The Smoke Mat™ Companion

Introduction We want to thank you for downloading the book, “The Smoke Mat™ Companion.”

Your resident pitmaster mentors Cole Landry and James Austin teamed up to test, design, and produce The Smoke Mat™. There are a number of different mats of varying sizes on the market. Some work well, and others don't. We know this because we spent time testing as many versions as we could find. After realizing how wonderfully the mat worked for all sorts of cooking, we decided to have our own made to specification. The Smoke Mat™ you hold in your hands now is something we're very proud of. It is the end result of a lot of grit and determination to bring you what we feel is the best weight and thickness of any mat on the market. And to take our mat to the next level we ensured that it would not only do wonders on gas and charcoal grills, but would do the same for cooks smoking their food. The end results are truly amazing. It won't be long before you wonder how you ever got along without it.

We've created this book with the sole purpose of trying to provide you ways to use your new Smoke Mat™ to its greatest potential.

We believe there are few things in the American experience that have the universal appeal of a well-smoked brisket or rack of ribs, combined with a hint of wood smoke in the air. The love of this experience led us to create The Smoke Mat™. Our goal was to help cooks produce the very best food that the Red, White, and Blue can offer. With your Smoke Mat™ in hand that goal can now be achieved.

Follow some of the recipes below, but don't feel limited to them. You can truly cook almost anything better using the Smoke Mat™. And if you cook up something great and think we should know about it, drop us a line at support@smokemat.com . We'd love to hear from you. Best wishes, and happy cooking.

Copyright 2015 by Cole Landry and James Austin - All rights reserved.

This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable information in regards to the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the idea that the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially permitted, or otherwise, qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or professional, a practiced individual in the profession should be ordered. - From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations. In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any legal responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either directly or indirectly. Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher. The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely, and is universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or any type of guarantee assurance. The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner. All trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only and are the owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document. Proper use and safety

Thank you again for purchasing your new Smoke Mat™. To ensure best results please use the instructions below.

• Wash The Smoke Mat™ with warm soapy water and rinse off before your first use.

• The Smoke Mat™ can withstand heat up to an incredible 500ºF. With that being said it is important to note that The Smoke Mat™ is not designed to withstand the intense heat of a direct flame. The reason for this is a typical flame is over 2000 degrees F. Therefore you should never use it in a way where it’s possible for a direct flame or hot coals to touch The Smoke Mat™. On charcoal grills please place grill rack 7” from coals. If you want to sear something such as a steak turn on one side of your grill and sear without The Smoke Mat™, then transfer to the colder 500ºF or less side of your grill to finish on The Smoke Mat™.

• Please use heat shielding gloves when moving The Smoke Mat™ once it has been exposed to heat because it will be very hot.

• Avoid sharp utensils on The Smoke Mat™ unless you are cutting to fit cooking equipment such as a smoker, grill, warming rack, microwave, baking sheet, etc.. To cut your Smoke Mat™ use sharp scissors. • Never crumple, fold, or roll The Smoke Mat™.

• Use The Smoke Mat™ to keep small pieces, juices, and marinades from falling through the grates, while allowing the heat needed to make those perfect grill marks.

• The Smoke Mat™ keeps your food protected from dirty grates and helps keep the inside of your cooking equipment clean.

• For cooks who smoke their food know that finding the right balance of smokiness and tenderness can be challenging. The Smoke Mat™ protects food from excessive heat, so it can take in that much desired smokey flavor without drying out.

• The Smoke Mat™ is reusable and its nonstick surface makes it easy to clean. It is also top rack dishwasher safe.

• The Smoke Mat™ is coated in PTFE which is FDA approved as a cooking surface.

• The Smoke Mat™ is PFOA free.

• If your grill marks are too light you will have to turn up the heat and/or allow the food to remain still for a longer period of time. Do not constantly move the items around.

• If your grill marks are too dark you will need to turn the heat down some. Most of the heat transfer will occur directly above the grill grates, but at very high temperatures the heat differentiation is diminished with grill mats and you end up cooking the items more evenly.

• Your purchase includes two 16”x13” mats, each .25mm thick.

• If you have a friend or family member that wants to buy The Smoke Mat™, email us at support@smokemat.com and we’ll give you both a coupon towards your next purchase.

• We love for people to share their experiences, tips, and tricks using The Smoke Mat™. To do so simply visit our Amazon page at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WDYURM and click Write a customer review. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Thank you so much for purchasing The Smoke Mat™. If you need support email us at support@smokemat.com

RECIPES

We believe that with your new Smoke Mat™ in hand you're going to do some of the best dadgum outdoor smoking and grilling of your backyard pitmaster career. And just to make sure you start off on the best foot possible with your new Smoke Mat™, we're passing along some recipes that we know you'll love. We hope this will jump-start the love of your Smoke Mat™ and reignite your passion for outdoor cooking!

If you enjoy these recipes please feel free to look into your authors' own top rated books on smoking brisket and ribs available through Amazon. These books are the result of our passion for barbecue and go into much deeper detail on smoking brisket and ribs. They are a result of our many years of cooking, and our love of the craft of producing barbecue.

Lonestar Brisket by James Austin - http://amzn.to/1JRhFPU

Beyond Brisket Basics by Cole Landry - http://amzn.to/1EcSkuB

Real Deal Pork Ribs by Cole Landry - http://amzn.to/1POHsda

Oh So Good Dr Pepper Ribs (Smoker Recipe)

Meat

Two racks of pork ribs

Ingredients

1 x 2 liter bottle of Dr Pepper (Dublin Dr Pepper, if available)

1 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp chili powder

½ tbsp paprika

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

½ cup ketchup

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Spritz

Dr Pepper

Preparation

Reserve 12 oz of the 2 liter Dr.Pepper for the marinade, and about 6 oz for the spritz.

Remove rib membrane from backside of both rib racks.

Put the two racks of pork ribs in a shallow dish and then pour in the Dr Pepper, covering the ribs. Put them in the fridge overnight.

Whisk 12 oz of the remaining Dr Pepper with all other ingredients. Gently simmer the sauce until it reduces slightly. It will not thicken too much. This will be your marinade. Set aside in a tupperware dish and refrigerate overnight.

Smoke the ribs atop The Smoke Mat™ at 250 degrees Fahrenheit bone side down. Spritz your ribs with Dr Pepper around the one hour mark.

After two hours remove The Smoke Mat™ and prepare to wrap the ribs in foil. Just before you seal up the ribs add the marinade to foil wrap.

Smoke another hour, foiled. Then remove them from the foil and place them bone down for the last hour on the smoker. Ten minutes prior to pulling the ribs lacquer them up again with marinade. Ribs are done when they are around a temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Serve and enjoy.

Simply Delicious Smoked Pork Butt (Smoker Recipe)

Meat

6-7 pounds of whole pork butt (even though it’s called “butt” it comes from the shoulder region).

Ingredients for Rub

3 tbsp. Olive oil

1 tbsp. Adolph’s® Tenderizer

2 tbsp. Paprika

¼ cup salt

¼ cup pepper

2 tbsp. butter powder (usually in the popcorn section)

Ingredients for coleslaw

Package of shredded cabbage

2 tbsp. mayo

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. sugar

1-2 tsp. Cajun seasoning to taste

Remaining Ingredients

Sesame seed bun Barbecue sauce

Spritz

Apple Juice

Preparation

Coat pork butt in olive oil. Then shake Adolph’s® Tenderizer on all sides of the pork butt. Use a fork to pierce the pork butt on all sides in order to get the meat tenderizer down inside. Then shake the remaining rub ingredients on the pork butt evenly and set aside overnight.

Smoke the pork butt fat side up at 225 degrees atop The Smoke Mat™ for about an hour and a half per pound of pork butt. Use pecan wood and oak lump charcoal in your smoker with the vents only slightly opened. Spritz with apple juice around the one hour mark, and continue to do this every hour until the pork butt is wrapped in foil.

After about five hours when the pork butt is 160 degrees spritz one last time and then foil the pork butt. Wrap two layers of foil around the meat in case one layer is punctured. Remove The Smoke Mat™ and place the pork butt back on the smoker.

After about two more hours the pork butt should be around 180 degrees, but always use a thermometer to check. To help finish rendering the fat on the pork butt open the vents all the way on your smoker until your smoker temp is 275 degrees. Add more coal if needed for fuel. Once it hits 275 adjust vents accordingly to maintain that temperature for another hour approximately. Once the pork butt hits a temperature of 190 degrees it's ready to be pulled from the smoker. Before shredding the pork butt let it rest for at least thirty minutes so that all the juices can settle.

Combine all the ingredients for the coleslaw in a bowl and mix together. After the pork butt has rested use two forks to shred the meat apart. The bone should slide right out of the meat, and can then be discarded.

Serve the pork butt between sesame seed buns with coleslaw on top of the meat and a little barbecue sauce. Enjoy.

Simply Sweet Georgia Peach Ribs (Smoker Recipe)

Meat

Two racks of pork ribs

Ingredients for Rub

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp kosher salt

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

Spritz

Apple Juice

Ingredients for glaze

2 cups of peach preserves

1 cups of peach nectar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preparation

Remove rib membrane from backside of both rib racks.

Here the goal is sweet on top of sweet. Mix the rub ingredients and coat the ribs evenly. Put in the fridge overnight to marinate.

You can make the glaze the night before as well. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot. Heat to boil and then lower to simmer and set in the fridge overnight.

Smoke the ribs atop The Smoke Mat™ for the first two hours at 250 degrees Fahrenheit bone side down. Spritz with apple juice around the one hour mark.

After two hours remove The Smoke Mat™ and prepare to wrap the ribs in foil. Just before you seal up the foil add the glaze to the ribs. Smoke for 1 hour in foil.

Then remove the ribs from the foil and put them back on the smoker, bone down, for one last hour. Glaze again around ten minutes prior to pulling. Ribs are done when they are around a temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Serve and enjoy.

Peanut Butter Grilled Chicken (Grill Recipe). Meat 2 Boneless Chicken Breasts Ingredients for marinade

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1/8 cup soy sauce 1/8 cup lemon juice 1 tbsp. white vinegar 1 tbsp. brown sugar 1/8 tsp. garlic powder 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes 1 tsp. ground ginger Preparation

Mix ingredients together in a large gallon freezer bag and then add the chicken. Seal bag and gently shake. Put bag in fridge to marinate for at least four hours. Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Add the chicken to The Smoke Mat™ and let cook until the chicken reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees. Serve and enjoy.

Sweet Mustard Pork Chops (Grill Recipe). Meat

Pork Chops Ingredients

3 tbsp Dijon mustard 1/3 cup of honey 2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped 2 tsp bourbon 1 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp fresh pepper 2 minced garlic cloves Preparation

Mix ingredients together in a large gallon freezer bag and then add the pork chops. Seal bag and gently shake. Put bag in fridge to marinate. Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Add the chops to the lit side of the grill and sear each side of the chop. The sugar in the honey will crust quickly so keep a careful eye as you sear. Once seared, move the chops to the unlit side of the grill on The Smoke Mat™ and let cook for fifteen to twenty minutes. Remember The Smoke Mat™ temperature cannot exceed 500 degrees Fahrenheit. As chops near doneness brush with leftover glaze from freezer bag and allow it to caramelize. You can add a few wood chips to the fire which will add an additional smoky depth. When doing this be sure to leave the lid partially open to allow the smoke to vent.

Big Hawaiian Papa Pork Chops (Grill Recipe).

Meat

Pork Chops

Ingredients

1 fresh pineapple, if available

OR

1 can of ringed pineapple if fresh is not available.

¼ cup brown sugar

1 chopped shallot

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp fresh cracked pepper

1/3 cup soy sauce

Preparation

Mix ingredients together in a large gallon freezer bag and then add the pork chops. Seal bag and gently shake. Mix ingredients until well blended. Put bag in fridge to marinate.

Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Add the chops to the lit side of the grill and sear each side of the chop. Once seared, move the chops to the unlit side of the grill on The Smoke Mat™ and let cook for fifteen to twenty minutes. As chops near doneness brush with leftover glaze from freezer bag and allow it to caramelize. Add a ring of pineapple on top of each chop if you would like juicy pineapple sweetness. You can add a few wood chips to the fire which will add an additional smoky depth. When doing this be sure to leave the lid partially open to allow the smoke to vent. Smoky Grilled Cheese, that's right Grilled Cheese (Grill Recipe) Ingredients 4 slices of thick Texas Toast sliced bread 4 thick slices of mozzarella cheese ½ stick of butter 1 tomato 6 or so leaves of fresh basil 1 tsp olive oil Preparation Butter each piece of bread liberally on both sides. Add two slices of cheese to each sandwich. Thin slice tomato and add it to the sandwich along with the basil leaves. Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Add a few chips of apple or cherry wood if available. We want a hint of sweet smokieness, if possible. Add a couple thick pats of butter and a little olive oil on your Smoke Mat™. The butter will melt and the oil will begin to sizzle. Add sandwiches to The Smoke Mat™ and put the grill top on, letting the grilled cheese cook until the cheese first starts to melt. With a little practice you will get very nice grill marks on your sandwich. Flip sandwich and cook the other side until the sandwich is buttery and toasted. Remove, cut, and serve. Slama Jama Ginger Soy Salmon (Grill Recipe)

Meat

2 salmon filets

Marinade

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

Glaze

3 large scallion chopped

1 small root of grated ginger

2 tbsp seasame oil

1/3 cup honey

2 tbsp soy sauce

Combine marinade ingredients in gallon freezer bag and add salmon. Seal and gently shake. Let marinate in refrigerator for at least an hour. Start coals or gas grill. Begin cooking process on the The Smoke Mat™ until the salmon firms up. The Smoke Mat™ will be on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Once firm, move the salmon to direct grill flame to get some nice smokiness and grill marks. Once grill marks are set to satisfaction return salmon to The Smoke Mat™, add the whisked glaze over the salmon, then let it set and caramelize. When done, remove, serve and enjoy.

Ballpark Onions and Brats (Grill Recipe) Meat 1 package of brats Ingredients Hot dog buns 1 onion 4 tsp olive oil 1 good, cheap beer of your own choice Preparation Unpackage brats and cut the onion into rings. Set aside. Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Grill the brats for a couple of minutes on each side on your grill grate, before moving them to The Smoke Mat™. While the brats are grilling, add oil to the mat and once the oil begins to heat add the onions and get them cooking. Let the onions begin to sweat, add the grilled brats on top and let them continue cooking on The Smoke Mat™. Add a few oak or hickory chips to your flame to really add additional smokiness. As the brats near being ready add approximately 2 oz of your favorite beer to the onions and brats and let it cook and reduce. You'll never want to cook sausages or brats without your The Smoke Mat™ ever again. Toast buns just as your brats are nearing done. Serve hot and enjoy. Spicy Latin Roasted Corn on the Cob (Grill Recipe)

Ingredients ½ cup mayonnaise 6 ears of corn, de-husked ¾ tbsp kosher salt 1 cup cojita cheese crumbled 1 tbsp cayenne pepper (less is fine, to taste) 1 lime cut into wedges Preparation Mix mayonnaise, salt, and cayenne in a small bowl and set aside. Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Start corn directly over the fire and roast to get a desired char. Turn as needed. Once roasted to desired doneness, place the corn on The Smoke Mat™. Slather the mayonnaise mixture onto each corn cob thinly. Allow the sauce mixture to set for a few minutes. Then remove the corn, roll in cheese and squeeze lime over corn, as desired. Enjoy. Roasted Rosemary Potatoes (Grill Recipe) Ingredients 1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes 1/8 cup good avocado oil or olive oil 3/4 tsp. kosher salt 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 3/4 cup of powdered parmesan cheese. 1 tbsp. minced garlic (4 cloves) 2 tbsp. minced fresh rosemary leaves Preparation These will change your life. Cut the potatoes in half and toss in a bowl with the oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary. Heat coals or gas grill on one side and lay down The Smoke Mat™ on the unlit side of the grill for indirect heating. Add a few chips of apple or cherry wood if available. On the lit side brush the grill with oil. Add the potatoes to the direct heat and let the potatoes char slightly. Add olive oil to The Smoke Mat™. Move the potatoes to The Smoke Mat™ and let them continue to brown and cook. Partially put the grill lid on to allow the smoke to vent and to let the potatoes get a little smoke, Continue to cook until softened and done. When cooked to desired softness, remove from the grill, put all potatoes in a large bowl, then add Parmesan cheese and additional rosemary. Gently shake to mix. Cover bowl with saran wrap and let rest. Serve hot and enjoy. Thank you once again for purchasing The Smoke Mat™. We hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do. We love for people to share their experiences, tips, and tricks using The Smoke Mat™. To do so simply visit our Amazon page at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WDYURM and click Write a customer review. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to do this. If you need support email us at support@smokemat.com. Thanks again and happy cooking!

