Then I placed them in foil pans and smothered with bbq sauce and added a little 7Up for some sugary moisture. Covered with foil and cooked for 2 hrs at 225 degrees
Mine were not as tasty as yours. I boiled them then slow grilled them a couple hours indirect heat. First bite and I got that dreaded tallow that sticks to the roof of your mouth. What did I do wrong.
Looks good! I am doing mine this weekend. I clean them up cutting away as much fat as I can then braise them about 3-4 hours until they almost fall apart and the tallow is all cooked out. Then I throw a sweet asian bbq glaze on them and finish on a hot grill. A lot of work but not something I leave in the woods anymore when they are in decent shape.
I'm also curious if there was tallow? We all know they are darn tasty when they are warm, but did you get the dreaded tallow effect? Or was it one of those situations after putting so much work into them, it's like "dangit these are going to be good and I'm gonna like em!" ;)
As you can see in the first pic, I left some fat on some of the rib portions. Some didnt have any.
When I checked on the progress about 1.5 hrs into the initial 3 hr smoke, there was fat dripping off them. Which was my intent.
I also did my antelope ribs a few weeks ago, but I braised them and them put them in the slow cooker - they were good, just not as good as these WT ribs. Maybe it was the cornfed Nebraska spike buck too :)
I probably wouldnt recommend searing/braising these kind of ribs as it will lock in the 'tallow' taste you are not wanting.
These ribs fed 4 adults [and 2 of them ladies], with leftovers - who absolutely loved the taste.
Far as I know tallow isn't a taste it's a texture problem. While warm the fat is runny and normal, but as soon as it cool's it turns into a pasty almost glue, which happens in your mouth, cause it cools just enough in your mouth to happen right there. Then you've got this chalky gluey fat stuck in your mouth. So maybe you did them long enough that the fat dripped off? That would be a cool thing if a guy can get rid of it.
I do all ribs with the "3-2-1" method similar to what cnelk uses, except for thin ones like deer ribs. I do them for 2-2-1 (hours). That's the trick to getting the fat to drip off. The secret to keeping them moist is the second stage. For mine I seal them tight in heavy duty foil for the second stage to make it airtight.
I hope to have some muley ribs next week, but tonight I'm having pork baby back ribs smoked 2-2-1 with the Tony Roma's Carolina Honey sauce. OMG!
Is there a certain part of the ribs that work better? Are the ribs cut from up by the backbone better than the ribs from down lower, or vice versa? Or they are all the same?
Yeah, I think a 2-2-1 would work just right on deer or smaller ribs
When taking the ribs off the carcass, you want to leave as many layers of meat on as you can. There will be layers of fat between the meat, but thats ok.
Obviously, the rib bone is thicker near the back. I took my sawzall and split the rib cage in half, front to back, about halfway down. Then I sawed them along the back. Took a knife and separated them into cooking sized chunks as seen in the first pic above.
I can't remember the exact timing of each stage --- she had Dad cut them into about 6 inch pieces (front to back with his sawzall) then boiled them in a BIG pot for about 45 minutes, drained the water WITHOUT having the ribs touch all the fat floating on the top of the pot.
Fresh water - repeat step one exactly.
Dad always made his own BBQ sauce - he would slather the sauce on and put in the BBQ grill (briquettes only - Dad did not like the taste of gas grill). Get the ribs up away from the heat as far as possible and cook for a long time - (only time he opened the grill was to add a few more briquettes - - as was said "if your look'n, you ain't cook'n").
I can't remember how long he left them on the grill, but to us kids, with the smell, it felt like all flippin day.
Butchered three deer yesterday. We always cut the meat from between the ribs for the hamburger. Never thought about there being enough there to smoke. May have to give this a try on the next deer we butcher......
So for the smoking retarded (myself) 3-2-1 sounds like 3 hrs smoking, 2 hours baking, again 1 hour smoking. And ALL of this done at 225 right? Please confirm? Thanks for the help fellas. (I'm so hungry right now looking at those pics)
Completely separate question but has anyone run a Bradley when it's like 20 below? Does it work? I bought a super cheap smoker a couple years ago, and I can essentially only use it when it is above freezing, which is like 6 months of the year here.
The 3-2-1 method only consists of the first 3 hrs of smoking. The other 3 hrs are just slow cooking. Some may say the 1st hour of smoking is enough, but all depends on your taste and what wood you use.
As far as using your smoker when it’s cold, mine won’t work well when it’s cold. I had to bring it in the house last winter get the unit warmed up before i didn’t get the ‘error’ message.
APauls. 3-2-1 Is 3 hours in the smoker like usual. Then 2 hours in the smoker wrapped in aluminum foil. Personally, I add some apple juice to the ribs in the foil. Finally, 1 hour out of the foil in the smoker like normal. Usually add any BBQ sauce to them at this point. All this at 225 degrees. They will usually fall off the bone when done.
We used to have a cheap MasterForge smoker from Lowes. Like you guys mentioned above, it was lucky to get up to 150 in the cooler months. After building our own smoker this summer, I have come to realize that I think the water pan in the MasterForge one covered too much of the bottom and blocks the heat..... Studying it to help in building the new one is when I come to realize the water pan is too big and solid to allow heat to get above it easily. Just something to think about and see if you can't work around it if that is your situation.
Thought I'd share pics of the smoker dad and I built. It works great. Got the general idea off of one a guy built in a smoking forum. But I designed it and sized it for our wants and needs. Money wise you can buy cheaper, but not one this size. Neighbor came over one day and asked what it was and I told him it was an outhouse for midgets!
Thats a nice unit! Can you control your damper on the smoke stack?
If anyone uses the smaller electric units, be sure to leave the damper OPEN during the smoke time. Then close it during the cook time. At least thats what has worked well for me
The window in the door is the glass from an old oven door. The local appliance store gave it to us from a junk stove they were disposing of. Oh, the big door handle is from the same oven door!
The burner we ordered from Northern Tool. It has three sections, but once up to temp we usually only need one in the summer.
We lined it with sheet aluminum. The local lumber yard let us use their metal break to bend the big pieces. The smaller pieces we bent by hand with two pieces of flat steel and dead blow rubber hammers.
The shelf on the side slides down and hooks on three bolts. Just pick it up to remove it for storage. The shelf brackets were my first ever TIG welding project.
The sides are insulated with 1.5 Styrofoam sheeting. The little piece of plastic pipe sticking out the side is for running the meat temp probes inside.
I was shocked how well it works and how evenly the heat is distributed. Normally not more than 5 degrees difference between the gauge on the side and the two on the shelves.
So far we are just using cheap, disposable aluminum pans from WalMart for the water pan. Two or three uses then throw away. Its worth the 1 or 2 dollars per smoke not to have to clean a water pan up. It just sets on that rack you can see in the bottom.
We're pretty proud of it. Just thought you guys might like to see it and get some ideas.
Yes, there is a damper in the stack. Can't see it in the pictures.
We have wheels on the back of it cause we had planned on rolling it in and out of the shed. WRONG!!! This thing weights a ton!!!! It stays put and we just cover it with a tarp. Next is to buy some marine tarp material and a long zipper and make a nice looking cover for it.
Do you guys generally remove the membrane on the inside of the ribs? I've never done that but thanks to this thread started looking into doing ribs, and lots of people say to do that. Pros and Cons? I fear for the life of the next doe that walks past.