Considering how obsessed I am with barbecue it's odd how many legitimate north east joints I have yet to taste. I'm one step closer to correcting that travesty today after visiting Rub BBQ on 23rd street in Manhattan. I hit them up right when they opened, and was told the infamous burnt ends were not quite ready. In their place I ordered a half slab of st louis ribs (short end), a 1/4 pound of pork shoulder, and a side of slaw. Read on for my quick review!

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I've been barbecuing ribs for years now, and I'm always searching for my ideal pork supplier. My criteria, in no particular order: pasture-raised, humane, sustainable, local, meaty (no shiners!), full-flavored, uniform. I've purchased pork from many local NY farms, but I thought I'd put a few of my favorites to a taste test this past weekend. The candidates? Sir William Berkshire in Dutchess County, Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan NY, and Kinderhook Farm in Ghent NY. They were all at the tops of the scale, but the newbie to the bunch won out in this test. Who is the newbie? Pork out with me to find out! 

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I've been smoking ribs for years over charcoal and wood. But before I had a pair of smokers and a pair of charcoal grills, I had a gas grill. I've grilled hundreds of meals on that gas grill and to this day I love that it provides immediate grilling access with zero grill preparation. But could it be possible to smoke ribs, low and slow, on the old blue flamer? Many commercial pits are gas fired with wood added for flavor (Ole Hickory, Souther Pride, etc) and they can turn out some pretty killer 'cue (Blue Smoke, 17th Street Barbecue, Fette Sau, for example).... so I figured it was worth an honest effort. Read on for the results! 

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So I've been thinking: I love chili. I love pork barbecue. I should love pork barbecued chili! As it turns out, I totally do. With Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Flood Watch/Tornado Warning/East Coast Terror Alert/Irene on it's way, it seemed like a good idea to use up any frozen fixin's we had in our freezers. After discarding pounds of year old freezer-burned breads and veggies, I found a nice brick of frozen leftover barbecued pork rib meat from my last bbq competition. Then came the realization that the storm might also wreak havoc on the vegtable garden... so in came a nice basket of fresh poblanos, tomatoes, jalapenos, and serranos. I also found half a bag of dried great northern beans which meant we were fully stocked for chili making. Curious about the results? Read on for the lowdown. 

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After our first all-night KCBS competition I can safely declare ribs to be the hardest category. It's not because of the complexity of preparing them or defining their flavor profile, it's simply the timing. To get these boys ready for a 12:30 turn-in time I figured I needed to start coals at 5am. So after staying up until 1am to get the pork shoulder on, getting 2 hrs of sleep before checking on the previsouly started brisket and pork shoulders, then getting another hour and a half of sleep before waking up to start the coals for the ribs.... well, I totally didn't have the stamina to stay on top of the smoker with the ribs in it. I went back to sleep at 6:30a, woke up at 8:30a, and the smoker was cranking at 300 degrees, a good 60-80 degrees hotter than I wanted. I then realized the cooler I intended to use as a warming holder still had 30 pounds of ice in it.... excuses, excuses, excuses! The end result was "fall-off-the-bone" overcooked ribs. We placed 39th out of 40 in ribs. After all those rib tests this summer this was such a bummer! But lesson very well learned.... we need to split up duties a bit better for the next comp and have one guy manage 12-5am, and another guy manage 5-10am. Also gotta figure a better way to get six ribs in a box nicely... that loner on the side looks totally weird! 

Today's rib tests were outstanding... I'm very pleased with myself! I purchased a second Weber Smokey Mountain for an upcoming barbecue comp in Maine this August, and needed to give it a test run before the event. This new WSM is the 22 inch model, which in diameter is a mere 4 inches bigger than my 18 inch model, but holy crap does 4 inches make a difference. This smoker is freaking huge. When I last smoked ribs I thought the 18-incher was a bit tight for fitting multiple slabs of ribs on each level, so I figured going bigger would alleviate that problem. It did of course, but what I realized while cooking on this fella is that it can hold a ton more coals. This may prove valuable in the brisket and shoulder cooks which should take 14-10 hrs respectivly. I'll have to stew on that for a bit, but for now please geek-out with me on the details of today's rib smoke! 

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