to yourself "That don't look like no pork roast."  Well, good eye and maybe you should consider your next career as a butcher.  What happened was I didn't like what I saw for pork roast but I did like the beef ribs located above the roast.  Since it can be hard to find beef ribs in this area, and the pork roast wasn't the greatest, I changed direction and decided to go with the beef ribs.  Maybe next weekend I'll make some barbecue pork sandwiches.

Since I have never had a lot of luck with beef ribs, normally end up tough something along the lines of old shoe leather, I turned to my best friend Google to help me out.  I was looking for cooking times to make sure I give the ribs enough time on the smoker since I think this has been my biggest downfall when barbecuing beef ribs.  But one problem, the times I found were anywhere from 1-1/2 to 6 hours at 225 degrees, really not a lot of help there.  After taking into account the thickness and size of the ribs I decided to start at 3 hours and go from there.

The next big decision to be made is what, if any, rub to use.  I decided to go with the Mike Mills' Beef Ribs recipe from the Food Network and his Magic Dust.  It is a quick and easy rub with most, if not all, the ingredients found in the pantry.  The Apple City Barbecue Sauce at the end of the recipe is the inspiration for my own barbecue sauce.  It's the recipe that got me started in the right direction years ago when I wanted to make my own apple barbecue sauce.  While I didn't end up using Mike Mills recipe, this is a very good recipe to try if you like apple flavored barbecue sauce.

On to the smoker to get it ready.  Today I had to clean the ashes out of the bottom which normally needs to be done after using it a couple of times.  I put enough charcoal in to last up to 6 hours, if needed, and decided on hickory chunks of wood to deliver the smoke flavor to the ribs.  I tend to favor hickory for beef and apple and cherry wood for pork and chicken.  Since it is summer and the temperatures are warmer, I chocked the the air vents down to about 1/3 the way open.  Once the charcoal is ready it's time to dump a chimney full of hot charcoal on top and get this smoker started.  All that's left now is to slip the beef ribs on the grates and wait.  And wait.  

I decided at the 3 hour mark to lift the lid to see how the ribs were doing.  Well, well, what do you know, the meat just getting to the point where it was going to fall off the bone, perfect, let's get the sauce.  My choice today?  How about my own apple barbecue sauce, sweet, spicy and full of apple flavor.  

 After mopping on some barbecue sauce I let the ribs finish for another 15 minutes on the smoker before removing them.  After letting them rest another 15 minutes I cut them apart into single bone servings and drizzle some more barbecue sauce on them.  And of course take a picture just because it's what I do. 

 Mmmmm, sweet, spicy, smokey, juicy, messy an full of beef flavor.  Finally, beef ribs I can be proud of and enjoy for this weekend.  Maybe next weekend I'll get to that barbecue pork sandwich.

Original Recipe