Promises, promises

So I'm in the process of clearing out a huge cache of old pics. (And yes, I know that I owe certain friends uploads of certain pics from a certain wedding, and that I promised (myself, anyways) that I'd get it done before their first anniversary, and that said anniversary has come and gone during this lovely month of February, but I swear I will do it soon.)

But anyway, starting at the most recent and moving back in time chronologically, here are some shots we took a few weeks ago when we smoked up the ribs that came with our piglet.

Because, shockingly, a pig comes with two sets of ribs (and imagine, we didn't have to pay any extra for the porcine anatomy lesson!), and because we were dividing the sucker three ways, we decided to cook the ribs and share them at a group pig love-in. We hosted the event, and ginned up our charcoal grill as a smoker for one rack of ribs, which we dry-rubbed at the beginning and wet-mopped at the end. For the other rack, we did a tomato curry paste and slow-roasted them in the oven.

Here's the scene early in the afternoon, before our pig-loving comrades arrived. You can see the smoker and our smoking paraphernalia (so to speak) in the background. In front is the firepit, all ready to get lit up for some late night warmth and S'mores making. I'm on the side there, on the phone (RUDE. I know.):


This is the same scene from the other angle, which I think gives you a better sense of how GORGEOUS the weather was that day. IN JANUARY. Gah, love the climate here:


Here's a close-up of the smoke pouring out of our two-bit smoker:



By the way, if you were wondering how we put the smoker together so you can play along at home, here's how to do it. First, we loaded up one side of the bottom grate with about a dozen charcoal briquettes (that we lit in a chimney) and a handful of hickory chips that had been soaking in water. Across from the charcoal (also on the bottom grate) was a cheap aluminum pan filled with water. The meat itself was on a piece of heavy-duty tinfoil over the water and away from the heat so that it would cook as slowly as possible. We kept all of the vents open to moderate the heat, and used an oven thermometer to monitor the temp, leaving the top off for a few minutes if it went above 300 degrees. Every hour or so we added a few more briquettes and another handful of hickory. It took about four hours, and although it was tender, it could've stood another hour of cooking for maximum falling-off-the-bone-ness. Here's a shot of the inside of the smoker and the ribs:


And, in case you were wondering how these ribs compared to the ribs out of the oven, the oven ribs were tender-er (not sure why, because the cooking time and temp was comparable), but the smoky flavor of the smoked ribs won the day. We had the ribs with a pot-luck complement of sides from mac and cheese to rice and beans, but unfortunately, no pics of the final dinner, because we were just TOO hungry to get the camera by the time we sat down to eat. Next time, I promise!