Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

/ Dora Hiers

This week’s edition of Excited about Eating is a deviation from our normal posts. Hope you don’t mind but hubby’s had so many requests to share his smoking tips lately that we decided to take a week and show everybody what happens at our house during his smokefests and how he arrives at the final product. Drool alert. 🙂

Buy Quality Meat

We used to buy ribs in bulk at Sam’s, but since Publix came to town, Ernie switched loyalties, says Publix ribs are meatier, less fat. If you’re going to invest the time and money, buy the best quality you can afford. We usually buy Baby Backs, St Louis, and Beef because everybody has their fave.

Since there’s a good bit of work involved, we fill up the smoker and send leftovers home with our guests, then bag and freeze the rest. Ribs are just as yummy heated up in the microwave or warmed on the grill weeks or months later.

Ready? Here we go.

Trim

Trim off excess fat on both sides.

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

Trim off fat

Remove the membrane from the back with a good, sharp knife. Hubby uses a boning knife. That thing is downright dangerous. 🙂

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

Remove the membrane from the back with a sharp knife

Season

Sprinkle both sides. Be generous with paprika, onion powder, granulated garlic, salt, pepper, and brown sugar.

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

Be generous!

Don’t forget the love. Rub the spices into the meat. He likes to do this the night before so the spices marry with the meat. Reserve excess liquid for later.

In They Go

Get your smoker up to temperature, 225 to 235 degrees.

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

Bring your smoker up to 225 – 235 degrees

Hubby uses the 3/2/1 method. Put the ribs in the smoker for the first three hours, unwrapped, with smoke.

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

First three hours, unwrapped with smoke

Take them out. Set them on aluminum foil. Drizzle squeeze butter and honey over the ribs. Sprinkle with a bit more rub (the spices mentioned earlier) and brown sugar. Wrap the aluminum foil over the ribs, adding a dose of the reserved liquid in the foil, and smoke for two more hours.

Remove from the smoker and unwrap those goodies. Douse with your favorite BBQ sauce (ours is Sweet Baby Rays) and stick them back in for one more hour, unwrapped. Then this…

Slice
The best place in the house!
Drooling yet? 🙂

Friends, let me tell you, I never liked ribs until Ernie started smoking them. Delicious and meaty and full of flavor, and sure to satisfy your guests. Ours, anyway. 🙂

OK, so here’s the question we ask every time around our table. What’s your favorite? Baby Backs, St. Louis, or Beef?

Hope you enjoyed this detour from our normal Excited about Eating posts. We’ll be back next week with another mouth-watering restaurant review.

9 thoughts on “Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers”

  1. We like St. Louis but I usually cook in the oven. Haven’t been able to get consistent, low temp in my grill/smoker. Any pointers or tips for that, Ernie? 🙂 We use Sweet Baby Rays for bbq chicken – kind of cool that one of my fave authors uses the same brand! My goal is to figure out the smoker temp thing so we can do ribs on the grill over the summer. Even at 300 degrees, the oven really heats up the house!!

    Like

    • Oh yeah! When summertime rolls around, I mostly grill everything I can outdoors. Thanks for popping in, sweet friend. Enjoy your weekend! 💕

      Like

    • Thanks for the comment Tammy. In reference to your question, what type of grill/smoker are you using? Keeping a consistent temp is something everyone fights. That is one of the reasons I use a pellet smoker, they keep consistent temp throughout the cook.

      Like

Comments are closed.