 

  

 

  

Table of Contents

Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................

Chapter 1- Trial and Error ........................................................................................................................

The Errors ..................................................................................................................................

Chapter 2- Meat Selection .......................................................................................................................

Size .............................................................................................................................................

Grade ..........................................................................................................................................

Color ..........................................................................................................................................

Thickness ...................................................................................................................................

Timing ........................................................................................................................................

Chapter 3- Wood, Charcoal, and Wrapping .............................................................................................

Wood ..........................................................................................................................................

Charcoal .....................................................................................................................................

Wrapping ....................................................................................................................................

Chapter 4- Trimming the Brisket .............................................................................................................

Why Trim? .................................................................................................................................

Fat Thickness & Trimming Knife ..............................................................................................

Trimming Location & Tips ........................................................................................................

Storing Trimmed Fat ..................................................................................................................

Post Trimmed Brisket ................................................................................................................

Chapter 5- Seasoning the Brisket .............................................................................................................

Meat Tenderizer .........................................................................................................................

Piercing the Brisket ....................................................................................................................

Mustard Rub ...............................................................................................................................

  

Fat Cap Awareness ....................................................................................................................

Grain Direction Awareness ........................................................................................................

More Seasoning & Storing .........................................................................................................

Note on Injecting ........................................................................................................................

Soaking your Wood Chunks ......................................................................................................

Chapter 6- Getting your Smoker Ready ...................................................................................................

Smoker Type ..............................................................................................................................

Time Commitment .....................................................................................................................

Remove the Brisket from the Fridge ..........................................................................................

The Chimney ..............................................................................................................................

Fat Layer Protection ...................................................................................................................

Loading the Smoker ...................................................................................................................

Chapter 7- Smoking the Brisket (pre-wrap) .............................................................................................

Smoker Temp & Loading the Brisket ........................................................................................

Spraying the Brisket

Chapter 8- Smoking the Brisket (the wrap) .............................................................................................

Checking the Brisket Temp .......................................................................................................

Butcher Paper Marinade.............................................................................................................

Begin Wrapping the Brisket .......................................................................................................

Pouring the Butcher Paper Marinade .........................................................................................

Finish Wrapping the Brisket ......................................................................................................

Chapter 9- Temperature Problems ...........................................................................................................

Dealing with Fluctuating Smoker Temps ..................................................................................

Brisket Temperature Stalling .....................................................................................................

Checking a Wrapped Brisket Temperature ................................................................................

  

Chapter 10- Smoking the Brisket (back to unwrap) ................................................................................

Unwrapping the Brisket .............................................................................................................

Chapter 11- Resting the Brisket ...............................................................................................................

The Resting ................................................................................................................................

Chapter 12- Slicing the Brisket ................................................................................................................

Preparing for Slicing ..................................................................................................................

Slicing the Flat ...........................................................................................................................

Slicing the Point .........................................................................................................................

Drizzling the Juices ....................................................................................................................

Quick Final Note on Slicing.......................................................................................................

Chapter 13- Storing and Reheating the Brisket .......................................................................................

Reheating Slices of Brisket ........................................................................................................

Reheating Large Chunks of Refrigerated Brisket ......................................................................

Reheating Large Chunks of Frozen Brisket ...............................................................................

Chapter 14- Cleanup ................................................................................................................................

Closing .......................................................................................................................................

Ingredients and Supplies ............................................................................................................

Special Thanks ...........................................................................................................................

Copyright ...................................................................................................................................

Bonus Recipe Book- The Smoke Mat™ Companion…………………………………………………..

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………

Proper use and safety………………………………………………………………………….

Recipes………………………………………………………………………………………...

 

  

Introduction 

Smoking a brisket is one of the hardest things to do in 

Texas‐style barbeque.  It’s because of this that so many people 

choose to not do it.  People will stand in line for hours and pay 

out the wazoo for this wonderful piece of meat.  I get it—I’ve 

done it.  However, it doesn’t have to be this way.  I’ve smoked 

hundreds of briskets here in Texas for years.  My goal?  To 

make the brisket I enjoyed at all the great barbeque joints 

around the state in my own backyard.  After spending 

thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours (maybe thousands, 

who knows), and putting my wife through barbeque heaven 

and hell, I have created a foolproof process that reached my 

goal of the perfect smoked brisket.  

So what was next for me?  Well, after going through so 

many ups and downs, I decided that I would share this process 

with as many people as I could.  I didn’t want people to have to 

go through the dreadful trials and errors I went through.  This 

book is written in as detailed a manner as possible.  I wrote it 

this way so that a person who has never smoked a brisket 

before could read it and know every possible step.  If you are a 

beginner this entire process may sound a bit intimidating, and it 

may be tempting to skip steps. I encourage you not to do this.  

One of my biggest mistakes when I started smoking brisket was 

cutting corners, trying to find shortcuts.  Consider your shortcut 

  

this book.  Don’t spend thousands of dollars and countless 

hours trying every possible method like I did.  Follow these 

instructions step‐by‐step and you’ll be set. And if you’re not a 

beginner, I’m confident this book still will take you to the next 

level, thanks to my exhaustive research and testing.  Now let’s 

have some fun and read a little about my personal process of 

trial and error.   

To see all the products I recommend for smoking brisket visit 

my website:  http://pnkpublishing.wordpress.com/james‐austin 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 1‐ Trial and Error 

When I first started smoking barbeque, the house I lived in 

had an old‐school brick smoker in the backyard that was built 

by the original owner.  

 

It was so cool!  I had to take advantage of it.  I went to the store 

and asked the butcher for the best cut of brisket.  He gave me 

eight pounds of lean trimmed brisket.  Then came the sticker 

shock.  $80!!  I freaked out.  I was prepared for about $30, not 

$80.  I didn’t want to tell the butcher that just sliced this 

wonderful piece of meat for me that I didn’t want it because it 

was too expensive, so I ditched it in the beer cooler section and 

bailed.  I’m sure they have my face on a wanted poster in that 

store somewhere.  Oh well, I haven’t been back since.   I did a 

little more research and found out I should have been asking 

for a whole untrimmed brisket. I bought that, got home, threw 

the logs in the brick pit, hot coals on it, seasoned the brisket, 

and threw it in the smoker.  I couldn’t wait for my mouth‐

  

watering barbeque.  That brisket would be the first of countless 

failed attempts.   

The pit reached temperatures upwards of 500 degrees at 

one point (!?!?!?!), yet an hour later, couldn’t hold a temp of 

200 degrees.  I struggled for hours to get the brisket up to the 

ideal internal temperature range of 195‐205 degrees.  I finally 

got the brisket up to a not so ideal internal temp of 180 degrees 

and took it off, sliced it immediately, and ate.  It tasted like 

rubber.  It was awful!  It was deflating having spent all that time 

to have it turn out so badly.    

But I kept at it.  Some briskets would turn out good, then I 

would use what I thought was the same process the next time 

and it would turn out badly again.  They would either be too 

salty, burned on the bottom, chewy, dry, or all of the above.  I 

was puzzled and couldn’t understand how a piece of meat 

could be so difficult to understand.  I can’t tell you how many 

times I told myself I would never smoke a brisket again, but 

kept crawling back for more.  Some briskets would turn out 

okay, and my wife would say it was great, but as my harshest 

critic I wouldn’t be satisfied.  It had to be perfect, and 

consistently so.   

The Errors 

  

Here are some other things I did wrong over the years.  I 

wasn’t looking for the right things in brisket.  I would slice with 

the grain instead of against.  I would slice too thick, or too thin.  

I would over‐salt, then would overcorrect and under‐season.  I 

would over‐smoke which would make the meat taste like 

metal.  I injected the brisket with too much olive oil which 

would leave dark streak marks.  I would let the smoker get too 

hot and cook it too fast.  I would cook fat side down and it 

would dry out.  I would leave too much fat on the brisket then 

have to slice off the outer perfectly smoked seasoned crust 

because it was too fatty.  I would wrap the brisket in foil and it 

would taste like roast beef.  I used the wrong type of coals, the 

wrong wood.  I didn’t let my brisket rest.  I could go on and on 

and on.  But you’re here to learn how to do it the right way, not 

the wrong way!  To make it all worse, some of these problems 

would only be discovered at the very end of the process, and 

after investing upwards of twenty exhausting hours.    

Over time, the trial‐and‐error process started to work.  

When you make a mistake that makes you feel like the twenty 

hours you just spent was a waste of time, you tend not to make 

that same mistake twice.  I kept copious notes, tried new 

techniques, and began to see a light at the end of the pit.  I kept 

pushing myself and started to have more consistent results.  

After making some final tweaks I started to feel pretty 

confident I had met my goal.  And after about 20 straight 

  

briskets coming out exactly as I wanted I knew I had found the 

cure for the brisket blues.  So, without further ado, let’s begin.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 2‐ Meat Selection 

Size 

Choosing the right meat is key to a perfect brisket.  

However, first you have to find the briskets.  The meat section 

can be pretty intimidating at times so don’t be ashamed to ask 

someone behind the meat counter for help.  Look for a whole, 

untrimmed brisket between 10 and 11 pounds (you should 

shop no later than the day before your cook).  Untrimmed 

means that the butcher has not removed any fat from the 

brisket.   

This is important because you’ll be using this fat for taste 

and to protect the brisket during the cooking process.  I know 

10 to 11 pounds is heavy but if you get a brisket that’s smaller it 

will cook too fast.  When a brisket cooks too fast it doesn’t give 

the meat fibers time to break down which essentially makes it 

less tender.  There will also be heavier options for brisket, some 

reaching 14 pounds!  I’ve tried smoking the heavier briskets and 

they don’t turn out as good because the bigger cuts come from 

older cows, which make the brisket tougher.  

One other note on the size of the brisket.  Some people 

prefer to go with organic grass fed.  In my experience it’s rare 

to find the organic briskets much over 8 pounds because the 

cows usually don’t grow as big when they’re grass fed.  It’s 

  

because of this that I usually defer to non‐organic, but if it’s 

really important to you, call meat shops around town.  You 

should be able to find one, but be advised that grass‐fed 

briskets tend to cost 2 to 3 times more than their non‐organic 

counterparts.  

Grade 

Once you have found the right size brisket you’ll want to 

look for some other things.  First, be sure there’s a sign or 

sticker on the brisket that says USDA Choice grade, or the next 

step up which is USDA Prime.  You’ll have the best results with 

these meat grades.  These grades can be broken down even 

further primarily based on the degree of marbling.  If you 

happen to find a brisket that says USDA CAB Choice or USDA 

CAB Prime then you’ve found the best of the best.  CAB stands 

for Certified Angus Beef® which is a brand that will only certify 

your brisket if it meets their marbling standards (among other 

things), and is graded either Choice or Prime.  With this 

certification comes a price so I typically don’t seek out CAB 

briskets.  Instead I go with USDA Choice from my local 

warehouse club, and the results are always perfect. The reason 

I like Choice over Prime is that it's still high quality with lots of 

great marbling, but has a little less fat to worry about rendering 

out.  More fat usually means a longer cook time, and in my 

  

opinion it’s just not worth the extra work going with a Prime 

brisket (or the extra cost for that matter).  

 

Color 

Next you’ll want to look for a brisket that has a nice dark 

cherry color meat.  If it has a grey look to it then the brisket has 

probably been sitting for too long and won’t taste as good.  The 

fat on the brisket should be a bright white color.  If it has a 

yellow tint to it the brisket has freezer burn which also takes 

away from the quality.   

 

Thickness 

  

Once you’ve found the perfect grade, size, and color you 

now have a couple of other things to look for.  On a brisket 

there’s a thin side called the flat, and a thick side called the 

point .   

In my experience the thicker the flat the better the results will 

be.   

 

Next, watch out for long skinny briskets. These typically 

have thin edges which get overcooked during the smoke 

making it useless.    

  

 

Timing  

Don’t wait until the last minute to buy your brisket.  The 

best time to go looking is about two to three days before the 

cook so you the best chance of selecting the perfect brisket.  If 

you wait until the night before you may run out of luck finding 

the right brisket and be left with something that doesn’t meet 

your standards.  If the brisket you want isn’t out on the shelves 

ask someone behind the meat counter if there’s more selection 

in back.  A butcher appreciates someone looking for the best 

beef and will almost always go out of their way to help you find 

what you’re looking for.  

  

Chapter 3‐ Wood, Charcoal, and Wrapping 

Wood 

          I’ve tried many types of wood over the years but I’m 

always happiest with pecan wood because it gives the brisket a 

nice mellow smoky flavor.  It doesn’t burn too hot, and because 

it burns cooler, it’s perfect for the low and slow cooking process 

that a brisket demands.  I buy pecan wood chunks so I don’t 

have to mess with chopping the wood myself.  It’s more 

expensive but far more convenient.    

Charcoal 

Charcoal is another huge part of the smoking process.  

There are a lot of options and opinions out there, but oak lump 

charcoal is what I recommend.  When I first started smoking I 

would use charcoal briquettes, but the briquettes produced 

way too much ash.  If you’re using an upright bullet smoker, 

eventually this ash will build up in your smoker and start to 

suffocate your fire.  When your fire is suffocating you have to 

add more fuel, and more fuel means more ash (and cash).  It’s 

not a good situation to be in.     

Lump charcoal produces way less ash, but it does burn 

hotter which can be a disadvantage.  However, if you load the 

coals in your smoker correctly, vent your smoker properly, and 

don’t let your water pan dry out, you’ll be able to control the 

smoker temperature so that it doesn’t run too hot and will be 

  

less likely to require refueling.  I’ll get more into this in a later 

chapter. 

Wrapping  

To foil or not foil?  As with the briquettes, when I started 

smoking, I foiled briskets.  The resulting product was certainly 

tender, but ultimately the brisket came out too soggy and 

tasted like steamed roast beef.  Foiling the brisket caused it to 

lose the ever so important smoky flavor, and the brisket had 

virtually no bark.  At one point, I tried not wrapping the brisket 

at all but it would turn out too dry.   

Then I came across the idea of wrapping the brisket in 

butcher paper instead of foil.  At first I thought this idea was 

crazy.  I’ve seen brisket served on butcher paper for years but 

actually cooking brisket in butcher paper seemed outrageous.  I 

tried it out, though, and I was floored by the results.  The 

brisket had a perfect bark, kept its smoky flavor, and was 

tender but not soggy.  For me it was one of the missing pieces 

to the puzzle.  It’s what took my brisket to the next level, the 

level of perfection.                                                       

With butcher paper you do have to be gentler in wrapping 

and handling the brisket so that you don’t rip a hole in the 

paper, but once you get the hang of this it’s a nonissue.  (Later, 

I will tell you how to add a small amount of marinade while 

wrapping to help the brisket continue to break down meat 

  

fibers.  This is a little tricky, but it’s worth learning.) When the 

brisket finally gets wrapped and back on the smoker, the paper 

will retain enough juices to keep the brisket moist while still 

allowing it to naturally cook without steaming (unlike foil).  This 

also allows the bark to stay intact, which is essential for the 

flavor.   

It’s important to get the right type of butcher paper 

though.  Don’t get butcher paper that has wax on it.  I buy red 

colored butcher paper from an online paper store which has 

the perfect thickness for holding a large brisket and its juices.  

