EPIC fail

[gmotoman]

Food Lion and Krogers both have carried "enhanced" ribs...

Adds 12% weight to each package too and you are paying $4.00/pound for salt water

Ok maybe I am confused. When I think about it i guess every pack of ribs I have purchased has been cryovacked. And by cryovacked i mean plastic wrapped with no air in the bag. The ones I get come from C&C and have 3 racks per bag and are not enhanced. But the cryovacked ones at fred meyer(kroger) only have 1 rack and are enhanced in most cases.

[Fishawn]

Ok maybe I am confused. When I think about it i guess every pack of ribs I have purchased has been cryovacked. And by cryovacked i mean plastic wrapped with no air in the bag. The ones I get come from C&C and have 3 racks per bag and are not enhanced. But the cryovacked ones at fred meyer(kroger) only have 1 rack and are enhanced in most cases.

I am seeing the same thing here Gman......

[DeepSouthBBQ]

I did get this rack from Krogers but don't have the wrap anymore. I'll have to stop by there now and read the label. The racks prior to this have alll been purchased at other places given they are cheaper. Kroger's just happened to have a sale last week.

No one got sick I suppose is the god news. I did have my daughter taste them and she agreed with me. We didn't eat all of them so I had a chance to taste them again the next day. Heated them up and while still very nice looking, very little flavor. It took me back a bit lol.

THe really funny thing was I've been cooking ribs just about every weekend for 2 months now and though I had a recipe / procedure that I might could compete with. THis was suppose to be the rack that proved I could do it so to speak ... lol what a set back!!

Bad weather this weekend so not smoking. Next weekend I'll start again.

[RowdyRay]

I did get this rack from Krogers but don't have the wrap anymore. I'll have to stop by there now and read the label. The racks prior to this have alll been purchased at other places given they are cheaper. Kroger's just happened to have a sale last week.

No one got sick I suppose is the god news. I did have my daughter taste them and she agreed with me. We didn't eat all of them so I had a chance to taste them again the next day. Heated them up and while still very nice looking, very little flavor. It took me back a bit lol.

THe really funny thing was I've been cooking ribs just about every weekend for 2 months now and though I had a recipe / procedure that I might could compete with. THis was suppose to be the rack that proved I could do it so to speak ... lol what a set back!!

Bad weather this weekend so not smoking. Next weekend I'll start again.

Think you just answered your own question. Something different about these ribs. Most likely, enhanced.

If you've been practicing for comps and using the same method every time, then it's the ribs. Not something you did. Pecan is milder than hickory, in my opinion, but will not produce tasteless ribs. Stick to a particular brand.

[DeepSouthBBQ]

This is interesting. I've bought ribs from at least 4 stores. There is one that was really good so I"m gonna try that store/brand again. Also, I'll start logging the brands like I do everything else.

Could I simply have some "bad" wood as well? I just got some from a different tree. Think I'll try that next time. Is peach stronger than Pecan? Asking cause if I drive just a bit I have pretty much an endless source for Peach. In college I worked on a peach farm in Louisiana and they are having some issues right now so they have many trees they are cutting down. been thinking of making the 3 hour round trip to get a small truck load. Is it worth it?

[Mark R]

Also, I'll start logging the brands like I do everything else.

Good idea, butt just but from a consistent source - especially for comps.

Could I simply have some "bad" wood as well?

Not very likely, stick to what you were doing before. Consistency is really important. You cannot produce a consistent product with inconsistent ingredients. My .02.

[chisoxjim]

So last weekend I smoked a single spare rib rack and it didn't turn out very good at all. It smelled really good, cut nice, looked fantastic, but basically had no taste. Almost none...

Here is the details
1. Medium rack with decent marbling.
2. Used same rub (mine) .. typical pap/brown sugar mix
3. 3 hours at 225 plus or minus 5
4. Fuel charcoal with one lump of pecan at any time
5. Good smoke with fast movement ... smelled really nice
6. Wrap 2 hours with brown sugar, butter, tad of dry rub, tiger sauce, apple juice)
7. 1 hour back on smoker .. cut in half during last hour.. half used Sugar Ray original and 2nd side used Trigg like mix of corn syrup, molasses, and tomoto sauce


There was no sweetness, no heat, no flavor except for a very tad hint of the pork flavor. Again, smoke ring was 9.5 out of 10 and the glaze looked amazing.

WHAT WENT WRONG???? I just don't understand ... anyone have this happen?

Not sure how you would be able to taste any pork after: butter, tiger sauce, corn syrup, molasses, tomato sauce, etc...

Less is more.

[DeepSouthBBQ]

Not sure how you would be able to taste any pork after: butter, tiger sauce, corn syrup, molasses, tomato sauce, etc...

Less is more.

But that is the point, all I could taste was a very slight pork flavor and nothing else ;)

[curious aardvark]

yep. And I HATE it when someone presumes to brine/inject my meat for me.

Also...if you spent the day in the smoke, seasoning...tasting.. you might want to ask for another opinion.

Not sure how you would be able to taste any pork after: butter, tiger sauce, corn syrup, molasses, tomato sauce, etc...

Less is more.

I'm with jim 100% - you've got about five different processes going there.
Lots of contradictiing rubs, sauces etc - and butter ? seriously why do you people do this to your ribs ?

My advice would be to cut out everything except the initial rub (and sounds like you need to change that up a bit - I'd suggest rich's madhunky) some apple juice in the foil and maybe a little sauce made with the same rub to finish.
mix some of the rub with your tiger sauce (basic bbq sauce with tamarind added).

I personally prefer sauce on the side, but if you're going for comps then I understand you have to sauce.
Try and aim for flavours that compliment each other.
At the moment you seem to be throwing the entire contents of your kitchen cupboard at the ribs and hoping something sticks.

Start simple and work your way up very gradually.

[Bearcarver]

Could be to much liquid in the foiling process. Might be taking the rub off. That's what I'm thinking. How much butter, tiger sauce, and apple juice are you using?

I'm in Ryan's camp on this. If you're using all those ingredients, and all you're tasting is Pork, you must be washing the flavor out with too much liquid in the foiling process.


Bear