Tom's Eclectic Ribs

I have never cooked good spare ribs, until today. My plan: Smoke the ribs till they are yummy!

What actually happened was not so simple...

It all started out well. I patted a little rice vinegar on the ribs to help make the meat receptive to the rub. I rubbed the ribs with salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, and who knows what else I threw in there. Finally, I brushed on a light coat of BBQ sauce.

I started up the electric smoker and added the wood chunks. I also turned on the BBQ grill.

First thing, I wanted to sear the ribs on the hot BBQ. I threw them on the grill and got them browning up nicely, when the gas ran out! Crap! Well, they went in the smoker a few minutes early .


The smoker was up to temperature, so I put the ribs in and planned on about 3-4 hours of waiting and chillin'. I went into the house loaded the dishwasher and started it up. I went about my business around the house.

I notice it was quiet in the house about 20 minutes later. I checked the dishwasher. No power to it. I checked the circuit breaker and noticed it had tripped. I reset it then the whooshing sounds of the dishwasher started up again. Ten minutes later, again, the dishwasher was silent. I reset it again and checked the smoker. It was cool, not hot like it should be. Wait a second, it can't be, the smoker and the dishwasher are on the same circuit? Sure enough, the smoker had only smoked hot for about 20 minutes of an hour. The meat needed to be cooked still, so I turned on the oven inside to 300 degrees and when it was heated, I covered the ribs in BBQ sauce and put them in for another hour.

I used 3 "ovens" to cook this one rack of ribs, but let me tell you...mmmmm they were so good that even Sarah, from Texas, thought they were delicious.