Tuesday Open Thread: May 11, 2021

Merry Tuesday, everyone!

I mentioned yesterday that I made country style ribs on the smoker this past Sunday, and I meant to elaborate a bit but forgot to. So, I’ve had the smoker for about 7 or 8 years now, and I use it A LOT. You learn something each time you smoke a particular meat, and your results tend to improve, and the food gets better and better. Well, ribs have been tricky for me. They’ve always turned out anywhere from okay to good, but I’ve never gotten them to that next level until recently, and Sunday was the first time I’ve gotten to that level with country style ribs, so I thought I’d pass along my method for all of you fellow smokers of dead animal out there. Some of you probably already have a better method, but some of you may not, so here we go.

This will take 6-9 hours, depending on your smoker, how many ribs you’re smoking, how well you maintain temp (I have a charcoal smoker, those of you with the pellet grills don’t know what I mean). I’ve found cherry and oak woods to be a very good hard/soft wood combo, hickory and apple is also a good combo.

• I smoke them at 225, get the smoker to temp & put them directly on the rack
• After 2-3 hours (depending on how many ribs you’re smoking), open the smoker, put the ribs in a foil pan (or wrap them in tin foil), if you’re a fan of barbecue sauce, you’ll want to put that on at this point. Do all of this as quickly as possible and put the wrapped ribs back on the smoker
• Get your smoker temp up to 275
• Smoke them at 275 until the internal temp reaches 185-190
• Take them off, cover them, let them sit 10+ minutes
• Eat them. Eat them all.

If you have a better method, I’d love to hear it. It took me many tries with ribs to get the results I got on Sunday, it was amazing.

Man, it’s one of those rare, sunny spring days with very little wind up here in the northern Dakota. One of those days when, at least once an hour, you’ll catch yourself staring out the window, knowing that the fish are biting, and knowing that you should be out there, but also knowing that there is something else that you should be doing instead of staring out the window wishing you were fishing, but it’s very difficult to recall exactly what that other thing is that you’re supposed to be doing, because you’re thinking about the fish that you should be catching. It’ll be a 9-hour internal battle.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

From Chris, the Vikings are reportedly kicking the tires on two free-agent veterans. I always preferred to use a solid chunk of wood to check the tires, preferably hickory, but apparently Rick prefers the kick-method. Hey, at least he checks them, that’s important.

Other Vikings/NFL news and random oddities and annoyances:

Here’s a piece by MSN via Yahoo Sports, it’s about how Dez Bryant is perplexed by the news that Tim Tebow may sign a deal with the Jaguars. The writer, Jason Owens, makes a couple remarks in here that I respectfully disagree with. 1) He says that Tim Tebow is “nine years removed from an utter failure of an NFL career” and 2) “where Tebow making a roster would mean that somebody deserving doesn’t”.

1. His career was an utter failure? I’d say just getting to the NFL means you were successful, but Tebow, despite poor stats, did post an 8-3 record, and did get a playoff win. The last time I checked, wins are more important than stats. If not, Blake Bortles would still be QBing the Jags.
2. If Tebow makes the roster, we certainly don’t know at this point why he’ll hypothetically make the roster, because it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe he’s going to light it up as a tight end, elite athleticsm can translate to other positions, and Tebow also has an innner drive and strength that sets him apart from many other athletes. We also don’t know that him making a roster spot would push someone “more deserving” out. Maybe there are less deserving guys who make the roster before him? Or maybe, he doesn’t make the roster at all? Maybe none of the guys who make the roster are deserving? Heck, who knows? We don’t know because he hasn’t made the roster yet. Actually, he hasn’t even signed a contract yet. Goofball.

I hope he makes the roster and is 2nd in the league in receptions, TDs, and yards for tight ends, behind Irv Smith Jr., of course. SKOL!

Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new:

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Take the gender hatred elsewhere, it won’t be tolerated
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-If discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tags
-No pictures that could get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employer
-If you can’t disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go away
-While navigating the open thread, just assume it’s sarcasm.

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up & tie one on, don’t forget to tip the cows, and settle in and join the party.