I’ve also seen this same butcher paper at home improvement 

stores.  When looking at the description of the paper look for 

words like durable and strength. You usually have to buy the 

paper in a big roll, but this will last you for many future smokes.  

You can also use brown grocery paper bags in place of butcher 

paper if you are in a bind.   

Finally, don’t worry about the paper catching fire.  I’ve 

never had this problem nor have I heard of anyone else having 

this problem either.  This is because when you’re smoking a 

brisket it’s never over a direct flame, and the temperature of 

the cooker is not enough to cause the paper to combust.     

 

 

  

Chapter 4‐Trimming the Brisket 

Why Trim?  

The day before you cook, you’ll want to trim the fat down 

on the brisket.  This process takes time but is so important.  If 

you leave too much fat on the brisket your slices will be too 

fatty.  Some people will say that you should leave all the fat on 

so that it drips down into the meat during the cooking process.  

I’ve found this does not make a difference in the flavor, and if 

you leave the fat on you’ll have to slice most of it off when it’s 

done cooking.  The problem with that is it will remove your 

outer perfectly smoked seasoned crust.  Some fat on a brisket 

slice creates a wonderful flavor though so that’s why it’s 

important to leave some on.   

Fat Thickness & Trimming Knife  

The top of the brisket has a “fat cap” that needs to be 

trimmed to about a quarter of an inch thickness (doesn’t have 

to be exactly a quarter inch but closer the better).  Use a short 

sharp knife to do your trimming.  A shorter knife gives you 

much better control.   

 

  

Be very careful when you’re trimming because it’s easy to slip 

and cut yourself.  To help with this, I recommend buying some 

disposable food prep gloves to use during the entire brisket 

prep (make sure they’re powder free gloves).  They provide 

more grip, and they make for easier for cleanup.  You can find 

these at restaurant food supply stores online. 

Trimming Location & Tips 

The flat side of the brisket will not have to be trimmed too 

much, but the point side is loaded with fat, so you’ll want to cut 

that down significantly.  There will be fat pockets on the side of 

the brisket too so make sure to dig that fat out with your knife 

by going in at an angle, still leaving about a quarter of an inch 

fat thickness.   

 

  

When trimming the fat off the brisket lift and pull the fat 

up with your free hand as you cut so that the fat comes off 

more evenly and in longer strands.   

 

When you’re cutting there will probably be a point where you 

cut too deep, but don’t freak out.  Just stop cutting, lift up the 

knife and continue on adjusting as needed.  It is imperative that 

you save the fat you are trimming off the brisket.   

  The bottom of the brisket will need a small amount of fat 

trimming, but in addition to this there is a thin layer of silver 

looking skin that you’ll need to trim.  The best way to cut this 

off is to slide your knife just below the shiny silver skin and slice 

away at it.  When you slide your knife underneath you should 

  

be able to see your knife through the skin.  This should give you 

an idea of just how thin this layer is.   It’s not easy to trim off, 

but if you use the same method of slice and peel like you did 

with the fat you should be able to get most of it.  Here’s a 

picture of the silver looking skin I’m talking about.  

 

Storing Trimmed Fat 

Get a piece of foil or a bowl and put any fat you are 

trimming off on there, then wrap up and store the fat in the 

fridge overnight to be used during the cooking process.   

 

Post Trimmed Brisket 

Here is what a brisket looks like after being trimmed on the 

fat side. I have circled the spots that needed attention.  There is 

  

still a lot of fat left but I could feel that the layer of fat that was 

left was thin; therefore, it was the correct thickness (about a 

quarter of an inch). 

 

Here is the brisket after being trimmed on the “non‐fat” side.  I 

circled the spot that needed attention. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 5‐ Seasoning the Brisket. 

Meat Tenderizer 

Now that you’ve trimmed the brisket, it’s time to season 

it.  First you’ll sprinkle about three tablespoons of meat 

tenderizer and rub it in with your fingers.  Do this throughout 

the entire brisket.  The meat tenderizer will help break down 

the meat fibers, which in turn will make it more tender.   

Piercing the Brisket  

To help break down the meat fibers even further, take a 

strong fork and pierce the brisket everywhere.   

 

You’ll do this every couple of inches on both sides, and try to go 

about half way into the brisket when piercing. 

 

  

Do this on the sides of the brisket.  This will also get the meat 

tenderizer you rubbed in deep inside which breaks down those 

meat fibers even further.  Don’t worry, these holes will not 

cause precious juices to drip out of your brisket during the 

cooking process.  They will seal back up before you throw it on 

your smoker.   

Mustard Rub 

Brisket is a large piece of meat and requires a lot more 

seasoning than one would think is needed.  Since there is so 

much seasoning, it can fall off pretty easily if you don’t do 

something to keep it on there.  Rubbing the seasoning in 

certainly helps but this next step will assure your rub will go 

nowhere.  Get about a half cup of yellow mustard (yes, the 

mustard you put on hot dogs) and rub it all over your brisket.  

Be sure you’re using those food prep gloves because it makes 

this process so much easier.  Your brisket will look something 

like this.   

 

  

I know you think that mustard will make the brisket taste, well, 

like mustard, but fear not.  You will not taste a hint of mustard 

when your brisket is done cooking, trust me.  The mustard 

helps build a better bark (the crispy outer texture) on your 

finished brisket, and the vinegar in the mustard will help break 

down those meat fibers.   

Fat Cap Awareness 

Before you start putting the rest of the seasoning on, be 

sure you make note of where the fat cap—i.e., the top—of the 

brisket is.  I’m not talking about the point versus the flat, I’m 

talking about the fat cap that goes the length of the entire 

brisket. 

It’s important to note this because you’ll want to cook the 

brisket fat side up (meaning the fat side is NOT cooking on the 

grate of your grill).  If you start adding a bunch of seasoning and 

  

don’t make note of which side is the fat side you’ll have a much 

harder time telling after the brisket is seasoned.   

Grain Direction Awareness 

Before you start adding seasoning take a picture, make a 

mental note, or write down which direction the meat grains are 

going on all sides of the brisket.  Why?  Well when the brisket is 

fully cooked, you want to be sure you are slicing against the 

grain.  See this picture below for a visual.   

Slice with your knife against the grain which is the direction the 

arrow is pointing in picture above.  The long yellow lines going 

through the arrow is considered the grain.   

  

More Seasoning & Storing 

Sprinkle  a  generous  amount  garlic  powder,  black 

pepper, and kosher  salt  (about 4  tablespoons of each).   Next, 

sprinkle about a tablespoon of table salt, a teaspoon of celery 

seed, and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.  Finally sprinkle about 

2  tablespoon of butter powder. Yes, butter powder.   You  can 

find  this  in  your  stores popcorn  section most of  the  time.    It 

really  enriches  the  flavor  of  the  brisket  by  giving  just  the 

slightest hint of sweetness.   Trust me!   Be certain that you are 

seasoning  all  sides of  the brisket.   You  could  add  all of  these 

seasonings  into one shaker and sprinkle at once but  it doesn’t 

get  distributed  as  evenly  when  doing  this.    Once  you  have 

completed seasoning  the brisket  rub  it down with your hands 

so that everything blends together. Now that you’ve seasoned 

the brisket place  it  fat side up  in a pan with a  lip  (some  juices 

will  flow out overnight so you don’t want  that  spilling  in your 

fridge), cover  it with plastic wrap, and put  it  in the fridge so  it 

can rest. 

Note on Injecting 

Before I move on, I want to address injecting a brisket.  At 

one point I injected briskets with beef broth, Worcestershire 

sauce, a little olive oil, and meat tenderizer.  I did this for years.  

Then one time I forgot to buy beef broth and decided to try the 

brisket without injecting it.  I noticed no difference.  Actually, I 

  

did notice a difference.  It tasted better, and I believe this was 

because the brisket was being altered less.  Brisket is a 

powerful meat, and I believe the more you alter it the more you 

take away from its true natural flavors.  Sure, meat tenderizer 

and other seasonings mentioned above do alter the flavors, but 

in my experience, they complement the brisket’s natural 

flavors. After this I decided to eliminate injecting it all together.  

Some people will disagree with me, but I stand by this decision 

based on countless positive results. Also, by not injecting, you 

don’t have to spend an extra twenty minutes with a large and 

very messy syringe when you could be getting ready for bed.   

Soaking your Wood Chunks 

Before you crawl into bed get eight chunks of your pecan 

wood and throw them in a bucket of water to soak overnight.  

This will keep the wood from flaring up during the smoke and 

will allow it to burn slower and steadier which is very important 

in a smoker.  Ok, now go to bed.    

    

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 6‐ Getting your Smoker Ready 

Smoker Type 

You can use any smoker you want to smoke a brisket.  

However, for a backyard smoker I recommend an upright 

“bullet” smoker.  

 

I personally have a 22” Weber® Smokey Mountain Cooker.  I like 

this size because it’s large enough for the size brisket I’m 

smoking, and there’s still enough room to add links of sausage 

and other stuff if I want to take full advantage of the extra 

space. (Keep in mind the more stuff you add, the more fuel 

you’ll need to maintain the pit temp.)  This smoker requires 

  

very little maintenance during the smoking process if you do 

things right.   

Time Commitment 

I recommend you prepare for a 16‐hour commitment the 

day of the smoke.  That’s from when you roll out of bed to 

serving your first slice.  So if you want to serve people at 6pm 

you better be out of bed at 4am on the dot.  

Remove the Brisket from the Fridge 

To begin, take the brisket and the brisket fat (please tell 

me you didn’t throw that out!) out of the fridge and set it on 

the counter.  You want to do this so you aren’t putting a large, 

cold piece of meat on a pit that you’re trying to heat to the 

right temperature.  Some people may tell you that a little larger 

smoke ring will form if you put the brisket on cold (a smoke ring 

is basically a dark pink ring that forms along the outside of the 

meat during the cooking process due to a chemical reaction 

between the meat and smoke), and from my experience I 

believe that’s true.  However, you’re going to get a smoke ring 

either way, and having an extra couple of millimeters of smoke 

ring isn’t worth struggling to keep your pit up to temp 

(especially in cold environments).    

The Chimney  

  

Next, take the wood chunks you have in the water bucket 

out so the excess water will drip off.  Open your bag of lump 

charcoal (I buy the 20 lb. bag) and fill up a charcoal chimney 

about three quarters of the way. 

 

A charcoal chimney is what is used to light the coals for your 

smoker.  You can find these in the barbeque section of the 

store.  Place the charcoal chimney on a piece of metal away 

from anything flammable before you light it (I like to place mine 

on our unlit gas grill grates with the lid of the grill open).  Avoid 

putting the chimney on concrete because it will stain your 

concrete and could cause it to crack.  Then put some crumpled 

up newspaper or a fire starter stick beneath the chimney and 

light it using a barbeque lighter.  It takes about 15 minutes to 

light the coals all the way through.  Keep an eye on the fire to 

make sure nothing gets out of control since it’s an open flame.  

  

I also would have a bucket of water and a fire extinguisher 

nearby at all times during the cook.  

 

Fat Layer Protection 

Get a wire brush and clean off the grates on your smoker 

to remove any gunk from previous smokes.  Now it’s time to 

protect the bottom of your brisket.  For years I had problems 

with the bottom flat side of my brisket (the thinner part of the 

brisket) getting overcooked. Sometimes it would be so bad I 

would have to slice off the bottom layer.  I also had problems 

with the flat drying out. It was happening because it’s the most 

unprotected section of the meat.  There’s hardly any fat on the 

bottom flat of the brisket, and it’s so much thinner than the 

point, which causes it to cook faster.   

  

Some people in barbeque competitions will cook their 

brisket fat side down.  I tried this, and while it does protect the 

flat, the brisket does not turn out juicy at all. Basically all the fat 

that would normally be naturally basting your brisket would 

instead drip right off when cooking fat side down.  You want 

that fat to flow through your brisket.   

So what do you do?  You could wrap the brisket early on in 

the smoke, but then you might as well just cook it in the oven 

at that point.  Or you could do something else, something 

ground breaking.  The most creative step in barbeque history.  

Take the brisket fat you trimmed and set aside earlier and layer 

it on the grates where the flat will be cooking. Voila! The 

bottom flat section of your brisket will be completely protected 

as it cooks directly on its own fat. 

 

When one of my good friends told me he tried this I had to 

try myself.  The results were just as incredible as the results I 

  

had with butcher paper.  The flat (which is called the lean 

section when it’s cooked) was tremendous.  It was incredibly 

moist and tender, and was not overcooked.  It also still retained 

its smoky flavor because the smoke was able to penetrate the 

meat in the pit.  The crust was also still able to form perfectly as 

well.  This is because the brisket fat eventually will cook and 

shrivel up (see picture below) which meant it would no longer 

be a barrier for the crust to form. It still provides the extra layer 

of protection needed to cook evenly throughout, solving a 

crucial smoking problem.   

 

I'd like to provide you one update that's happened since I first wrote this book. In my never ending search for perfection I wanted to find a way to literally clean up the fat layer process.  The fat layer works like a charm, but when it comes to cleanup it's a bit of a hassle. Then I started trying out different types of BBQ mats. These mats are made of PTFE coated non‐stick fabric designed to be a heat shield, just like the fat layer provides.  As 

  

a bonus these mats make for a much cleaner cooking process and keep marinades, juices, and small foods from falling through the grates.  They can be used on gas and charcoal grills in addition to smokers, which is nice.  However, the mats on the market during my search weren't providing the layer of protection I wanted, nor were they allowing the right consistency of that much desired smoky flavor.  To get things right I teamed up with pit‐master and author Cole Landry to create a mat that could provide a better alternative to other mats being offered in the market.  After rigorous testing we created The Smoke Mat™.  The Smoke Mat™ is a thicker, reusable design that provides the heat shield needed during a cook, without sacrificing the coveted smoky flavor.  These features along with a cleaner alternative to the fat layer make The Smoke Mat™ a must have.  We are selling a set of two Smoke Mats™ on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WDYURM .  We love The Smoke Mat™ and know you will too.   

 

Loading the Smoker 

Now that you have the chimney going and your brisket fat 

layered on the grate it’s time to load your smoker with 

charcoal.  The steps below are to load an upright bullet smoker 

(if you have a different smoker I recommend you research your 

particular smoker online for the best way to proceed).  Dump a 

little bit of unlit lump coal into the ring section at the bottom of 

  

your smoker and arrange the coals so that there are minimal air 

pockets.  Continue to do this till the ring is filled about half way. 

 

Now put four of your chunks of wood on top of the unlit 

coals spread evenly apart.  Now continue adding unlit coal until 

you are about four fifths from the top of the ring (again be sure 

you are arranging the coals so that there are minimal spaces in‐

between).  Now add your other four chunks of wood on top of 

that layer.  Make sure the unlit coals and wood are as flat as 

possible so when you add the hot coals they won’t roll down to 

the side of your ring.   

 

  

At this point, your chimney of hot coals should be ready to 

add on top of the unlit coals you just loaded into your smoker.  

Before you add the hot coals to your smoker, you’ll want to 

adjust your vents at the bottom of the smoker, and go ahead 

and adjust the vent on your lid as well.  All the vents need to be 

about a quarter of the way open to start the smoking process.  

I’ll get into times when you may need to adjust the vents a little 

later on.   

 

Now, using fire retardant leather BBQ gloves, goggles to 

protect your eyes from sparks (IT WILL SPARK) and shoes that 

cover your entire feet (no loose clothing either), carefully pour 

the hot coals over the unlit coals in the ring of your smoker pit 

as evenly as possible so that it fills up the rest of your ring 

(don’t overflow the ring). 

 

  

The idea behind loading your wood and coals this way is 

that the hot coals will burn through the unlit coals slow and 

steady so that your pit will keep smoking for a long period of 

time.  This method works perfectly for a brisket.   

