Ribs on the smoker

We were surprised to realize that we haven't made baby back ribs on the smoker yet -- Carl has had the Traeger smoker for almost 10 months and no ribs? How could that be?!?!?

When we went to Costco in Indio (Palm Springs area), we got baby back ribs -- 3 racks -- for about $45, $15/rack. Buying a rack of ribs at a restaurant (already cooked) will cost about $25 each rack, so we figured we could enjoy baby back ribs for a little lower cost.

We contemplated cooking all 3 racks at once (getting all the smoking completed and then we would have leftovers), but decided that since this was our first attempt, it would be best to try it with just one rack and then be able to make alterations if needed on smoking the other two racks.

We cut each rack in half so they would fit on the smoker. Carl made up a rub made of equal parts Traeger rub (garlic / chili pepper) and brown sugar, put olive oil on the rack and then sprinkled the rub on and "rubbed" it in to the meat. This is the "before cooking" picture.

Miss Kitty helped by mostly staying out of the way!

Carl had gotten this rib-cooking rack a while ago, but we had not used it until yesterday -- it has room for 6 slabs, so we *could* have cooked all 3 racks (cut in half), but 1 rack was a good start.

Carl smoked it for about 3 hours, then spritzed it with apple juice and covered with foil to continue cooking for about another hour (he was checking the temperature with a probe in the meat). For the last 15 minutes, he put barbeque sauce on the meat. The shorter but thicker half needed to stay on for a little longer to be fully done.

We kind of forgot to get a picture of the half that was done first -- you may be able to tell that it was delicious and the bones were well cleaned. And... we still have the other half to have as leftovers.

We decided that the rub was a little salty, which would have come from the Traeger rub, so our plan is to use a little less Traeger rub to brown sugar for the next set that we cook.

We are both still enjoying the Traeger smoker -- Carl enjoys cooking on it, and I enjoy the results!!!