British BBQ Society Forums

Was googling for prices for the Thermopen and wound up sidetracked on this forum.

I'm in northwest Florida in Fort Walton Beach. Been smoking with a WSM for a little over a year now. And the oddest thing, a Scotsman is the one that got me into this.

See, he's a project engineer at Thales and has been visiting my employee in Florida for a number of years to periodically check up on the equipment we are building for Thales. And after discovering it, every trip has to include at least one dinner with a plateful of ribs, before he can go back to Scotland a satisfied man.

Then, on one trip, sitting around the conference table, he ask if any of us know how to cook ribs, southern style, on a smoker. Me, I didn't know much on the subject, but the program manager for the project starts going on about how you have to have a big offset smoker, as seen at competitions and large crowd events, to do ribs right. Not too encouraging for a backyard appoarch our Scotsman was hoping for so he could get ribs anytime back home. Being helpful, I volunteered that I have heard of bullet smokers. To follow up, I goggled "bullet smoker" and found the virtualweberbullet site and pass that information on to my Scottish friend. He winds up going that route and purchases a WSM for himself. In following visits, he mentions getting it and talks about hoping to learn how to get that wonderful smoke favorite.

A year goes by, and I decide to give this a try myself. Back to the web and before you know it I'll learning about rubs, smoke woods, low and slow, minion method, etc. What's astonishing, without knowing much, using a WSM and following the virtualweber tips, I'm cooking great tasting BBQ. And to this, I owe all to the Weber Company's WSM. It can't be me, I'm no cook, the thing is magic!

Flash forward to what brings me to this site: My Scottish friend friend finally has a business visit scheduled for Florida that goes into a second week and I offer to cook him ribs over the weekend. And a few months later we get to do that again. Talking, I find the poor man has owned his WSM twice as long as I and has never done ribs. He claims he has not been able to find a source back in Scotland for racks of ribs. This has to be a crime against humanity!

So, I'm checking this place out, hoping I can find a way to help get this man some first rate ribs in his own backyard.

Rick

Hi Rick,

Welcome to the forum, alas it is true you have to hunt around for decent meat over here, the animals tend to be slaughtered at a younger age hence smaller cuts. Most of the guys on here have built relationships with their butchers that cut to order or order in specials for them, if you friend has a booker near him they do boxes of frozen meaty ribs and although sometimes hit and miss a good place to start.

Cheers

Toby

Welcome to the forum. Your friend can find baby back ribs in any good butchers, they may call them bacon back or loin back ribs, alternatively you can normally pick them up as whole racks in Waitrose or Morrisons, I've included a link to a good reference site for explaining things to your butcher and loads of good hints, tips, techniques and recipes

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/pork_cuts.html

Welcome to the forum. Great introduction there. As has been said already finding good meat, especially ribs, is very difficult here. We are still searching after two years.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

A few years ago when in Florida I was offered BBQ Gator. After overcoming initial hesitation I tried it and to my surprise it was.... just like chicken - LOL. Welcome to the forum

esselle wrote: finding good meat, especially ribs, is very difficult here. :

I found some, just unsure if they are UK racks or not, maybe you can tell!

MrBlue wrote:

esselle wrote: finding good meat, especially ribs, is very difficult here. :

I found some, just unsure if they are UK racks or not, maybe you can tell!

rs004[1].jpg

I'll take em

Thanks for the welcomes.

Apparently Britain has been taken over by the supermarket, just as the States, from what I've heard. In my area, a supermarket rarely has the meat cuts needed for smoking, such as full racks of ribs and large pork butts and beef brisket. It's all prepackage, precut, something for a single dinner to allow the consumer the lowest price, so big cuts, which take a lot of cash in comparation, don't sell as well and aren't available. And I think that's my friend's problem. Fortunately, two of the largest "membership only" chains in the US, Costco and Sams Club, with their emphasis on bulk purchases, seem to always have those cuts we want for BBQ, so they outset the whole "supermarket" problem for the majority of BBQ enthusiasts.

So for me, having a Sams Club in my town is a godsend. When I want spareribs, pop down to Sams and there alway fresh spares, packaged three full racks for a single purchase. Completely covers both racks on my 18" WSM.

Someone mentioned Costco on the forum in another thread. Does the UK have those? I'll pass along the suggestions from Toby and JEC. And just in case my Scottish friend hasn't visited, I'll make sure he knows about bbbqs.com

wade wrote:A few years ago when in Florida I was offered BBQ Gator. After overcoming initial hesitation I tried it and to my surprise it was.... just like chicken - LOL. Welcome to the forum

You're more adventurous than I. Live in Florida for over 30 years and never tried it. But then I lead a deprived life, with only beef, chicken, pork, and fish Had lamb twice in the States and it was horrible. Duck a few times, which was good, but you'll never to find it on a menu in my area.

Did try the lamb when visiting Scotland about three years ago. Really good, which the proves stuff I had here was crap cooking. And UK bacon, very nice!

Rick