Real Country Ribs and More

Several months ago, I purchased about 15 pounds of REAL Country Ribs which are cut out of the loin and not just cut up pork butt and cooked about half of them and then froze the rest for a later date with the fire. Well, the later date is now and I am looking forward to this cook as these things are just money. 



I had two 4 rib pieces so I cut between each rib section to separate each bone which gave me pieces that weighed about 3/4 to about a 1 pound a piece. I then sprinkled on a generous amount of SGH rub and they were ready for the fire. 



My next step was to prep some Rick Salmon’s Pit Beans as I wanted these cooked right under the country ribs so the drippings would go into my beans for some additional flavor. 



Next up was some scalloped potatoes with some chopped up Canadian bacon which should go good with the above items.

I decided to do this cook in my Hasty Bake Gourmet cooker and figured I needed about an 6 to 8 hour smoke so I setup a fuze burn for at least that amount of time. 



I placed two fire bricks right down the middle of the firebox and then poured in a few pounds of the great Stubb’s all hardwood charcoal for the cook. On top of the charcoal, I placed some hickory chunks for my smoke wood. 



I placed the firebox back into the cooker and lit the left side of my fuze burn with a propane torch. This will slowly burn down the first side and around the bricks and finish up back to the start on the right side of the firebox. Probably give me about 9 good hours of cooking without much attention.

I usually leave all the vents open and also the big service door open for about 30 to 60 minutes to give the cooker some extra air until I get it up to my operating temperature before I load the cooker. You don’t want to hurry a fuse burn.



I placed 6 of the larger country rib pieces on the upper grid and then my pan of Pit Beans under them for the additional flavor. I then added the balance of the cook like you see in the picture. 



The country ribs later into the cook. 



Just before I took the country ribs off, I brought them down to the lower grid and glazed them twice with a blend of Blues Hog Tennessee Red, Blues Hog Standard sauce, and some clover honey. I took the ribs off at an internal of 160 degrees which is about perfect for this very lean cut of pork. Again, this meat is not cut out of a pork butt or shoulder.

I did let my beans go a little longer as I like them smoked for at least 6 hours if possible before I pulled them.



I raised the temp for a short time to get my scalloped potatoes done as they were lagging behind. 





Country Ribs looked good coming off the smoker. 



My all time favorite bbq beans.



The scalloped potatoes just off the cooker.



My plate and it was all great!

Now for you Hasty- Bakers, I charted this fuze burn and will show you the results if I can. It may not come out too clear as I tried everything to make it better but maybe we can make something of it the way it came out. I sure need to work on my graphs!



This graph shows about 5-6 hours of the cook. The red line is the temp of the meat. The white line is the temp of the cooker.

Starting with the temp of the cooker at about 175 degrees, it increased slowly to about 200 degrees about one hour into the cook, then to about 220 to 240 for the balance of the cook. The spikes are when I opened up the cooker to service something inside. Now, for what it’s worth, I never touched the cooker vents until I wanted to raise the temp at the end of the cook to speed up my potatoes. If I would have left it alone, it would have run about 9 hours without any attention and stayed in my cooking zone. Gotta love a fuze burn with this fine cooker.