Once thawed, Friday evening i mixed up a simple brine of 1/2 cup of Kosher salt, 1/2 cup of Sugar, to one gallon of water. In went the rib-lets for a swim in the fridge for 8 hours. Place the riblets in a non reactive container, cover with enough brine to submerge the riblets and your set.
Saturday morning i removed them from the fridge, rinsed with cold water to remove the brine, pan dry and gave them a good dusting with my pork dry rub. Bagged them up and back in the fridge for a few hours.
Once i had the WSM fired up and temps at 250 degrees at the grate level. I loaded up half the riblets for today and tomorrow i will cook the rest. All brined, seasoned and ready to cook. I added six small chunks of apple wood when i filled the charcoal ring on the WSM so it will give me a consistence whiff of thin blue smoke for the entire cook time.
After 2 1/2 hours at 250 i gave the riblets their first layer of my homemade Bar-B-Que Sauce. Its a fairly thin Tomato & Vinegar based sauce. Sweet, tangy, light on the heat. I originally came up with this sauce for pulled pork liked it so much i modified it for ribs by making it sweeter.
I brushed on the sauce two different times about 15-20 minutes apart. Nice layer of sauce but not a drippy mess. My style of Bar-B-Que consists of layers of flavor. Lightly seasoned & sauced... i want to be able to tell i`m eating meat not just dry rub & sauce. The worst thing one can do is to over sauce your bar-b-que. Old time pit masters will tell ya not to hide the flavor with a thick layer of sauce, i feel the same is true today. Check out the beautiful color on these riblets. This is what you want in a rib of any type. Nice color that looks as good as it tastes.
Fire up those smokers & grills spring is just around the corner!
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