 

Now that you have the lit coals on your smoker it’s time to 

put the middle section of your smoker on.  Be sure that it goes 

on evenly because if it’s crooked, smoke and heat will escape 

(also make sure the grates and water pan are on securely so 

they don’t fall when you add to them!).   The middle section of 

my smoker has two grates, with a water pan directly beneath 

the bottom grate.  You’ll want to make sure that you are 

smoking the brisket on the top grate (i.e., the one with the 

layer of brisket fat).   

Once you are sure that the middle section is on the 

smoker securely (and that the inside components are secure), 

  

add the brisket fat side up to the top level of the smoker.  Be 

sure that the flat (the thin side of the brisket) is sitting directly 

on the brisket fat that you laid out on the grate. The extra 

brisket fat that you laid out doesn’t need to be beneath the 

point section of the brisket because it’s a thicker piece of meat 

with more fat.  Now you can add the lid to your smoker.  

 

Next, we’ll add water to the water pan in your smoker. I’ve 

found that a metal flower‐watering can works best for this.     

 

  

Don’t use a plastic watering can because if the stem touches 

the inside of the smoker it might melt.  Open the door to your 

smoker where it’s leaning open and pour water into the water 

pan of your smoker.  Continue adding water to your water pan 

until the pan is about two thirds full.   

 

Next, add a piece of foil (about the size of the brisket) on 

the bottom layer grate that has some holes in it.  This will help 

protect the brisket just a little further once the water in the 

water pan gets hotter.  The holes in the foil will allow fat to drip 

through to the water pan.  You may still need to add water later 

on in the smoking process (especially if it’s hot outside), so 

keep a close eye on your water level throughout the smoking 

process.  If your water pan goes dry, the temperature of your 

cooker will spike quickly, and it can be difficult to bring the 

temp back down.   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 7‐ Smoking the Brisket (pre‐wrap) 

Smoker Temp & Loading the Brisket 

  Your smoker’s ideal temperature should be about 225 

degrees Fahrenheit (until the end, which I’ll explain in a bit).  It 

may take 30 minutes to an hour for your pit to reach this 

temperature depending on the weather conditions.  The main 

advice I can give you is to remain as patient as possible with 

your smoker while it’s getting to this temperature.  The best 

scenario is that once you put your lid on the smoker, it climbs 

to 225 and hovers around there throughout most of the smoke.  

For the purposes of this chapter, let’s assume that’s the case.  

In a later chapter, I’ll cover what to do specifically if your 

smoker is running too hot or too cold.   

Once your smoker has reached 225 degrees, place your 

brisket on the top grate (remember to lay the flat over the fat 

trimmings).  After about three hours, it’s time to moisten your 

brisket a little.   

Spraying the Brisket 

Add the following to a water spray bottle: 1/2 cup Apple 

Juice, 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar, 1/8 cup Water, and 2 Tbsp. 

Worcestershire sauce.  Spray the brisket all over.  This helps 

break down the meat fibers.  Do this every hour and a half or 

so, including just before you wrap the brisket.  Also be sure you 

  

shake the mixture well before each spray, as the 

Worcestershire sauce may cause your spray bottle to clog up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 8‐ Smoking the Brisket (the wrap) 

Checking the Brisket Temp 

After 6‐8 hours, it will likely be almost time to wrap your 

brisket.  To be sure, however, I recommend checking the 

temperature of the brisket after the second spraying.  The ideal 

temperature for wrapping the brisket will be a meat temp of 

160 degrees.  If it’s above that, wrap it, if it’s below that try to 

hold off.  Use a digital thermometer to check the temp on the 

brisket.  

 

Avoid removing the lid as much as possible because every 

time you do, you let out lot of heat which, in turn, will require 

the smoker to return to the appropriate temperature.  There 

are fancier ways to keep track of the temp of the brisket such 

as using a wireless food thermometer, but for this 

demonstration I’m going to keep it simple.  I check the 

temperature by pressing the thermometer in at an angle in the 

middle of the brisket (right about where the flat and point 

  

meet).  Press the thermometer in about halfway through the 

meat and hold it there for thirty seconds or so (read your 

thermometers instructions for specifically how long to keep the 

thermometer in because every digital thermometer is 

different).   

Butcher Paper Marinade 

  If you can time it right, this next step is best to do right 

before the brisket hits 160 degrees; however, you can always 

do it once it’s wrapping time.  The step I’m talking about is the 

butcher paper marinade.  To make this get a pot and mix the 

following together:  4oz beer, 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 

tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp water, 1 tsp beef‐flavored Better Than 

Bouillon®, 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp BBQ sauce, 1 tsp of 

garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Bring this mixture 

up to a boil (stir constantly) then turn off the heat and pour it 

into something that has a spout for easy pouring. 

  Next tear off 4 sheets of butcher paper, about a yard in 

length each.  Bring a pan with lips, your butcher‐paper 

marinade, butcher paper, and a pair of insulated BBQ gloves 

with you to your smoker (don’t touch the grates with these 

gloves because it can damage the gloves). Note: these are 

different from the gloves you used for moving the chimney, 

they are made for moving hot food.   

  

 

 

Begin Wrapping the Brisket 

Next, spray the brisket one last time with your spray from 

chapter 7.  Now put three of the four sheets of butcher paper 

on the pan so the middle of the three sheets is in the middle of 

the pan.  Put something heavy on all corners of the paper (like a 

butter knife) so that the paper doesn’t blow away.  Put on your 

insulated food gloves and very carefully lift the brisket from the 

smoker and put it as close to the middle of the sheets of 

butcher paper as you can.   

 

  

When moving the brisket, support it across the entire 

bottom.  Don’t just hold the brisket from the sides because it 

may fall apart.  Leave the shriveled up brisket fat that was 

layered to protect your briskets flat side on the grate (I’ll 

explain later).  Next fold the long sides of the butcher paper 

together. 

 

Now carefully, and as tightly as possible without tearing the 

paper, roll the two touching sides of paper down together until 

you’ve rolled down to the brisket.  

 

  

Next very carefully twist the paper on one end of the brisket 

(about a half twist), and fold in. 

 

Watch your paper when twisting and folding.  If you are getting 

a lot of resistance back off, loosen the paper a little, and start 

over so you don’t tear the paper.   

Pouring the Butcher Paper Marinade 

Now hold the folded side down and on the open side pour 

the butcher‐paper marinade in. Once you’ve poured it in twist 

and fold in just as you did on the other side. 

 

  

Finish Wrapping the Brisket 

The sides you just folded in will pop open if you don’t 

secure it in some way.  That’s where the fourth sheet of paper 

comes into play.  Take the fourth sheet of butcher paper and 

lay it OVER the wrapped brisket (be sure you still are holding 

down the sides you twisted and folded in) and tuck the paper 

that’s draping over the wrapped brisket tightly beneath.  This is 

what holds the wrapping in place.   

 

 

Then, remove the brisket from the pan (supporting the bottom 

so that the brisket and paper stay intact) and place it back on 

the smoker with the flat back on top of the shriveled up brisket 

fat on your smoker grate. 

  

 

  Another method you can use instead of the 4th sheet of 

paper is to simply place a couple of rocks over each side as seen 

in picture below.  Just watch out though because those rocks 

get hot! 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 9‐ Temperature Problems. 

Dealing with Fluctuating Smoker Temps 

  Now  that  the  brisket  is  wrapped  and  back  on  the 

smoker,  you  want  to  bring  the  brisket  to  an  internal 

temperature  range  of  195‐205  degrees  (I’ll  address  how  to 

know  exactly when  it’s  done  soon).    This  is  the  stage where 

your  smoker may  start  to  lose heat.   At  any point  if  you  feel 

your smoker needs more heat you can open  the vents  to half 

way, or  even  all  the way  if needed  (as mentioned  in  chapter 

10). 

 

When you do this, be sure to use your leather BBQ gloves 

because they can be very hot.  You can also lean the door to 

your smoker open for 5 minutes or so if you need a quick heat 

increase, but keep an eye on it, because the fire can flame up 

very quickly when you do this, and your pit temp can get out of 

control.  

  

 

You can also throw some pieces of unlit lump coal on your 

fire if you need to help the smoker along.  I often have to do 

this if it starts to rain late into the cook.  Try to avoid adding 

more wood to the fire because you may over‐smoke your meat, 

giving it a very bitter taste.  

If your smoker it running too hot, adjust the vents to be 

barely open.  You can also completely close the vents if your pit 

temp is really out of control, but don’t do this for long because 

your fire will go out.  You can also add more water to your 

water pan to cool your pit down as well (if it’s really hot outside 

you’ll probably have to add water a couple of times).  I wouldn’t 

fill the water pan all the way up though.  Try a quarter of the 

way and see how it goes.  Whatever happens with your pit 

temperature, I recommend eventually moving the vents back to 

a quarter of the way open. This gives your pit the best chance 

to hang around the 225 degree mark. 

Brisket Temperature Stalling 

If your brisket is hovering around 160‐170 degrees and 

doesn’t seem to want to move up, please be patient.  It’s 

  

around this temp where your brisket tends to stall during the 

smoking process.  It is critical that you get the brisket past this 

stage.  To do that you must be patient and maintain a 

consistent pit temp.  I’ve had briskets stall out at this 

temperature range for three hours then shoot to 195 in 45 

minutes.  This stall happens due to a cooling process the meat 

naturally goes through.  It doesn’t always happen, but when it 

does, know that you’re not doing anything wrong.   

Checking a Wrapped Brisket Temperature 

To check the temperature of the brisket I usually poke a 

hole slowly through the top middle of the butcher paper until it 

feels like I’m about half way through the meat.  Be careful not 

to poke the thermometer through the bottom of your paper 

because any juices that collected will drain out.  Again, the final 

brisket temperature you’re looking for is a range of 195‐205 

degrees (don’t skip the 185 degree step coming up next in 

chapter 10 though).  The amount of time it takes to reach this 

temperature depends on several variables, but generally 

speaking, expect it to take about 12 hours.   

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 10‐ Smoking the Brisket (back to unwrap) 

Unwrapping the Brisket 

In the final smoking step (when the brisket temp reads

185), you’ll unwrap the brisket.  The reason for this step is all 

about the bark.  The bark stays intact much better when using 

butcher paper versus foil, but putting the brisket back on the 

smoker, unwrapped, allows the bark to fully take form, giving it 

the juicy crunch it needs. After you unwrap the brisket you’ll 

next carefully move it to a pan. 

 

Remember to use your insulated BBQ gloves and to support the 

entire bottom of the brisket (the brisket will be even more 

fragile at this point). Now pour the juices that collected in the 

butcher paper into a pot, and then set the pot on a free area in 

your smoker to keep the juices warm. 

  

 

Save the butcher paper that the brisket was in for later. Set the 

unwrapped brisket back on the smoker with the flat sitting back 

on the shriveled up pieces of fat.    

 

Now that the brisket is unwrapped open all of the smoker 

vents fully so that the smoker temperature can rise to around 

275 degrees (add additional coal if needed).  This is the only 

time during the smoke that you’ll divert from the low and slow 

225 degree smoker temp.  The reason for this is to help the 

brisket finish the rendering process, as the high heat helps 

finish breaking down all of that fat.  Once the unwrapped 

brisket has risen from 185 degrees to an internal meat temp 

range of 195‐205 degrees you can remove the brisket from the 

smoker to let it rest.  How do you know when to take it off?  At 

  

195 degrees press in the thermometer. If it goes in with ease 

then the brisket should be ready to come off the smoker to 

rest.   If there is resistance then the brisket probably needs to 

cook longer, and possibly reach an internal temp as high as 205 

degrees.  Beware though, when you take a brisket off the 

smoker it continues to cook briefly so if your resistance is light 

go ahead and pull it.  I wish I could tell you an exact 

temperature of when it’s done, but no two briskets are alike.  

So just be patient because the payoff will be worth it.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 11‐ Resting the Brisket 

The Resting 

  Grab a pan and set the used butcher paper in it.  Using 

your insulated BBQ gloves, carefully remove the brisket from 

the smoker and put it back on the paper and wrap it back up.  

Remove the pan that was collecting the drippings and set that 

aside until it’s time to slice the brisket.  Now close all the vents 

on your smoker completely so the fire will go out.   

Now your brisket needs to rest.  Resting the brisket allows 

the juices in the meat to evenly distribute throughout, making 

it more tender and juicy.  To allow the brisket to rest for the 

proper amount of time (about 90 minutes) wrap it in a towel 

and then place in a sealed dry cooler.  Ideally the brisket should 

not be sliced until it has cooled down to approximately 145 

degrees.   One last thing, be sure the towel you wrap the 

brisket in is only used for wrapping meat.  It’s hard to get the 

smell out of the towel once it gets brisket juices on it. (Just ask 

my wife.) 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 12‐ Slicing the brisket 

Preparing for Slicing 

 If people won’t be eating for a while, keep your brisket 

wrapped as long as you can because once you start slicing the 

brisket, the slices will dry out and get cold if left sitting for more 

than 15 minutes.   

 

Otherwise, unwrap your brisket, and using your insulated food 

gloves carefully move the brisket to a large cutting board. 

 

  

Slicing the Flat 

Remember how I told you to remember to make note of 

the direction of the different grains within the brisket before 

you seasoned it?  This is where that comes into play.   

 

 

Using a large sharp knife, slice a pencil thin piece off on the lean 

(flat) side of the brisket.  Don’t press down hard with the knife 

when slicing.  Let your knife do the work. Your knife should be 

slicing the flat across the short side of the brisket.   

  

 

The grain of the meat on the flat typically is going east to west 

when you have the brisket in front of you long‐ways.  However, 

if you start to see long strands of stringy meat the grain may 

have changed directions on you.  If that happens just adjust and 

keep slicing against the grain until you reach the middle.   

Be sure you keep slices close together when cutting them, 

as this will help keep the brisket slices from drying out.  I 

wouldn’t move the slices off the cutting board until you’re 

ready for them to be eaten.   

 

  

 

Slicing the Point 

Once you’ve sliced about half of the brisket, you should 

reach the “point” section (i.e., the thicker section) of the 

brisket.   

 

If it looks like you have too much meat after slicing out the lean 

section wrap up the point section in your butcher paper 

(unsliced), put it in a freezer bag and freeze it for another time 

(or put it in the fridge if you plan to eat in the next couple of 

days).  I’ll let you know how to reheat in a later chapter.   

If you plan to continue slicing here’s what you do next.  

Take the point section of the brisket and turn it 90 degrees 

counter clockwise (it should look like picture below when you 

rotate).   

  

 

Take your knife and slice right down the middle of the point (as 

the arrow indicates in picture below). 

 

For this section of the brisket, I recommend slicing a little 

thicker (i.e., slightly wider than a pencil), and do your best to 

slice against the grain with these slices. Be sure you continue to 

keep the slices cuddled together and serve as quickly as 

  

possible. The grain goes lots of directions with a brisket in this 

section so I’m not going to tell you exactly where to slice.  But 

now that you can see the inside of the brisket, you should have 

no problem knowing when you are cutting against the grain.     

Some people will take the point and separate the top of 

the point from the bottom of the point (you’ll see that a layer 

of fat separates the two).  I don’t think this is necessary, 

though, because I like the different flavors I get from a larger 

slice of meat like that.  But if you want to do that, go for it.   

Drizzling the Juices 

To give your brisket slices a little more flavor stir up the 

juices you have leftover in the pot and drizzle it over the brisket 

slices.  And hold some back for your leftovers, if you have any.  

This will help the brisket be more tender when you reheat. 

 

Quick Final Note on Slicing 

One more quick note before I move on to how to reheat 

the brisket.  If the brisket is not as tender as you would like, 

slice it thinner.  If it’s too tender slice larger.   Also, have some 

sort of barbeque sauce available for the sauce lovers, but 

encourage people to try it without sauce because the meat is 

where all the flavor is.   To receive a copy of my family’s secret 

  

homemade barbeque sauce recipe sign up for my special 

communications email at http://eepurl.com/4u95b.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 13‐ Storing and Reheating the brisket. 

Reheating Slices of Brisket 

I wouldn’t recommend freezing slices.  I would put them in 

a sealed plastic container with some juices on them and plan to 

eat them within the next day or so.  To reheat, set the brisket 

slices in foil, add a few tablespoons of water over the brisket 

for added moisture, and put them in the oven at 300 for about 

15 or 20 minutes.   

