Smoked ribs over oak

In honor of last weekend's (gargantuan lines at the) rib fest, I had an itch for my own smoked ribs. I ran out of briquettes and was going to put it off for another time. Then, I felt a little embarrassed. I'm pretty sure ribs were made prior to the age of Kingsford. Given that we now live in one of the windiest climates on the planet and the fallen wood is abundant, I went to get some aged whatever wood is in the pile out back and lit it using a little lighter fluid (pththth, no judging!). Once the wood was on fire, I set up with a water pan, capped the grill and smoked the ribs (lovingly rubbed with brown sugar, paprika, s & p) over indirect heat. I didn't know if it'd be too hot, but I took the plunge, only about $10 for the ribs.

Fire in the hole!

I tossed my datalogger probe in for kicks. With the data collected, in my head, I calculated the mean kinetic temperature confirming it to be a perfect 225°F. I cooked 'em from 9-2 tossing in small logs when I remembered. It seems I got an hour or so per chunk of wood. Maybe if I had smaller more regular chunks, I may have been able to smooth out some of the peaks and valleys. I'm beginning to see the origin of the briquette from this rather primitive trial run.

I wrapped them up in foil on Sunday and we ate them tonight. WOW! It pays to be sloppy and careless. What a fun bbq session. I served these with Ruhlman's Carolina sauce and a bunch of roasted veggies inspired by Persephone (but, sadly without the okra, couldn't find any).