Smoked Spare Ribs

My mother is a Texas bred woman and is also one of the most selfless human beings on the planet. Everyone that I’ve ever introduced to her has always pointed out that she is the sweetest lady that they have ever met, which I completely agree. The only thing that I’d note is despite her daintiness that some people don’t notice at first is that she is still emblazoned with that burning essence of pure fire breathing southern kick. A sort of hidden tremendous level of strength mentally and physically, and a serious love for barbecue all over her face. I feel that her Texan blood transferred a little in to me so I have a special place in my heart for all things Texas Barbecue. Many a time I kid myself with always concocting the most  elegant dishes I can with atypical ingredients but I simply just can’t lie to myself anymore about still loving good old Texas barbecue.

Of course I’m referring to the wondrous world of smoked meats. Collosal towering slabs of fatty brisket layered on top of each other pooling it’s smokey juices onto a weathered cutting board, thick layers of umami concentrated “bark” surrounding the smoke ring branded meat as the aroma of sweet fresh burning wood fill your nose. You know what I’m talking about. I’m not sure there are many people who don’t have a special place in their heart for smoked meats, I have yet to run into such a misery in a person. And I definitely know that pretty much the entire Paleo community has a special place in their hearts for it. Heck they even have huge competitions for it, I say it’s an art that takes true mastery and patience to be good at.

The artistry of meat smoking is something that I’m quite new to and quite frankly I’m not that great at it yet, and I wanted to break in my new smoker. While I’m not the best at smoking just yet, my uncle Larry and my local farmer Jason are incredibly well versed in the craft. Luckily I had their assistance in my first “real” smoking endeavor that required real time and diligence that wasn’t bacon. Through their teachings I learned a few things about smoking that I applied to this endeavor such as my wood choice, timing, ventilation, temperature.

To be honest I’m quite glad I got their opinions and assistance before I attempted it because I never realized how many elements could be thrown into one cooking method. It’s a daunting thing to go into and I was hesitant but now that I’ve done it I feel a lot more comfortable doing it and realize how simple it is once you just try it, and you should too if you want to smoke something but still haven’t. Plus since my cookbook is printing that’s all the more reason to smoke some ribs in anticipation.

Once I had my method planned and I was confident with my wood choice I ultimately decided to smoke my local farm Yonder Way Farm’s cut of spare ribs called “meaty spare ribs”. These aren’t you’re average rack of spare ribs. On these ribs my farmer leaves a small layer of pork belly attached to them in addition to the ribs. If that isn’t a kiss on the cheek for supporting a local farmer then I don’t know what is. So in terms of layering from bottom to top it starts with meat surrounded bone, another layer of the spare rib meat and then a small strip of pork belly; which the pork belly happens to be the meaty part of the pork belly so it is indeed very “meaty”.

Each and every bite is sumptuously tender, melts in your mouth, and has the perfect level of fattiness so that it isn’t overwhelming.  So if you’re afraid of smoking and haven’t attempted anything yet then don’t be and try it out because you will likely do just fine and want to do it again, also if you don’t have meaty spare ribs that are accessible to you then I feel very bad for you. In fact everyone should try and work together to make meaty spare ribs a standard cut, for the better of man kind.