Reheating Large Chunks of Refrigerated Brisket  

Anytime you refrigerated meat be sure it is reheated 

within a few days.  To reheat take a couple of sheets of your 

leftover butcher paper and set the brisket on it, add some of 

your leftover juices, seal the brisket in the butcher paper as 

well as you can, then reheat in your oven for about an hour or 

two at 250 on a pan (be sure the paper isn’t touching any 

flames in the oven because the paper can ignite if it touches a 

flame). Before you put the brisket in the oven pour about 1/3 of 

a cup of water over it to help keep the brisket moist. 

Reheating Large Chunks of Frozen Brisket  

  Again, take a couple of sheets of your leftover butcher 

paper and set the brisket on it, add some of your leftover 

juices, seal the brisket in the butcher paper as well as you can, 

  

place in a freezer bag, and freeze.  To reheat, place the 

wrapped brisket (without the freezer bag, of course) in your 

oven for about 3 or 4 hours at 250.  You could also cut down on 

the cook time by cutting into the brisket after about an hour in 

the oven so that the chunks are smaller.  I would also add a pot 

of water in the oven when reheating to keep the brisket moist. 

When reheating anything in the oven be sure you keep an 

eye on the meat.  It could cook faster or slower than expected 

based on a number of factors.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Chapter 14‐ Cleanup 

After you pull the brisket from the smoker please be sure 

to close all the vents on the smoker completely so it will cool 

down.  Put the cover back on the smoker the following day so 

your smoker is protected if it rains.  If it’s going to rain that 

night, you might secure some long pieces of foil over the top lid 

of the smoker so water doesn’t get inside the smoker (if rain 

gets in your smoker it will drip down to the ash and will be a 

huge mess).  I don’t put the smoker cover back on till the day 

after because the smoker is too hot, and can melt the cover. 

 Three days later is when I usually go back for cleaning because 

the coals in a smoker can still be hot even a couple of days 

later.   

Once it’s time to clean take a wire brush and brush down 

the grates.  Then get a trash can and put a strong (double 

bagged) trash bag in the trash can, and empty the water from 

the water pan into it.  Then wipe out the water pan with a lot of 

paper towels (there will be lots grease to wipe out of the pan).  

Then pour the ash and remaining coals into the trashcan.  Tie 

the bag up as tightly as you can because you don’t want 

varmints coming around.   It’s messy, but it has to be done.   

  

 

  

Ingredients and Supplies 

To see all the products I recommend for smoking brisket visit 

my website:  http://pnkpublishing.wordpress.com/james‐austin 

Note: some supplies and ingredients will be repeated in this list to reflect usage in multiple chapters. 

Chapter 1‐ Trial and Error   

Nothing needed   

Chapter 2‐ Meat Selection   

Whole untrimmed brisket 

Chapter 3‐ Wood, Charcoal, and Wrapping   

Nothing needed 

Chapter 4‐ Trimming the Brisket   

Food prep gloves 

Cutting board 

Short trimming knife   

Foil   

Chapter 5‐ Seasoning the Brisket 

Cutting board 

Food prep gloves 

Meat tenderizer  

Large fork  

Mustard  

Garlic powder  

Black pepper 

Kosher salt   

Salt 

  

Celery seed 

Cayenne pepper 

Butter powder   

Pan with lips 

Plastic wrap 

Bucket of water 

Pecan wood chunks (soak in bucket) 

Chapter 6‐ Getting your Smoker Ready   

22” Weber® Smokey Mountain Cooker 

Brisket  

Brisket fat OR The Smoke Mat™ 

Pecan wood chunks (soaked) 

Oak lump charcoal (for chimney and smoker) 

Charcoal chimney 

Fire starter stick 

BBQ lighter 

Fire extinguisher  

Bucket of water  

Leather BBQ gloves 

Goggles   

Wire grate cleaner brush 

Metal watering can 

Foil 

Chapter 7‐ Smoking the Brisket (pre‐wrap)   

Water spray bottle 

  

Apple Juice 

 Apple cider vinegar 

 Water 

Worcestershire sauce 

Chapter 8‐ Smoking the Brisket (the wrap) 

Digital thermometer  

Sauce pan 

Metal spoon 

4oz. beer 

Worcestershire sauce 

Olive oil 

Water 

Beef‐flavored Better Than Bouillon® 

Apple cider vinegar 

BBQ sauce 

Garlic powder  

Black pepper 

Salt 

Glass cup with spout  

Pan with lips 

Water spray bottle (continue with spray mix from previous chapter) 

Butcher paper   

Insulated BBQ gloves 

Chapter 9‐ Temperature Problems   

Leather BBQ gloves 

  

Unlit lump charcoal 

Metal watering can 

Digital thermometer  

Chapter 10‐ Smoking the Brisket (back to unwrap)   

Digital thermometer  

Insulated BBQ gloves 

Pan with lips 

Sauce pan   

Leather BBQ gloves 

Chapter 11‐ Resting the Brisket  

Pan with lips 

Insulated BBQ gloves 

Butcher paper 

Leather BBQ gloves 

Sauce pan with drippings 

Towel 

Cooler 

Chapter 12‐ Slicing the Brisket   

Insulated BBQ gloves 

Cutting board 

Slicing knife 

Sauce pan with drippings   

Chapter 13‐ Storing and Reheating the Brisket   

Sauce pan with drippings 

Ziploc freezer bags 

  

Foil 

Butcher paper 

Water 

Chapter 14‐ Cleanup 

Trash bag 

Trash can 

Wire grate cleaner brush 

Paper Towels 

  

Closing 

Once you learn how to smoke the perfect brisket, it’s quite rewarding.  

However, even if you do everything right you could still end up with a cut of 

meat that isn’t up to par.  When that happens get you a big bottle of 

barbeque sauce (or whiskey to drown your sorrows), chop the brisket all up, 

and throw it in a slow cooker for 5 hours.  Then it will turn into the best 

chopped beef you’ve ever had.    

The final piece of advice I’ll leave you with is to enjoy yourself.  It’s 

hard work to smoke a brisket, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun 

doing it.   

I really hope you enjoyed reading my book.  I enjoyed writing it, and I 

really appreciate your business.  Please share my book with your friends and 

family.  Also if you can review my book that would greatly help me as well.  

Click on "Write a customer review" at the following link: 

http://www.amazon.com/Lone‐Star‐Brisket‐Guide‐Smoke‐

ebook/dp/B00OBGYXTI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412863942&sr=8‐

1&keywords=lone+star+brisket .  

To see all the products I recommend for smoking brisket visit my 

website:  http://pnkpublishing.wordpress.com/james‐austin.  Finally, to 

receive a copy of my family’s secret homemade barbeque sauce recipe sign 

up for my special communications email at http://eepurl.com/4u95b.  

Thank you so much, and if you have any questions or comments please 

email me any time at JamesAustinBBQ@pnkpublishing.com .   

Happy Smoking, 

James Austin 

 

  

Special Thanks 

Special thanks to Jennifer Litterer Photography for taking some of the photos for this book. To see more of her work visit www.jenniferlitterer.com .

  

  

Copyright 

© Copyright 2016 by _James Austin ‐ All rights reserved.     This document is geared towards providing exact and 

reliable information in regards to the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the idea that the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially permitted, or otherwise, qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or professional, a practiced individual in the profession should be ordered.  

 ‐ From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and 

approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations. 

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit 

any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.  

 The information provided herein is stated to be truthful 

and consistent, in that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any legal responsibility or blame be held against the 

  

publisher for any reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either directly or indirectly.  

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher. The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely, and is universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or any type of guarantee assurance. 

 The trademarks that are used are without any consent, 

and the publication of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner. All trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only and are the owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document. 

   

 

Real Deal Pork Ribs A How-To Guid For Smoking

Texas Style Competition Pork Ribs

Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................

Chapter 1- The Meat ..........................................................................................................................

Chapter 2- Where Are You From?.....................................................................................................

Chapter 3- The Method; The Madness – And Establishing a Baseline .............................................

Chapter 4- Wood Types and Uses .....................................................................................................

Chapter 5- The Checklist and the Prep ..............................................................................................

Chapter 6- Your Pit and Fire Management ........................................................................................

Chapter 7- The Cook ..........................................................................................................................

Check Out My Other Books ..............................................................................................................

Introduction

I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book, Real Deal Pork Ribs.

This book contains proven steps and strategies on to help you become a better pitmaster and cook some of the best ribs you've ever had.

I would like to thank all the folks that downloaded and enjoyed the first book I wrote, on brisket. I do take it very seriously and am glad that my cut the fluff approach struck a cord with a lot of folks. I tend to get tired of watered down books too that try and be all things to all people. My first book focused on brisket, and in this book we're going to cover ribs. I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy ribs, and we're going to make some of the best ribs you've ever had.

If you don't already have a smoker, please consider picking one up. After my brisket book I got a lot of feedback asking if someone really needs a smoker to put out good barbecue? Yes, you do. And I really think you should pick up a little smoker even if it's a sixty dollar starter starter variety. Practice on it. The real pleasure of pit is in the smokiness that you just can't replicate on a grill. I love grilling, don't get me wrong. I grill a lot. It's just a different animal. And if you've only ever had oven ribs, or crock pot ribs I'm going to strongly suggest you pick up a little smoker and get started on what will become a new obsession. Once you've had ribs the way they were intended to be you'll wonder how anyone can ever call ribs coming out of an oven the same thing as ribs coming off the pit. And I hope you throw a thumbs up to ol' Cole when you do.

Just as before it's worth mentioning that ribs are a regional affair. In Memphis you're going to get ribs one way, and in Kansas City another. And here in Texas we go pretty simplistic – less sauce – less rub – more attention to the stand out flavor of well smoked meat. I have all the respect in the world for Memphis BBQ and their ribs, and that's a lot of the beauty of bbq. They have probably the greatest BBQ get together in the world, every May. I also enjoy Kansas City and their style in the midwest.

Well done bbq speaks to a region and passing on a lot of the traditions that people have been doing the same way, in those places, for a lot of years. I love that. The more things change, the more BBQ stays the same, just like it should. It stands the test of time. Whereas a lot of things in life are about speeding up – better, faster, more – BBQ flies in the face of that. It's slow. It takes it's time. You can't rush it. You just can't. And it doesn't apologize for being that way. And that's wonderful. In saying that I hope you get a little time and a little something from this book and that it helps you in wherever you are in your barbecue progress.

Just like the prior brisket book, I'm not here to fluff with folksy stories and recipes. That's all great and fine and if that's your thing, and I totally understand. As my good buddy would say, “this aint that, though.”There are a lot of books that will give you that. What I aim to do here is just cut to the chase and give you the nitty gritty on smoking competition style ribs. I'm going to cover several different styles this time, as opposed to the Texas centric brisket book. So let's get started.

Thanks again for downloading this book, I hope you enjoy it!

Copyright 2014 by _Cole Landry- All rights reserved.

This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable

information in regards to the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the idea that the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially permitted, or otherwise, qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or professional, a practiced individual in the profession should be ordered.

- From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any legal responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either directly or indirectly.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely, and is universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or any type of guarantee assurance.

The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner. All trademarks and brands within this book are for

clarifying purposes only and are the owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document.

Chapter 1 – The Meat

When it comes to competition cooking there are really three kinds of rib racks that people use. And a lot of it will depend on where you come from and what's the norm, for cooking. We'll take a look at each.

One interesting note, is that unlike beef, pork is not graded by the USDA. You have to apply a somewhat keener eye to get what you pay for, when it comes to pork.

As is the case with most kinds of meat you're typically going to be looking for a nice degree of marbling running throughout the meat. However, unlike brisket where you can do a lot of trimming of fat, you can't and really shouldn't do any bulk fat trimming on rib racks. You do want to trim it up a bit though and cut off any silver skin which is shiny and a little translucent. We'll get to all that in a bit though.

You do want ribs that have nice fat marbling, but avoid ribs that any large continuous areas of surface fat. A lot of it is going to be about trying different racks out and seeing how they cook. You want a good amount of fat, just not too much. You're looking for that fat to be ribboned through the meat and marbled, not covering the slab like you'd see on a brisket. It's not too common, but you will see it and just know to avoid it. Some newer cookers think that's a bit of luck when in reality you want to steer clear. Sometimes ribs (especially baby backs) are cryovaced in three packs and in that case just judge it the best you can. Some people do disagree with me here, and I'll acknowledge that, but that's my take on it and I'll leave you to decide how you see it.

Another thing to keep an eye on is what we call shiners. Shiners are racks that have rib bones showing through the top of the slab because of the way it was butchered, and cut a little too closely. More often you'll see it on baby backs, and if you do see it – steer clear. In a competition setting you're just going to be paying for something you can't consider using, so just look for another rack.

One additional key thing to look for when selecting competition ribs racks are straight bones. That's easier to look for in babybacks typically because spares can curve sometimes towards the edges of the rack. Nothing wrong with that, and they still eat great, but it just minuses out of what you could potentially pick from. That's not a big deal for a test cook, or a family get together, but something to be mindful of when cooking for competitions.

And you can shop around in your city or town and just start keeping an eye on out on who has what, and how they look. A lot of cookers like the ribs from bulk buy stores like Sam's or Costco and others go to local butchers. Just choose what works well for you and then just compare as you cook more and see what works well for you, and what you prefer.

Loin Back or Baby Backs

Babybacks (also called Loin Backs) are smaller and cook faster than spares. When someone refers to babybacks it doesn't mean the ribs came from a piglet, but instead it refers to the smaller bones located near the backbone of the animal. Normally babyback racks will have between eleven to thirteen rib bones. They're typically going to be less meaty, and less fatty, but people do often prefer their taste. The loin is the same area where bone in pork chops come from. Therefore they are more tender, but also leaner than spares.

Spare Ribs

Spare ribs are more popular here in Texas, even though most grocery stores around here sell both spares and babybacks. While the USDA doesn't grade pork the way that beef is graded they do require that spare rib racks do require at least eleven rib bones. You'll also often see something referred to as a St. Louis style rib and all that is a trimmed spare rib. When you get a whole spare rib cut there is a skirt fold of meat attached to the slab and often the breast bone. The skirt is often trimmed off and used as rib tips. They are a delicious delicacy

in an of themselves and a lot of rib joints have those as a separate menu item. Don't be confused though, and know if you see St Louis style, it's just a slab of trimmed spare ribs.

Spare ribs usually have less meat (but don't worry you still get plenty of meat) and more fat than baby backs. Many cookers prefer spares though because the meat on spares is of a more complex pork flavor than babybacks. They're going to be a lot more moist as they have more fat to render. Now maybe you're , “well Cole you just said babybacks were more tender, but spares are more moist? What's that about?” All I can say is cook a rack of each and tell me I'm wrong. You'll know what I'm saying. You're usually going to get a value on spares to, from a price standpoint, compared to babybacks. All things being equal, I'm partial to spares, but there's really not a wrong way to go and a lot of it will be shaped by what people are cooking in the competitions you might be competing in. Just know it and choose well, accordingly.

Chapter 2 – Where Are You From?

What part of the country are you from? That'll dictate what you're likely going to be partial to. And if you're cooking in a competition setting I'm going to tell you to play to whatever is getting a call. It's like a lot of things in life. What we personally like the best isn't necessarily what's going to be the group consensus. I do encourage you to make your own way and cook what you like, but just be conscious of what is winning. A lot of really good and award winning cooks (including myself) cook ribs one way for competitions, and another way for when they're having friends over for a cook-out. It is what it is and I have no problem cooking to what the judge is going to like. There's no problem in doing that and I encourage you to accept it and cook accordingly.

For now though let's cover regional differences and then outline what most people will cook for competition.

