Lamb Shoulder on the WSM. 2 hours into cooking.

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inside rib shot
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This is the part of 'what's in your smoker' that I hate. I get all excited at the start of a holiday weekend and smoke out
a crap load of stuff. Then I end up with a fridge full of food, no one to eat it, and hardly any excuse to make more.
Utterly depressing. On the sobriety angle, it DOES give me cause to pull out the stops in that regard. I just Jimmy Buffeted
up a whole pitcher of Acai Daiquiri and put too much ice, so it's PERFECT. I could stand a spoon up in it and MAN is it good
in this heat. Smoked chicken legs with a few BBribs and mashed for for lunch. QUITE freaking good.
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2 large Costco sized salmon fillets, 2 beer can chickens.
Ditto on the pics/sobriety. :-)
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5 lb pork shoulder. Did a wet rub with Penzeys Arizona Dreaming spice mix (and a little adobo spice) yesterday, let it sit in the fridge overnight and am using Newman's Own Light Sundried Tomato salad dressing as the baste today. About 5-6 more hours and then it is pulled pork time.

Muscle relaxants, cheap red wine, a couple good sticks and nice weather means that I won't mind basting this afternoon.
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Feel free to overnight some to me :-)
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Well, I screwed up... Was going to bbq the last rack of lamb ribs (denver) that I had in my freezer today, and was planning on just applying a wet paste rub an two hours or so before cooking like I normally do, but changed my mind and decided to whip up a ginger-soy-sesame marinade. Now these won't be going on until at least 4 or 5 so done around 8 or 9. Bah.

Good thing I installed illegal lighting (way brighter than what is allowed by code here) in my back yard.
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Mid cook peek...
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Mid cook snack...
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pre final basting...
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post final basting...
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Almost pulled an OLS and forgot to shoot this one...
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Yes, but I am also KNOWN for my smoke ring rib shots that a lot of people do not bother with. LOL
I APPROVE!! Freaking nice. I also like the Platanos. I had those up in Spanish Harlem back in the 80s
when my USAF friend and I went to stay at his family Apt on a long weekend. I love em but try not
to fry in the house. I need a burner. I've made em a few times, though. Soaked in salt & pepper water,
fried once, squished then fried a second time. WHAMMO! I guess technically they are tostones.
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Thanks Brad.

So you're soaking them in salt and pepper water? Interesting. I'll have to try that next time I make tostones. I soaked these in cold water in the fridge for a few hours because the last batch, which I did not soak, seemed to have too much starch in it and they really didn't cook the way I wanted them too. These came out the best batch I've made yet - although using a candy thermometer for the oil temp instead of guessing this time probably helped a wee bit :-).

Oh, and yeah, I hear you on the frying indoors. I cook these outside with the side burner on my old gasser. It's the only part of the grill I use anymore, use it for frying stuff and lighting charcoal chimneys. Although I do use the cooking chamber on the gasser for a place to store crap - fire extinguisher, extra grates, ashtray, etc... lol.
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I only remember when I went to this apartment block on St. Nicholas in NYC, Carlos' mother EITHER soaked
them prior to the first fry, or after the smash. Not very helpful, But I know she used salt and pepper and
warm water. I doubt it was after the smash, that would produce a hail of splatter, so I am thinking pre
first fry. MAYBE post first fry, pre smash. :-) Ehhh, I edited the roach story out. Suffice it to say the
building as infested.
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I did several cooks over the entire weekend, including this Costco salmon on Home Depot cedar. Cedar fencing was not treated but for some reason it did not have that same true cedar plank aroma.
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Is that white cedar?

I think the planks often sold in markets and gourmet shops are typically red cedar which has a stronger aroma.
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I think that was the case.
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I've eaten way too many BBR's since my smoke on Sunday. 1 full rack Sunday, a half rack for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday, and another full rack for dinner tonight. :-)

Here's the only photo I took of them.

On another note, I think I'm gonna give up on the "fall off the bone" aspect of them. I feel like I'm trying to get them so tender that they seem to get a bit dry in some spots. It might be a bit more chewy off the bone, but I seem to be failing in that aspect. Then again, I don't foil them or anything...and my temps are usually in the 225-235 window for most of the smoke, so it's not that I'm too hot.
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You should probably give these a try:

http://www.amazon.com/Cedar-Grill-Pl...6894569&sr=1-2

I might get some myself. I'm wanting to give Salmon a try, although I'd be more tempted to want to grill it rather than smoke it.
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For me, and whatever I am doing, it's right, lol, I think that temp is at the low end of HIGH, Duane.
I tend to smoke mine for two hours and cook alone for another hour. My temps never get over 220.
That is a mighty small matter of 10-15 degrees, and might not be the issue at all, but I never have
tough ribs and they are inherently juicy, almost ****ographically so. It might also be the cuts,
I bought some cheap ones at the Super Mercado and they were ALL tough. The rack was almost 3 feet long, lol.
Y'all get a lot of good pork up your way, so that's probably fine, too. I never foil ribs, and nowadays I slap on
sauce after the smoke for that last hour. It might be the cooker, maybe you need to use a much lower temp for
the same time. Your temp might be too concentrated in that small space, great for smoke, bad for heat. :-)
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Also I am gonna guess that you think they are dry in that big chunk of loin meat on top. Have you ever eaten
these boneless pork tenderloins they sell so cheap at the store, it's either one, or two mirrored slabs of perfect
meat in a cryovac pack? No matter how you cook it, it gets dry? Sometimes that carry over slab of meat that gets
cut into the rib racks can get dry and tough, I think it's the same type of meat. The only experience I have with
dry and overly chewy BBR meat was, as I said, the slab I got in the Mexi-market. It was cut slightly different than
my standard BBR racks I get at the supermarket one to a cryo. I thought, "GREAT, this is just that much more meat"
Eh-eh. It was a virtual failure of cookery, using my normal techniques. So the meat was different.
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I actually prefer my ribs to NOT fall off the bone. Rib meat that falls off the bone, imo, is overdone and becomes soupy.

However, if you want to achieve it, simply cook the ribs longer. When they reach above 190F you will have them falling off the bone.
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Thanks for that link. Yeah, I've been pricing cedar planks and most are quite pricey.
I purchased something similar a couple of years ago at Costco and remember paying less than $15 for about dozen planks. I should check there first.
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