Big pork belly

Looks great, I've got some pork on too.

Grill in oven for crackling?

Sorry but no pics this time, however on this shivering Sunday (yesty) where it didn't hit 10C until 3pm and only for an hour till it went back down to 9C here in Albury with a lot of early rain.

On Saturday I picked up a nice slab of American style Pork ribs as I haven't BBQ'd ribs for a few years and now I'm wanting to get another slab, I really enjoyed not only the process but the texture of the ribs themselves.

I used the Weber Master touch Plus kettle with the charcoal ring and metal diffuser plate, by doing the minion method, I had that thing going for 5 hours and there were still a lot of unburnt heatbeads left so I was pretty stoked that it could've easily gone for another 2-3 hours at least and I tuned it in for a consistent 230F on the lid guage and it only went up to about 250F max till i closed it down a notch using the top vent. I used apple wood as the smoking wood and only needed 2 chunks in amongst the coals.

While the ribs were smoking away, I also smoked 6 sausages for a snack while waiting and directly after the snags were at 75C int. I then placed a butterflied chicken with Mango marinade beside the ribs, heaps of space to play with using the deflector tray, the entire 22.5 inch food grate can be used.

When the last hour of the ribs were done, I put on a few layers of Mr Yoshida wing and rib sauce from Costco and really layered it on over the salt and pepper and left over hickory rub I had left in a packet before i put the ribs on the Weber, then I wrapped in foil to let the sauce somewhat steam the ribs at the last hours, I wasn't really worried about bark as the sauce was the stand-out for this cook up.

Once taken off I checked to see bones were petruding out from the sides and a little loose so it was time for a 15 minute rest, then sliced up into single rib pieces and chomped on.....they were bloody fantastic.

I apologise for no pics as it's been a long time since I've done pork ribs and didn't want to stuff it up at $28 per slab, so I didn't bother taking the phone out with me as it was a rather miserable day and cold outside. I promise that i'll take pics next time.

I like my pork ribs not sliding off the bone but with a bit of a chew left on them and they were that and easy to bite into, in fact perfect for me but the Mrs wanted them more softer....bugger that!!

The Weber Mastertouch plus done a brilliant job, I smoked a fair bit of meat in the whole session and it was the perfect size for what I'd done but I think it would need a few top ups with charcoal if I was to do a whole packer brisket, so I think with up to 6-8 hour smoking sessions really dialed down to 225F or there-abouts, this set-up is a great smoker for shorter sessions. I think the MT+ is well worth the money for the variety of cooks it will give you. I do think the charcoal ring and diffuser plate are good add-ons on this model, really happy that i bought it even though the Performer gets most of my cooking work done, this time it just had to sit and watch....well at least it fired up the starter charcoal for my minion method and let me use it's table to put stuff on....