A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

"The extra 'B' stands for 'BYOBB.'"
"What's that extra 'B' for?"
"That's a typo."

My understanding of Labor Day is that one tends to labor less than usual. I have a history of getting these things wrong, however, which is probably why I spent five hours in brisk early September Houston weather barbecuing ribs for the three of us.

That's one rack, though I couldn't gotten away with two if spending all afternoon fooling around with open flame didn't tend to curb my appetite (She Who Shall Not Be Named and the daughter of some friends of ours almost killed a whole rack on their own about a month ago).

My smoker can handle about eight racks at a time, however. But never mind that, because I just realized I haven't introduced you all to the finished version of Smogdor (previously written about here), a four foot section of schedule 40 steam pipe welded to a 1/4" plate fire box and put together by the occasionally mentioned Sir Not Appearing In This Blog:

Crappy paint job courtesy of yours truly. Rain courtesy of last July 4th, when these pictures were taken.

Side view:

Some minor alterations are needed, including a hole/mount for an enternal thermometer and maybe some more vents in the side of the fire box. The fan you see is necessary to help get primary ignition going. The max temp that I've run it up to, to bake the inside and heat the exterior for painting, was 450. Not that I cook at that temperature, mind.

Finally, an action shot:

I think I had five racks and about a dozen sausages going at that point. I usually wrap the ribs in foil (after liberal application of rub from B&W Meat Co.) and cook them meat down for about 4 hours at 250-275, then add some sauce, open the foil, and let them smoke meat up for another 30 minutes. It takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to get the fire up to speed.

That and toast are the only two things I actually know how to cook.