Dry Ribs

Dry ribs are ribs that are smoked with a dry rub that is usually paprika based and will be used to pre-marinate the ribs the night before. The ribs may or may not be basted during the cook, with a thin mop sauce. Once pulled they a dry rub is usually reapplied liberally. In Memphis some joints only serve dry ribs. And they are popular in some parts of the city and region for good reason. Dry rub purists will tell their way is best because you get more of the true pork flavor coming through in all it's wonderful and flavorful pork crustiness. They'll say that wet ribs apply too much sauce and just hide behind it instead of just putting the pork flavor front and center. My Texas roots tend to agree with this, but it's all a matter of preference. There is no right answer. Everyone's palette is different.

Wet Ribs

Wet ribs are usually also pre-marinated with a dry rub and put in the refrigerator overnight. Wet ribs will often be smoked and spritzed with apple juice or some other agent during the cook and then foiled with a sweet concoction that usually includes brown sugar, or honey, butter, and other additions. The ribs are generally smoked and then wrapped. When unwrapped and put back on the pit they usually take another hour or so and then in the last few minutes prior to pulling they are mopped with a sauce. This sauce usually will set in the last ten to fifteen minutes. Some cookers do finish their ribs on the grill to caramelize the sugars in the sauce and really get the sweet crustiness they are looking for on the bark.

Competition Trends

Usually, for better or worse and as mentioned prior, sweet with a hint of spice is going to do better than other flavor profiles. That's assuming, of course, that you've stuck the landing on your texture and tenderness and aesthetics. Talking specifically about the flavor profile – sweet and spicy generally is going to do well, or as you'll sometimes hear them referred to as “bone-in candy bars.” I can hear you now though saying, “Cole, I've been doing sweet and spicy and I haven't gotten a call yet this year and I'm getting my butt handed to me.” And I'll say keep working on all your other scoring criteria. Bottom line is that sweet and spicy (even if that doesn't jive with your personal preferences) is typically going to be among the winners in comps. Accept it. I'm here to say let's look at facts and not pretend otherwise. That does actually differ with the local scene, but in most parts of the country and generally for any KCBS or MBN events that holds form.

There is a lot of subjectivity in any cooking competition, but even more so when you're talking about ribs versus say brisket. Brisket is generally considered the hardest of all competition meats

and when someone wins you can usually know that they did separate themselves from the pack, somehow. However, with ribs it's a double edged sword. They are somewhat easier to get a handle within a faster learning curve, but then that's also true for your competition. And you might cook the same ribs in two contests, over two weekends in the same month and get a call in one and not another and I'm here to tell you that I feel your pain. You'll get better and I think with some of the advice that we'll cover later you're going to get better baseline cooks which in turn will give you better week to week, contest to contest results. That said, it's still going to be hard a lot of times. You'll think that you're turning in a sure winner only to get back average or just above average scores. And then other times you'll turn them in feeling like it's a sure winner and boom, you get a call. What we're aiming to do is to look at some of the other intrinsics and see how we can manage those. Like the old saying goes, only worry about what you can control. A lot of cookers get a little cocky and a little comfortable, or passive. We're going to work harder and look at some of the specifics that are often assumed and therefore overlooked, and hopefully come out ahead as a result.

Chapter 3 – The Method; the Madness – And Establishing a Baseline

This leads us into to our next discussion and I hope this is where your competitive juices really get going. The better you get and the more experience you have the higher your highs, and more importantly – the higher your lows. Every cook through is going to face challenges. And let me let you in on a little secret right now. Even the best don't always have a perfect cook. It's the beauty of barbecue really. Even the best have an off day. An off performance. So many variables go into it, and you want to first recognize all those variables and their interrelation and then do your best to attend to them to put that puzzle together and get to the next level.

That said, what I'm going to encourage you to do is set aside a couple of cooks to really focus on the process and less on the routine. Don't run past that one too quickly. We really want to take a moment and get in the right frame of mind and think about this for a minute.

Routine is a state we all occupy a lot of the time that is helpful, and a very necessary part of life. It's auto-pilot; like breathing. Routine cuts our morning getting ready time. Routine ingrains within you the time it takes from the time you get up - to the time you get in the shower - to getting breakfast and out the door. It's in the same neighborhood of detachment in repetitive actions such as walking up the stairs, or driving a car. You don't have to watch and guide your foot on every step up you make, or look down at your feet each time you're locating the brake when slowing down for a light. You don't have to think a lot about it, and you live out the routine.

Routine though gets in the way when you're easily sticking to the same approach because, that's the way I've always done it.

You take a recipe that you see on a morning show and you throw ribs on the best you know how and a little of this and a little of that, and a, hey that's not half bad in how those turned out. And you build on that, or you just cobbled together a this and that approach smoking since you were young. You build on what was already just kind of a thrown together method and when you go to refine it you think back to a couple of months ago to the last time that you threw some ribs on the smoker and you conjure up in your mind what worked well and you do another take on that. And in little incremental steps you get a little better and a little better. You have some successes and some failures, but you get to a point where you decide you want to really get better. So you buy a book like this, or another book looking for that magic bullet to help get you to the next level. And you read up on all the flavor profiles and this goes in the rub or that goes in the finishing sauce and then you go back to your smoker and you give it a shot and maybe they turn out better than your last ribs, and maybe they don't. What I can probably guess and know that I'm right on is that you're not making a vast improvement simply using a new recipe because the focus is still on what's really the routine and not the process of... (wait for it, wait for it) figuring out your pit.

And in this context the key differentiator is that routines are automatic and processes are intentional.

I spent a lot of time in my brisket book really trying to stress the importance of knowing your pit and I'm not changing my tune now. If you read that book already just open up your belt a little more because you're going to get a second helping of why I believe that the process and pit awareness are what matter. Kinda like the whole definition of crazy being that you're gonna do something over and over the same way and expect different results. And changing the recipe is a change in routine, but not the process. We want to make sure and strip the process back down to the studs, and then build it up again making sure we have it just the way we want it and then we're going to get where we want to go, or at the very least re-examine

why exactly we do what we do. And if you don't really have a process, but more of a hodge podge routine bells should be going off – light bulbs coming on. You'll thank me for it later.

So all that said here's what I'm going to strongly advocate you do. We're going to set-up a little troubleshooting matrix of sorts. An easy one. I can imagine you reading this now saying, “Cole I came here to learn how to cook a better rib for this weekend, not take the blue pill and start talking about the matrix and rabbit holes and stuff.” Don't worry. We're getting there. There is a method to the madness and because ribs are a bit less expensive than brisket we can generally afford to experiment a little more. And in intentionally and purposely experimenting and taking great notes we're going to cut through a lot of the meandering ambiguity that you get by just doing a little of this and a little of that and hoping it works out.

So many cookers and amateurs see a technique or recipe that some famous pitmaster used and they go and try to reproduce it only to come up short and then disappointed. Why is that? Because we all want the silver bullet shortcut. The recipe we've been waiting our whole lives for. The one that hands down will put them over the top, never realizing that the separator is in the nitty gritty doggone details. A lot of these really good cookers just look like aw shucks ol' country boys that may be loud or have some swagger, but to a man almost all of them are going to be very self-aware and detail oriented when it comes to BBQ. I'm not the best details guy all the time – my wife will tell you that (and me too a couple of times before you finish reading this, I'm sure), but I am detailed when it comes to BBQ and I make sure to take notes on things most people wouldn't bother to consider important.

Once you realize thought that you really only need to establish your baseline once, for your personal cooker - and how it'll benefit you exponentially it's going to be a relief. When you're cooking better BBQ than all of your buddies and everyone is asking you how you did it you can just kinda grin and say, “Well, I've been known as a guy

who has good luck.” Inside you'll know that you did the legwork to get to the results you were looking for while your friends and competition will continue looking for the equivalent of ten minute abs in rib cooking – well, let me just say you'll always stay a step ahead once you've laid that foundation. We want to relish the experimentation and meet it head on.

Here's what we don't want to do though.

1. Do things the...same old way.

2. Assume anything.

3. Get sloppy

We're going to be a bit meticulous and therefore better than our brethren because we're going to be adaptive. First though, we're going to figure out what your individual pit does well. It's sort of the old thinking of take one step back to take two steps forward.

We're going to follow a process formula. And the outcome is going to be different from cooker to cooker. The result of that is that you, as a grandmaster cooker to be ;), must take ownership of this formula and process and flush the routine. Forget convention and go where the evidence takes you. And routines are often routines because they were easy and you just wandered into them.

What we're establishing here is the baseline process via our handy dandy formula that we're going to build on step by step to make you into a better pitmaster. You need to go into this with the mindset of this being your first cook. Try as best you can to throw out

your biases and anything else that would otherwise influence your looking at this objectively.

Also it's a good recommendation to add a few buddies and wives to this mix. Cook for them and then we're going to have them grade this asking specific questions. It's also going to be recommended that you have them anonymously write down their critiques on paper with the questions you're going to ask them to answer, because people (especially if they're being invited over for a free bbq) will be kinder when telling you face to face, out loud, their critiques with other people standing around even if you ask them to be blunt. There's always that one guy or gal that'll be several cocktails in and will say “Cole, I'll tell yer anything you wanna know pardner” before needing help to sit down. Most folks won't be honest, out of courtesy. You don't want that. If we want play nice, all is happy style feedback that's great, but I'm assuming that we want to get better. To do that we need honest and unfiltered feedback. The more, the better, because it gives us a larger sample size of feedback. I encourage you to tell whomever you're having over to give you the most honest and in some cases damning feedback they can offer. Then put on your big boy pants and take it. Digest it. Learn from it. And improve your process. And to stroke your ego a little bit take consolation because these, by intention, are not going to all turn out the same and hopefully will yield some sort of consensus in the group in blind tasting. So let's get started.

Don't begin the process cooks until you've read the entire book to know what cook method we'll actually use to marinate and foil with and how we'll set our bark. Once you've read through it all though you can circle back around to the baseline cooks.

The Process

We're going to set-up this process going in two different directions. You can come back and try doing it both ways, and more credit to you if you do, but what direction you go will dictate our variations. If after you read through this going man that sounds like a lot of work and for some dadgum weekend ribs just remember you're only doing this twice and it gives you the all important baseline. It matters.

Important Caveats and things to remember about this process formula:

**These processes do differ on pit temp and interval time. Be aware of that and cook these accordingly.**

Also feel free to amend this to your own style or lengths. This is just a useful guide. If you want to finish your ribs on a grill to really set your glaze in the last ten minutes, and you don't want to change that, that's fine. You're thinking and using this to amend it to your own strategy and I commend you for it. If this is the first time you've thought of any of this just stick with ol' Cole all the way through.

And most importantly this is called a baseline process for a reason. The process formula is not a recipe for the best ribs you've ever cooked. It's a framework to establish what your pit does well and at what temperature you're most effective at when combined with the wrap time intervals. That's it. It's the baseline. Once you establish the baseline then you tinker and use your own style on top of the laid foundation.

Babybacks Process

1. We're going to buy up to four racks of ribs (or as many racks as your pit will comfortably hold, but we'll base these examples on a quantity of four). If you can double it to eight though, even better. By doing two racks at each time interval (that we'll cover in a moment) that just gives you a bigger sample size.

2. We're going to cook at 225 degrees. If you cooked off on some other wacky temp – i.e. “Cole I got the best four hundred degree ,two hour ribs you've ever eaten son...” kind thing - throw that out. We're going to cook at the same temp two weekends in a row.

3. You've probably heard of the 3-2-1 method. We're not going to use that here. Sorry. Often times, especially in a competition, you'll get overcooked ribs using the 3-2-1 method in combination with babybacks. They cook faster than spares, and a lot of people have issues right there. (For those not familiar with it the 3-2-1 method is smoking the ribs for three hours unwrapped – then two hours wrapped in foil, and then another hour out unwrapped to set the bark and sauce.) We're cooking all of these ribs for four hours, total. You might push beyond four hours to four hours fifteen minutes, and that's fine depending on where they look like and where they are in the cook process, but what's important is that whatever time you pick they all come off at the same time, both weekends. Be consistent, but use your own discernment. We're troubleshooting, and that that needs consistency. What we are going to do though is try smoking the ribs with wrap time variations. Ribs are not going to take on smoke flavor beyond the second hour. They just aren't, and in most cases you're doing more harm than good going any long distance past two hours unwrapped. If you're cooking four racks of ribs we're going to:

a. smoke one rack for one and a half hours and then wrap

b. smoke one rack for one hour and forty five minutes and then wrap

c. smoke one rack for two hours then wrap

d. smoke one rack for two and a half hours and then wrap

If you're cooking 8 racks double this up for two racks at each time interval.

“Cole, I thought you just got done saying that ribs can't take smoke for more than two hours, uh, what gives?” I know I did. I don't know your pit though, and your specific conditions. And we're working on our process and assuming nothing. For that purpose we're going to smoke these across those specific intervals and keep tabs on which is which for later when we have them tasted by our dinner guests. Take good notes here. I suggest taking pictures as you progress through your cook with your phone, or otherwise. You want to be able to go back and look at pics especially while we're in the process of building out our baseline. Generally when you're cooking there's a lot going on and you miss some of the details, or later your memory gets clouded. There is no overkill during the baseline testing.

Next, we're going to stagger the unwrap time.

a. We're going to unwrap the first rack after 2 hours (so we're up 3.5 hours total cook time so far)

b. We're going to unwrap the second rack after 1 hour 45 minutes (so we're up to 3.5 hours total cook time so far)

c We're going to unwrap the third rack after 1.5 hours (so we're up to 3.5 hours total cook time so far)

d. We're going to unwrap the last rack also after one hour (so we're up to 3.5 hours total cook time)

Lastly, we're going to let the racks re-set their bark and finish out. All four racks will go the last 30 minutes and you're going to glaze in the last 15-20 minutes, as you see fit, but just be consistent on all four when you glaze.

Once they have all reached the four hour mark we're going to check bends and color. It's VERY important to be taking notes here on everything you're measuring. The look. The bend. The bone wiggle. You want that bone wigglin like a kid's tooth. Do any appear overcooked? Do you have rib bones on the bottom side that are poking through? Assess, assess, assess. And if something is badly overcooked or undercooked – that's great! Because we're going to throw that time interval out because you know your cooker, under these conditions peforms ='ing xyz.

Some people don't feel the need to rest ribs because they are thin, but we are going to rest it for about twenty to thirty minutes. Then dig in and feed your people.

I know this sounds like a Pepsi challenge taste test, but this part is where you get your feedback and see if your gut reaction is the same as your crowds. Don't be quick to throw them out if they don't align with your own. Remember that you're the same You that would award yourself first place at every contest and unless that's the case you have room to accept feedback and get better.

I want you two write out these questions to ask your audience and they are phrased a certain way to get at the heart of this. We don't want to ask them: “Did you like this?” Again you want everyone to write their answers down and not just answer back in a group setting. If you have people responding out loud you get a lot of group think if

one person says one thing and another immediately chimes in agreeing - chances are the rest will too.

There are A LOT of studies on group think and you may think this is cheesy, but your feedback will be a lot more useful if you have them write it down. And you don't want their names on what they fill out because you don't want your own bias of the responder to discount their feedback. Keep this objective.

They are first ranking each rib, from each time interval best to worst, and making as many notes on each question as they care to.

1. Which rack was your favorite (subjectively)?

2. Why was it your favorite?

3. Was there enough smoke in your rib? Too much? Just right?

4. What did you flat out not like? (ie grittiness, too tough, too soft, too much caked rub, too much pepper, etc?)

5. Did the ribs overall have a nice flavor balance? If something was “off” can you articulate what you feel like was missing?

These two don't need rib rank – just feedback:

6. Was there too much of anything else for your taste? Too sweet? Too much paprika? Too much glaze? Etc.

7. Was it too salty, not salty enough, or just right?

And lastly, this does not need a rank count, but just gives you insight into their background.

8. Do you personally like wet ribs or dry ribs when you eat out at a restaurant? Do you use sauce?

Alright ladies and gents, that concludes the babybacks process. If you're able to do this over two weeks, or heck two consecutive days if you wanted to, it's really advocated. Your weather might not be

exactly the same, but hopefully it'll be similar and will bear out similar cooks. And once you're done you're going to have a trove of information that isn't just a best guess. Isn't just a hunch. It's results oriented cooking and gives you proof of concept of what works best for your pit, it's going to make you a better pitmaster. We don't care what all the other pits on your block do. We only want to know how your smoker cooks.

