After the ribs had been smoking for a couple hours, I started spraying them about every ten minutes or so with a 50/50 mix of water and lemon juice to keep them moist. It took about three hours of smoking with temperatures ranging from 225 to 300 (when the fire got away from me while I was occupied making the potato salad). At the end of that time, I deemed them ready and pulled them off.
Joined by the chilled potato salad and a cold Blue Moon, these ribs made for a real nice looking (and tasting) place setting.
I was pretty pleased with my first rib-smoking event, but there are a couple changes for next time. First, I’ll cut back on the kosher salt. I’m a bona fide saltaholic and thought these were a bit salty. Second, I’ll skip the Chachere’s (or cut it way back) because it made the ribs spicier than my kids liked. In fact, my daughter gave up about half way through hers and called on an old standby for her meal.
Overall, this was a fun experience that I can’t wait to repeat with the lessons learned.
