What's cooking today? 🔥 Pics are necessary!

[Hogan]

Doing my first ever meal on the smoker! Baby back ribs with the 3-2-1 recipe, and going to do the smoked triple mac & cheese today. Hoping to find a Mac & cheese recipe my kids will eat that is not Kraft from the box!

Family hand-me-down recipe for Mac 'n Cheese: use McLarens cheddar (comes in a smll plastic tub like sour cream). Make it in a double-boiler, one 300 gm container for 400 gm macaroni, 1 C+ whole milk, 1/4 t dry mustard, gradually stirring in the cheese to the warm milk. Use enough mil to cover the pasta, cover and let cook for half an hour.

 

[Smokin In Bama]

I’m thinking about brining some baby back ribs in pickle juice as an experiment. Has anyone tried it on ribs? Chicken is great so I figured why not?

Also, if you have done this did you use a rub with salt after the brine?

 

[RustyJake]

I’m thinking about brining some baby back ribs in pickle juice as an experiment. Has anyone tried it on ribs? Chicken is great so I figured why not?

Also, if you have done this did you use a rub with salt after the brine?

I have used on chicken as well, it is very good. Never ribs though. Thing about salt, once added and the meat is cooked you can't remove it if it's too much. Personally, I would use a sweeter rub, with lower salt content. And if it needs salt, add that at the table to your own preference.
Preface, I don't like things that have a strong salt profile, so my tastes are probably different than some.
Looking forward to your results and some pics too.

 

[Smokin In Bama]

I have used on chicken as well, it is very good. Never ribs though. Thing about salt, once added and the meat is cooked you can't remove it if it's too much. Personally, I would use a sweeter rub, with lower salt content. And if it needs salt, add that at the table to your own preference.
Preface, I don't like things that have a strong salt profile, so my tastes are probably different than some.
Looking forward to your results and some pics too.

Good feedback. Your concern with salinity content is valid so I’m going to design my study with this in mind We aren’t shooting for fatback here

I think what I am going to do is cut a slab of baby backs in 1/2. Brine both in the pickle juice. Use a normal rub on 1/2 and zero rub on the other 1/2 and check the salinity according to my taste buds. I think doing it this way will also give me a good sample of how much salt flavor is imparted from the pickle juice alone and if any pickle flavor is imparted. I think I will go long on the brine for the heck of it. .. overnight and will not wrap or sauce them while smoking. I will spritz with water only to keep them moist but won’t affect the flavor of either 1/2. Sorry for the ramble but I’m kind of thinking out loud as I post this . I will make it happen in the next few days.

 

[Parrothead1809]

Good feedback. Your concern with salinity content is valid so I’m going to design my study with this in mind We aren’t shooting for fatback here

I think what I am going to do is cut a slab of baby backs in 1/2. Brine both in the pickle juice. Use a normal rub on 1/2 and zero rub on the other 1/2 and check the salinity according to my taste buds. I think doing it this way will also give me a good sample of how much salt flavor is imparted from the pickle juice alone and if any pickle flavor is imparted. I think I will go long on the brine for the heck of it. .. overnight and will not wrap or sauce them while smoking. I will spritz with water only to keep them moist but won’t affect the flavor of either 1/2. Sorry for the ramble but I’m kind of thinking out loud as I post this . I will make it happen in the next few days.

The things we do in the name of “BBQ Science” Better do a double-blind taste test and cleanse your pallet (with beer, of course) in between bites.

Love the direction ; let us know how the experiment goes. I bet before the Summer is done we’ll all be doing some variation of this!
-PH

 

[FLsmoker]

Moink balls! Bacon wrapped hot sausage meatballs with a chunk of pepper jack cheese in the center. Smoked for 2 hours at 260 degrees until bacon was crispy and internal temp reached 165.

 

[Parrothead1809]

Meatloaf Sunday ! One to eat and one to vac seal !!
-PH

 

[RustyJake]

All the talk of ribs...
One done with keto friendly ingredients, the other just regular
Nice to get back to using the grill again

 

[Retinla53]

Moink balls! Bacon wrapped hot sausage meatballs with a chunk of pepper jack cheese in the center. Smoked for 2 hours at 260 degrees until bacon was crispy and internal temp reached 165.


View attachment 23272

 

[Retinla53]

Nice!!

 

[Retinla53]

All the talk of ribs...View attachment 23282View attachment 23284View attachment 23283
One done with keto friendly ingredients, the other just regular
Nice to get back to using the grill again

 

[Retinla53]

I’m sure someone cares about Keto, but with ribs. But, I’m sure the Keto consumer would beg to differ. Looks great!!

 

[RustyJake]

I’m sure someone cares about Keto, but with ribs. But, I’m sure the Keto consumer would beg to differ. Looks great!!

It's just the sugar used in the wrap and BBQ sauce being Keto. The spritz used had diet spiced coke used on both, other then that, the spices and prep are the same

 

[Retinla53]

It's just the sugar used in the wrap and BBQ sauce being Keto. The spritz used had diet spiced coke used on both, other then that, the spices and prep are the same

Mmm, I may have to try that. I’m always lookin for low sugar in prep of certain foods. I’ll have to try that. Thanks RJ

 

[janetmojo]

Thanks to everyone for the newbie advice yesterday so today I am attempting my first EVER smoke! Pork Butt following the Matt Pittman Meat Church video someone recommended. I'm still having wifi issues but I think it's a small setting on my end. The good news is the used Traeger I got very cheaply seems to work great now that I have it all clean! Not super important to have the wiwif today as I am home all day and can "babysit" I have company coming in tomorrow for a week so it was more important to get to cooking! Next up tomorrow or the next day I'm going to smoke up a bunch of chicken breasts for chicken tacos.