Spare Ribs Process

1. We're going to buy up to four racks of ribs (or as many racks as your pit will comfortably hold, but we'll base these examples on a quantity of four).

2.We're going to cook at 275 degrees. If you cooked off on some other wacky temp – i.e. “Cole I got the best four hundred degree, two hour ribs you've ever eaten son...” kind thing - throw that out. We're going to cook at the same temp two weekends in a row.

3.You've probably heard of the 3-2-1 method. We're going to use a tweak of that here. 6 hours gives you overcooked ribs at 275,usually. (For those not familiar with it the 3-2-1 method is smoking the ribs for three hours unwrapped – then two hours wrapped in foil, and then another out unwrapped to set the bark and sauce.) We're cooking all of these ribs for five hours, total. What we are going to do though is try smoking the ribs with wrap time variations. Ribs are not going to take on smoke flavor beyond the second hour. They just aren't, and in most cases you're doing more harm than good going any long distance past two hours unwrapped. If you're cooking four racks of ribs we're going to:

a. smoke one rack for two hours and then wrap

b. smoke one rack for two and a half hours and then wrap

c. smoke one rack for three hours and then wrap

d. smoke one rack for three and a half hours and then wrap

“Cole, I thought you just got done saying that ribs can't take smoke for more than two hours, uh, what gives?” I know I did. I don't know your pit though, and your specific conditions. And we're working on our process and assuming nothing. For that purpose we're going to smoke these across those specific intervals and keep tabs on which is which for later when we have them tasted by our dinner guests. Take good notes here. I suggest taking pictures as you progress through your cook with your phone, or otherwise. You want to be able to go back and look at pics especially while we're in the process of building out our baseline. Generally when you're cooking there's a lot going on and you miss some of the details, or later your memory gets clouded. There is no overkill during the baseline testing.

Next, we're going to stagger the unwrap time.

a. we're going to unwrap the first rack after two and a half hours

b. we're going to unwrap the second rack after two hours.

c we're going to unwrap the third rack after one and half hours

d. we're going to unwrap the last rack also after one hour

Lastly, we're going to let the racks re-set their bark and finish out. We're let them all get 30 mins to firm back up a bit and then glaze them in the last 15-20 mins. Glaze them all at the same time, regardless of what time you pick.

Once they have all reached the four hour mark we're going to check bends and color. It's VERY important to be taking notes here on everything you're measuring. The look. The bend. The bone wiggle. You want that bone wigglin like a kid's tooth. Do any appear overcooked? Do you have rib bones on the bottom side that are poking through? Assess, assess, assess. And if something is badly overcooked or undercooked – that's great! Because we're going to throw that time interval out because you know your cooker, under these conditions peforms ='ing xyz.

Some people don't feel the need to rest ribs because they are thin, but we are going to rest it for about twenty to thirty minutes. Then dig in and feed your people.

I know this sounds like a Pepsi Challenge taste test, but this part is where you get your feedback and see if your gut reaction is the same as your crowds. Don't be quick to throw them out if they don't align with your own. Remember that you're the same You that would award yourself first place at every contest and unless that's the case you have room to accept feedback and get better.

I want you two write out these questions to ask your audience and they are phrased a certain way to get at the heart of this. We don't want to ask them: “Did you like this?” Everyone will just say they did. Again you want everyone to write their answers down and not just answer back in a group setting. If you have people responding out loud you get a lot of group think if one person says one thing and another immediately chimes in agreeing - chances are the rest will too.

There are A LOT of studies on group think and you may think this is cheesy, but your feedback will be a lot more useful if you have them write it down. And you don't want their names on what they fill out because you don't want your own bias of the responder to discount their feedback. Keep this objective.

They are first ranking each rib, from each time interval best to worst, and making as many notes on each question as they care to.

1. Which rack was your favorite (subjectively)?

2. Why was it your favorite?

3. Was there enough smoke in your rib? Too much? Just right?

4. What did you flat out not like? (ie grittiness, too tough, too soft, too much caked rub, too much pepper, etc?)

5. Did the ribs overall have a nice flavor balance? If something was “off” can you articulate what you feel like was missing?

These two don't need rib rank – just feedback:

6. Was there too much of anything else for your taste? Too sweet? Too much paprika? Too much glaze? Etc.

7. Was it too salty, not salty enough, or just right?

And lastly, this does not need a rank count, but just gives you insight into their background.

8. Do you personally like wet ribs or dry ribs when you eat out at a restaurant? Do you use sauce?

Alright ladies and gents, that concludes the babybacks process. If you're able to do this over two weeks, or heck two consecutive days if you wanted to, it's really advocated. Your weather might not be exactly the same, but hopefully it'll be similar and will bear out similar cooks. And once you're done you're going to have a trove of information that isn't just a best guess. Isn't just a hunch. It's results oriented cooking and gives you proof of concept of what works best for your pit, it's going to make you a better pitmaster. We don't care what all the other pits on your block do. We only want to know how your smoker cooks.

Chapter 4 – Wood Types and Uses

This will be the shortest chapter but wood does deserve its own chapter. A lot of times wood availability and popularity is going to be specific to what you have in your region of the country. Here in central Texas oak and pecan are the most popular. In the southeast peach is a popular pork wood. In a lot of the south people swear by Hickory. It's all about where you are. There's no right or wrong answer on what to use, but there are certain woods like pine that should never be used because of the oils within them that would be harmful to your meat. Other woods like citrus woods should also never be used.

For ribs it's almost always advisable to add a bit of apple of cherry to your wood mix, in combination with your richer hickory, pecan, or oak flavoring. Your apple and cherry give a nice smoke kiss that makes them sweeter and is a nice balance in a well done rib.

Rib cooking secret

A lot of cookers will only use sweet wood like apple or cherry and use A LOT LESS of it than they would on bigger pieces of meat like brisket. You're trying to set a color, but not be overpowered by smokiness. A gentle sweet wood, and less of it is recommendable.

Wood flavor profiles

Apple – mild and sweet – often used with pork and poultry.

Cherry – sweet and fruity and milder then apple – often used with pork and poultry and beef.

Hickory – robust and distinctively smoky though it can be a little strong– the most popular wood used in BBQ and is good with all meats.

Mesquite – very strong and earthy – it can also be sooty – typically reserved for beef.

Oak – a nicely neutral wood that imparts a distinct flavor without being harsh – good for use with all meats.

Peach – light and fruity and a bit earthy – it offers a nice balance when used with other harsher woods.

Pecan – pecan is actually part of the hickory species, but is milder while still providing a rich flavor - this is my personal favorite – good with all meats.

Chapter 5 – The Checklist and the Prep

If you're cooking for a competition you're likely going to want to smoke several racks of ribs to give yourself several options and choices for your best bones to go in your turn-in box. If your pit will fit it, it's recommended to probably cook five or more racks. You always want your turn-in box in mind and the more uniform and similar looking your ribs the better your chances of having a better number of ribs to choose from, for turn-ins.

1. We're going to cut open the cryovac wrapping and wash off your racks and pat dry.

2. To ensure as uniform of a rack as possible it's recommended in a comp setting to cut off the one or two ribs on both ends (but for a home cook not a big deal to do this). We want our racks squared up and in as perfect of a trimmed rectangle as the bone structure will allow. Remove the breast bone and skirt too if they came with your spares racks.

3. We're going to remove the membrane on the back of the rib rack. You're going to see a very then film membrane that runs along most of the back. You're going to take a butter knife and slide it under the film of that membrane and gently pry it up. Once you've freed enough of an end to tug you're going to take a paper towel to grip that slippery end and then pull it off. With any luck it'll come off in one clean piece. This is a very important step. If you don't remove the membrane the smoke can't penetrate the bottom side of the rack the whole time you're cooking and you don't want that. Always remove it.

4. Again, we're going to trim off any silver skin or excess fat. This is a much simpler trim than on say brisket, but nonetheless you do need to trim silver skin as needed and any other excessive fat.

5. Once the ribs are trimmed we're ready to start mustarding. You can really choose any binder, but I'm fond of good inexpensive French's yellow mustard. You just want something that's going to help your rub hold firmly into place when you apply it. A lot of people use something like olive oil, and that's fine too. I like mustard. You will not taste the mustard at all in your finished product. Mustard will also act as a mild tenderizer.

6. After you have finished applying your mustard you can start to apply your rub. And here's where I'm going to offer the least instruction. In my mind anything you'd like to use is fine. It's up to you. In Texas we generally don't apply a lot more than salt and pepper, but in most parts of the country it's very popular to use paprika based rubs that also have a sugar element to them. There are plenty of good commercial rubs and try whatever you like. A lot differs here too on how much folks will apply.

Some people will also heavily coat their ribs with rub right at the outset. And several guys and teams have a lot of success doing that. If you read my brisket book you know how I feel about that. I like to build bark in layers and I feel like less is more at the beginning and you can always add more later. You can't unsalt soup and you can't undo too much outset rub. I prefer a dusting and then throw them in the fridge (or cooler if you're competing in a comp) overnight and pop yourself open a well deserved beer (if anyone cares I'm an IPA man myself. Bring on the hops, but that's another discussion altogether.)

Chapter 6 – Your Pit and Fire Management

Note: If you've already read my brisket book then you're already familiar with this chapter and can just skip to chapter seven.

Right here is where things start to differentiate real cookers from the hobbyists.

Rib cooking secret # 2 – Don't let anyone fool you or tell you otherwise - knowing your pit and your fire is what will make you or break you. Your ability to maintain a consistent temperature through-out the entire cook is the single most important thing that will set you apart from your buddies and their ribs. The smoke and mirrors and misdirection are in the rubs – the foil – everything that isn't the temperature. People will get all excited about the secret rubs and glazes and all of that. You'll see pitmasters on TV talk about a lot of things and they give great tips, but the secret of great ribs and really any meat is in the fire and by way of fire – the smoke. Don't get me wrong – all of those other things are important, but my hope is that your one big takeaway appreciation from this book (along with the process) is the light bulb moment of pit appreciation and knowing how it cooks and if you say, “Cole I've been cookin' on this thing for years and I know it inside and out, but my ribs are good, but not winnin' nuthin” then I'll say a couple of things:

1. Start taking notes. Real notes. We touched on it earlier, but it's a must. I keep a log, in a spiral notebook, on every cook because I want to get better. I want to know what time I put on the ribs - when I vented down after the fire got going – what the weather was like – etc. Then you look for patterns. You and I both know that we'll be having a few beers during the process and beers cloud the memory. If I just write it all down though as I go, it's invaluable to improving my performance, over time. I really can't stress it enough.

I would say 99.9% of consistent high level cookers and teams take notes. You just have to. It gives you an easy way to know what to pack when time to head to comps and gives you trends and weather notes. Just anything and everything. I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday and without notes a lot would just be lost to the fog of memory. It's a separator between backyard hobbyists and competition cookers.

2. Temperature is what really matters, and more specifically a consistent temperature. To prove that point – why can you set your oven and trust that your dinner will be ready at a certain time? Because your temperature is consistent, right? You probably never even thought about it, but really why would you? Why is each cook different? There are a few reasons, but mainly because you will be battling the fire for temperature consistency. If you changed the temperature on your oven every twenty minutes and randomly went up fifty degrees, and then down twenty five degrees twenty minutes later, and then up to four hundred degrees an hour later (you get the idea) – you'd have no expectations of knowing when your dinner would be done, and no guarantee that whatever you're cooking would be any good. And if someone looked at you and brushed it off saying, “don't worry; it'll be fine” you'd look at them like they're crazy. It's the same thing here. It's so obvious, but it is so often overlooked.

We're not bakers through. We're wood smoke loving pitmasters. And when someone calls you a good pitmaster it's more accurate than you realize – the expression is not talking about the meat you're cooking as much as it's saying you've mastered your pit.

Know thy cooker. Know it. Are you using a bullet smoker like a Weber smoky mountain? Are you using an offset cooker? Are you using a big green egg, or similar ceramic cooker? Are you using a

barrel cooker? Every cooker is a little different and realizing and appreciating those differences is part of the beauty of BBQ. Heat rises. Every stop, drop, and roll exercise from elementary school taught us that. Heat will take the path of least resistance in the direction of your smoke stack or exit vent. Using this knowledge to your advantage is important. If you're cooking on an offset smoker you always want to face the point towards the firebox. The point contains more fat. That fat will render during the cook and it's important to give your meat every advantage during the cook to maintain moisture. If you're using a Weber or Big Green Egg (BGE) it's less important, because your meat is going to sit on top of the heat source shielded by a water pan, or other heat shield.

There is art in something as humble as BBQ. Knowing your pit and how it draws, is art. Knowing your pit and it's hotspots - it's heat leaks - and it's quirks, is important and it requires time investment. You have to cook on your pit and have successes and failures. It's all part of the process and has to be expected. There is time equity involved in making really good BBQ. Really good cookers hold onto their pits like a family heirloom.

A cooker has two fuels:

1. wood/charcoal

2. oxygen

Your control of that oxygen flow, via the vents, is how you control the temperature. An intake vent (whether at the base of the firbox, or on the underside of a big green egg or Weber smoky mountain) is the entry point for air/oxygen. The oxygen is drawn through the pit, over the coals/fire, across the meat and then out the exhaust vent. Your closing off of either vent will regulate oxygen flow accordingly and thus the temperature. The exhaust vent must remain

open, at least partially, or the fire will be smothered and choked out. This process is shorthanded as venting. Your ability to vent and control the fire temperature is critical to your long term success.

To ensure temperature control some competition cookers will employ computer aided equipment. Two of the most popular are the BBQ Guru DigiQ DX2and The Stoker. Both work with fans that are mounted to one or more of the intake vents and are electronically monitored to regulate airflow and thus temperature. If you have a head for engineering or similar this can be right up your alley and is frequently used for competition cooking. Purists balk at their use, but their worth and following is undeniable.

Rib secret # 4 – Let your fire get all the way to temperature and beyond before you vent your pit to level the temperature to cruising altitude. If you start venting too early you risk choking your fire out too much and then you're fighting to get and stay at temp, all day. If you're going to cook at 235 degrees, instead let the temp cross over 250 or so and then vent down. You're looking for heat consistency and this is the first step in trying to ensure that.

Phase 2 – Smoke baby, smoke.

This is where smoke comes into play in your cook. And it's also where a lot of people get it wrong. Your fire, depending on your cooker, is going to be a mix of charcoal and wood. Most people imagine an all wood pit and in some cases that's true, but that's on very large pits most often. There are “stick burners” and the like, but for most pits - even commercial ones, your charcoal is your heat source and your wood is an ingredient. Just like your rub is an ingredient, think of your wood as an ingredient as well. Wood is not there for its heat; it's there to add flavor. And that's never more true than with ribs. If you add too much – well everyone has been to someone's BBQ where the meat was black and tasted bitter and/or acidic. Ribs are thinner and are easy to over smoke, or overcook. Less

is more with wood. Wood is an accent and should NOT be overused. You'll be surprised how much smoky flavor you get from less wood than you thought it would take. Your wood is likely going to billow white smoke early on, in the first hour or so after lighting your pit, and that's to be expected. However that should dissipate after the first hour or so and you cross over your desired cook temp and vent down. You do not want to cook with prolonged white, billowy, dirty smoke coming out of the exhaust. That's the hallmark of an amateur cooker saying, “look at all that smoke and the flavor it must be adding.” Wrong. You ideally want blue smoke. What's blue smoke? Blue smoke is a very thin, non-white smoke, that will come with practice and will be noticeable but not billowy. When it's right it'll exit the exhaust in a steady and controlled fashion, and not looking like smoke pouring out of the roof of a three alarm fire. Less is more. Blue smoke is good, and it is thin. After the first couple of hours your ribs cannot take on more smoke.

Phase 3 – Cruising altitude and maintenance.

After about the second hour mark (the first hour is getting the fire to temperature without the meat being on, and the second hour is the first initial hour with the meat on) there is typically a noticeable temperature spike and it'll be part of earning your smoke merit badge. Your white, billowy smoke should dissipate rapidly during the first hour that the ribs are on. The meat will be absorbing all the heat and smoke that can be thrown at it. Your temperature will likely give you a false sense of security because it will often pin easily in that first hour and stay pinned without a lot of effort and give you a feeling of “what's the big deal? This is easy.” Then around the second hour mark it will almost be like clockwork and you'll see a surge in temperature – sometimes thirty or plus degrees, rapidly. And what's happening is that the ribs have taken in all they can, and can't absorb anymore in this initial phase. You need to know it's coming and then be venting accordingly. After you get that vent leveled out you're really entering the third and longest phase. With luck and experience you'll be able to pin your temperature during this phase up until the time that you go

to wrap your ribs. Everything up until the wrap I generally consider the front nine, as it were. Very often though (and it's cooker specific) you will often see your wildest temperature fluctuations during this front half phase. There can be a lot of different reasons that contribute to that, but will typically level out during the second half of your cook.

While I feel this is informative I'm tightening up what is covered here and may leave it for a follow-up download that focuses solely on fire management. I do feel confident enough though that we've covered enough to make you aware of things to expect and then through experience you will really be able to hone your process.

Chapter 7 - The Cook

This is where we're going to have the prior chapters intersect and come together. It all led to this. We're going to cover two different approaches to the cook process. Both work well and it's really about personal preference. First, of course, is choosing if you're going to cook spares, or if you're going to cook babybacks. And now is the first time we'll really start talking about recipe.

Now that we've gone through the process and you know what temp you're aiming to cook at fire up your chimney and get your coals started and then get them added to your firebox to get up to temp. Remember to cruise past your intended cooking temperature before venting down.

You're going to add your racks to the pit after your burning nice and hot and once your dirty white smoke has started to thin out. Since ribs don't take as long to cook you can afford to wait till your fussy pit burns through some of that initial white smoke. We want blue smoke and we'll wait for it, or at least we'll give it time to get pretty close and then we'll add our racks.

Let the racks sit undisturbed for at least forty five minutes to start. Then baste or spritz. I generally use a mixture of 1 part water + 1 part apple cider vinegar + 2 parts apple juice and am a spritzer versus a mop baster, typically.

You're looking for a nice mahogany color progression. Just keep basting or spritzing every thirty minutes until you reach whatever prescribed wrap time you've worked to establish you're shooting for. And remember that can change from cook to cook, but the baseline helped you know when you should expect to be seeing the right things and knowing it's time to wrap. After you spritz add a nice even coat of rub and build that bark, baby. Layer by layer.

Here's where the recipes begin to differ. Are you cooking for MBN vs KCBS vs Texas vs backyard guys pride cook off? Know your audience and cook accordingly.

In the wrap your big time cookers are usually using some variation of this same core list and this is how you play ball and make the bone in candy bar:

1. Place the ribs meat side up on the foil and layer it with your rub and then on top of that take out your magic blue bottle of Parkay margarine. I can hear you know, but yes – not butter, Parkay blue bottle margarine. Walk around Memphis in May and see it on every teams table of supplies. It's standard. Give the rack a thick wavy line down from one end to the other and then circle back with a line coming back.

2. On top of that pack on a healthy amount of brown sugar. It needs to cake. A lot.

3. On top of that you're going to add a thick wavy line of honey and circle back just like you did on the margarine.

4. Then we're going to flip the rack over and repeat the whole process. We're going to put these back on the cooker meat side down we're done. That's very important.

5. Wrap in one sheet of heavy duty foil large enough to fold over on itself and crease and then roll it over and then wrap up the tight ends making it tight.

Once you're done you're going to put these back on the cooker. Don't count the rib wrap time in your total cook time. And that may

sound super handy handed towards sweet and I might not disagree with you. Remember me saying a lot of cooks will cook different for a home cook versus when they are cooking in comps. It just is what it is.

If you'd like to go a milder route you can:

1. Again start with the bone side up and apply your rub coat.

2. Add a thick wavy line of Parkay.

3. Add a touch of apple juice to the foil underneath and then flip and repeat.

4. Finish wrapping and then add back to the smoker, meat down.

Maintain your temperature without peeking under the hood (they're wrapped anyway) until it's time to unwrap. When you go to unwrap you want to be checking bend and looseness of those rib bones. Are they starting to wiggle and telling you they're in the right place? Remember you want to see them wiggling like a kids tooth. If anything is close to falling off the bone you've wayyy overcooked the rack unfortunately. That's just an old expression that stuck and a lot of people think that's what you're looking for, and maybe you want that at home, but not in competition.

In competition the judge wants to be able to take one clean bite of tender meat and see his bite mark. The meat needs to hold in place, but be as tender as possible at the same time and still hold.

You can keep them on the cooker if they need more time, but when they are ready to pull you're going to take them out and remove them from your foil and put them back on the pit bone down.

At this point in the process you should only be about thirty minutes out from being done and all you're trying to accomplish in this last part is to firm the ribs back up and get the bark looking pretty. You can add more light rub to try and set the appearance and let them go for another fifteen minutes or so.

When we're about 15 to 20 minutes out you're going to apply your glaze. Glaze is often just your favorite BBQ sauce, but can be whatever you want, but this will add a nice sheen and finish to your ribs. You want to keep an eye on this at the end because the high sugar content in the sauce can burn if you're not careful. As long as you're mindful though and watching you'll know when it sets. Look for that nice even coat sheen with your glaze. Like a glassy pond. Just a nice even coat.

You want a nice aesthetic. You want that judge sold when he pops open that box. This all makes sense, and some people might say that you overdo it. You want the truth to be in the bite not how it looks. This is simple marketing though. When you are checking out in the grocery store and you impulse buy that magazine – you're making an impulse decision based on the look of that magazine. You'll do impulsive decisions based on appearance one hundred times a day. What would make this any different? When it looks good you expect it to taste good. You want that judge in your corner the minute they open that box, going wow, look there at that pretty rib.

There are different schools on resting ribs. That's up to you though because it can affect your aesthetic look if you go to foil and rest them. See what works best for you. You'll know what you're going to do though by way of your home practicing.

Now you're all ready to just cut them up and prepare for boxing. Regions and rules will dictate your box composition, but this covers the actual cook which you've now completed. Congratulations my friend and best of luck to you! Run that box up there while she's hot and hope you get a call!

Chapter 8 - Recipes and Resources

I'm pretty particular on the kinds of ribs and fixin's that I like at

a barbecue. I am a bit of a self-admitted, fussy purist. The term purist though has a bit of relativism to it, since you're likely partial to the way it is done, where you come from. So with that being said I want to provide you with a number of different recipes and several different ways to enjoy ribs and the good eatin' they provide. Just like a lot of things – once you have the fundamentals down you can really tweak it any way you want it and really turn out some great ribs.

Go Big or Go Home Bacon Brown Sugar Ribs

Ingredients for Rub

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp kosher salt

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

½ cup dark brown sugar

Spicy Bacon Brown Sugar Glaze

10 slices of bacon, diced

1/4th small onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp bourbon

½ cup molasses

1 tbsp chipotle adobo chili sauce (or more to spice preference)

2 cups ketchup

1 tbsp tomato paste

Preparation

Mix the rub ingredients together and then you then want to lay out on a large cookie sheet. Remove the membrane and apply rub mix to the front and back of the ribs and then put away in the fridge to marinate overnight.

In a medium saucepan cook the bacon until it begins to sweat nicely, but still has a way to go, to be fully cooked. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender. Add the bourbon and vinegar and stir. Let this mixture simmer for only a minute or so and the add the other ingredients. Heat to boil and then reduce heat to low simmer. Season with salt and then set aside to store overnight.

Salt to taste

Big Hawaiian Sweet Ribs

Ingredients

1 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1 can of crushed pineapple

2 tsp sesame oil (optional and can be substituted for any desired oil)

3 cloves of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger

1 tsp rice vinegar

2 chopped green onions

1 tsp kosher salt

Preparation

Place your ribs in a ziplock bag and let them hang out while we combine the rest of our marinade components. Combine pineapple juice, brown sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, salt, and green onions in a bowl and whisk until nicely smooth. Pour mixture over the bagged ribs and marinate overnight.

Save the marinade for mopping use. You're going to smoke the ribs according to prescribed method we used in the prior sections. Mop the ribs with your marinade when you would normally have spritzed before. Add the remaining marinade to your foil wrap, when the time comes and enjoy.

Asian Sweet and Sour Ribs

Ingredients

3/4 cup honey (oh yes, we are going sweet here)

½ cup low sodium soy sauce

1 tbsp molasses

2 tsp rice vinegar

2 tsp sesame oil

½ tsp crushed red pepper

½ tsp salt

Preparation

Place your ribs in a ziplock bag and let them hang out while we combine the rest of our marinade components. Combine your ingredients and pour mixture over the bagged ribs and marinate overnight.

Save the marinade for mopping use. You're going to smoke the ribs according to prescribed method we used in the prior sections. Mop the ribs with your marinade when you would normally have spritzed before. Be mindful of all of the honey we have in this recipe and adjust accordingly. The honey can caramelize and char easily so keep

and eye on it. Add the remaining marinade to your foil wrap, when the time comes. Once you're done, garnish with sesame seeds and green onion and enjoy.

Oh So Good Dr Pepper Ribs

Ingredients

1 x 2 liter bottle of Dr Pepper (Dublin Dr. Pepper, if available)

1 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp chili powder

½ tbsp paprika

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

½ cup ketchup

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preparation

Reserve 12 oz of the 2 liter for use in the wrap sauce.

Take 2 racks of pork ribs and put them in a shallow dish and then pour in the Dr Pepper, covering the ribs. Put them in the fridge overnight. Take 12 oz's of the remaining Dr Pepper and combine all other ingredients with a whisk. Gently simmer the sauce, until it reduces slightly. It will not thicken too much. Set aside in a tupperware dish and refrigerate overnight.

Save the marinade for mopping use. You're going to smoke the ribs according to prescribed method we used in the prior sections. Mop the ribs with your marinade when you would normally have spritzed before. You want to create layers of flavor complexity as you mop it

on, prior to wrapping. When you wrap the ribs add the remaining marinade to the foil wrap. Enjoy once finished.

All Beer All The Time Braised Ribs

Ingredients

2 racks of ribs

1 bottle of trappist Belgian beer

¼ cup apple cider vinegar.

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coarse pepper

½ cup honey

Preparation

Mix the rub ingredients together and coat the ribs which you want to lay out on a large cookie sheet. Remove the membrane and apply rub mix to the front and back of the ribs and then put away in the fridge to marinate overnight.

Combine all ingredients together in a pot and simmer to boil and then reduce heat. Let the marinade reduce a bit and then slather on the ribs, both front and back, to marinate. Put in the fridge overnight. The next day begin smoking and spritz with apple juice mixture. Foil the ribs with the remainder of the marinade and let braise in the foil. When done, remove and enjoy.

Spicy & Sticky Chipotle Ribs

Ingredients for Rub

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp turbinado sugar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp pepper

1 tsp celery salt

Ingredients for Glaze

1 can of chipotles including adobo sauce

1 cup of maple sryup

1 tbsp ketchup

½ stick of butter

2 cloves of minced garlic

Preparation

Mix the rub ingredients together and coat the ribs which you want to lay out on a large cookie sheet. Remove the membrane and apply rub mix to the front and back of the ribs and then put away in the fridge to marinate overnight.

The glaze will actually be better if made the night before as well. Saute the minced garlic in the butter. While that is going chop up two chipotle peppers. We are going to add this to pan along with the garlic and the rest of the ingredients. Simmer and then add additional adobo sauce to desired heat level. Once complete put it into a container and pop it in the fridge overnight.

Smoke the ribs according to our prescribed method. Do not apply glaze until you foil. You can also add a little apple juice, for sweetness. Glaze again around ten minutes prior to pulling.

Simply Sweet Georgia Peach Ribs

Ingredients for Rub

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp kosher salt

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

Ingredients for glaze

2 cups of peach preserves

1 cups of peach nectar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preparation

Here the goal is sweet on top of sweet. Mix the rub ingredients and coat the ribs evenly. Put in the fridge overnight to marinate.

You can make the glaze the night before as well. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot. Heat to boil and then lower to simmer and then set aside overnight.

Smoke the ribs according to our prescribed method. Do not apply glaze until you foil. Glaze again around ten minutes prior to pulling.

Feelin' Good Bourbon Ribs

Rub Ingredients

3 tbsp salt

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp pepper

2 tsp garlic powder

½ cup dark brown sugar

Bourbon Rib Glaze Ingredients

½ cup molasses

½ cup maple syrup

1 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp bourbon

3 tbsp apple juice

¼ cup ketchup

2 tbsp white vinegar

Preparation

Here the goal is sweet and sticky. Mix the rub ingredients and coat the ribs evenly. Put in the fridge overnight to marinate.

You can make the glaze the night before as well. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot. Heat to boil and then lower to simmer and then set aside overnight.

Smoke the ribs according to our prescribed method. Do not apply glaze until you foil. Glaze again around ten minutes prior to pulling.

Carolina Tangy Golden Ribs

Rub Ingredients

3 tbsp salt

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp pepper

2 tsp garlic powder

Mustard Rib Glaze

2 cups yellow mustard (not dijon, or whole grain)

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup brown sugar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp coarse black pepper

1 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Preparation

Here the goal is tanginess. Mix the rub ingredients and coat the ribs evenly. Put in the fridge overnight to marinate.

You can make the glaze the night before as well. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot. Heat to boil and then lower to simmer and then set aside overnight.

Smoke the ribs according to our prescribed method. Do not apply glaze until you foil. Glaze again around ten minutes prior to pulling.

Fancy Pants Red Wine Ribs

Rub Ingredients

3 tbsp salt

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp pepper

2 tsp garlic powder

Red Wine Glaze Sauce Ingredients

¼ cup honey

1 cup ketchup

1 cup red wine

1/4 apple cider vinegar

½ cup molasses

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp paprika

½ tsp chili powder

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Preparation

Here the goal is complex and savory. Mix the rub ingredients and coat the ribs evenly. Put in the fridge overnight to marinate.

You can make the glaze the night before as well. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot. Heat to boil and then lower to simmer and then set aside overnight.

Smoke the ribs according to our prescribed method. Do not apply glaze until you foil. Glaze again around ten minutes prior to pulling.

Trade Winds Citrus Ribs

Rub Ingredients

1 tbsp allspice

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp salt

2 tsp coarse pepper

1 cup orange juice

3 limes juiced and zested

¼ cup orange marmalade

2 tbsp rum

Mix the lime juice and orange juice and rum together and set aside.

Lay the ribs out in a large Pyrex dish. Remove the rib membrane. Combine the other remaining ingredients and coat the ribs evenly. Lacquer on the juice and rub mixture with a sauce mop.

Once completed put the ribs in the fridge to marinate overnight.

Add a bit of salt and pepper and the orange marmalade to the remaining juice and then heat on the stove to boil and then reduce heat to low simmer. Allow the sauce glaze to thicken. Let cool and then container it and put it in the fridge overnight.

Smoke the ribs according to our prescribed method. Do not apply juice glaze until you foil. Glaze again heavily around ten minutes prior to pulling.

Check Out My Other Books

It's my hope that you enjoyed this book and find it useful. I'd like to invite you to check out my other book:

Beyond Brisket Basics: http://amzn.to/1ruoUnW

In Beyond Brisket Basics we go step-by-step on selecting meat, trimming, fire management and tips from years of experience cooking brisket. It's been very popular thus far, and if you enjoyed this book I think you will enjoy this too.

Finally, if you enjoyed Real Deal Pork Ribs, then I’d like to ask you for a favor. Would you be kind enough to leave a review for this book on Amazon? It’d be greatly appreciated!

Thank you, and happy trails!