Ribs! Ribs! Ribs!

This weeks blog is all about the mighty rib. I am going to offer my recipe up so you can go ahead and make the best ribs of your life, but warning, this recipe does get expensive because everyone will want them after trying them.

Who doesn’t love ribs, am I right? I have found that around our area of South Central/ South Eastern Wisconsin, baby backs are the rib of choice, which was once confirmed by my placing an order at a meat market for spare ribs and they called me back right away making sure I wanted spares and not baby backs because they don’t get many people asking for spares.

So what’s the difference? Great question! Baby backs are also called loin back ribs or back ribs and that is because they come from the rib section closer to the spine, which is where the loin is located. Baby backs typically have less meat on them, and the meat can dry out easily because that loin meat does not have a lot of fat compared to other cuts of the pig. Baby backs also have a signature curve in the bones because of how close to the spine they are. Spare ribs, my favorite rib of choice, come from lower on the rib cage and the meat on the spare rib is fattier because it comes from the belly. Since it is lower on the rib cage, the bones are straighter, which makes the racks typically bigger. When it comes to competitions, spare ribs are the most common ribs cooked because they are meatier, but in certain regions of the country you will see baby backs reigning supreme, typically down south.

I’ll get into this more on a future post, but in competitions, everything is different, and I have spent 3 years trying to perfect my rib recipe so I can try and have an edge while competing. Competitions are typically a one bite, blind judging challenge, so you want to try and pack as much flavor into that one bite as possible. I have finally found a recipe I am confident in, and the nice part is that it works for competitions, and backyard cooking as well.

I am going to explain my technique here, but I do plan on posting just the recipe itself in another section of the website once I get that set up.

I usually buy whole spare ribs, which can be bought at almost any store. Once i get them home, I will cut in a straight line from the biggest bone and completely cut the meaty flap without bones. This is called the St Louis cut or style, and some stores will have pre-trimmed St Louis Style Spare Ribs for sale as well, which is a great time saver. I like trimming my own and saving the meat for future cooks, or just throwing them on the smoker with the ribs and making rib tips. Once I have them trimmed down into perfect rectangles, I flip them over and remove the big flap of meat that goes along the back to even it out and make it flush. Then I remove the membrane, which is one of the most satisfying things in bbq, especially if you get it in one pull. I usually use a piece of paper towel to remove it, but they do a make a membrane removal tool, and you’ll often hear about getting a butter knife underneath it and using it to pull it up enough to get a finger underneath it, you pick what works best for you.

At this point, the ribs are ready for seasoning. I do a double rub and no binder, which is just a preference for me. I start with a light layer of The Everything all purpose rub of mine (available soon!) and coat the ribs evenly on both side. The Everything has a course grind of salt and pepper and once its on, it starts pulling moisture from the meat which after about 15 minutes, the “meat sweat” as I call it acts as a binder for the primary rub. Usually after the base layer is on, I take the time to get the smoker fired up and ready to go. I cook at 275 on my Masterbuilt 1050 Charcoal Vertical Smoker with Blues Hog Charcoal Briquettes and Cherry wood chunks. Use whatever wood flavor and charcoal you like, this is just what I prefer.

After 15 minutes, I apply the And Then Some rub (also available soon!) and I apply a good layer to both sides of the ribs, and the edges as well. The nice part about this rub is that the primary red color helps you know if you need to fill in any spots. Once the rub is on, I usually let them sit in the open air for about 15 minutes before putting them on. Letting them sit helps the rub set and adhere to the meat better. At this point I’ll get them on the smoker and sit there undisturbed for an hour.

After an hour, I will spritz them with Apple juice. The apple juice helps keep the exterior of the ribs from drying out and keeps moisture on the rub. The sugars in the juice helps give a great color and some caramelization on the outside as well. 30 minutes later I will spritz again. After 2 hours on the pit, I pull them off and get ready to wrap. The base layer on the wrap is lined with brown sugar, honey, a few pats of butter, a shake of the And Then Some rub, and a good few sprays of the apple juice again. At that point I put a rack of ribs meat side down on that layer of ingredients so you are looking at the bottom of the ribs, then repeat those same ingredients on the back side of the ribs as well, do this same process with every rack. Once each rack is done, put them on them back on the smoker for about 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes, use a thermometer and check the temp between bones, if the temp is between 202-207 degrees pull them off, if not, keep them on checking periodically until you get between that temperature window. Once they are pulled off, drain the liquid out of the wrap but keep the ribs wrapped and rest in a dry cooler for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pull them out of the wrap, sauce the ribs and put them back on the smoker for about 5-10 minutes until the sauce is set and somewhat tacky.

A great tip for cutting the ribs is to put some sauce on the cutting board before putting the ribs down and put them meat side down. The board sauce helps the ribs not stick to the board, and ruin the top of the ribs. By cutting them meat side down, it is easier to see the bones so you can cut more accurately. The next step is very important, EAT!

This will be posted to my Lovely Jubbly BBQ Facebook page and if you have any questions, feel free to comment on the post and get the conversation started! Remember, there are many ways to cook ribs, this is my way, there are no right or wrong ways to make ribs, unless you boil them…

As always, keep cooking, and Lovely Jubbly!

The Whole Hog

This weeks blog post is all about the whole hog cook that I did over Labor Day weekend. Whole hog cooking is considered to be one of the most difficult cooks in BBQ, but is perfect when cooked properly.

I have been BBQing for a few years now and I have cooked and smoked many many things and a whole hog cook was a goal, but I figured it wouldn’t happen for a little while longer. A couple of months ago I was asked by a friend to do a pig roast for their wedding that is happening Fall 2025, but the catch was that I needed to practice, which is fair enough. In talking with my wife about how to pull that off, she suggested I do one for her birthday, which this year was also Labor Day.

I spent a long time looking at different ways to cook the pig, including commercial pig roasters and smokers, and even the classic cinder block pit. I also spent a lot of time looking at different recipes online for how to do it just to get an idea of what needs to be done and the best way to get good results. I think we all know how this can be explained, but all of a sudden I started getting smokers and pig roasters showing up on my Facebook Marketplace and I came across a listing that caught my eye. It was a rotisserie hog roaster that was custom built onto a trailer about 12 years ago. The price was right and I set off to Crystal Lake, Illinois to go look at it. The roaster (pictured below) had not been moved in quite a while but I was assured it would make it, thankfully I found out that it did as I drove home with it that same day.

After bring the pit home, I had to do a lot of research in how to cook on a rotisserie, because doing it before buying the pit would’ve been too easy. As the days counted down, I picked up the pig from Wilsons Farm Meats in Elkhorn, WI the Saturday before the cook. I had bought an injection mix from Butcher BBQ, in order to put maximum flavor and increase moisture within the pig. Naturally, while injecting the hams, the injector I was using developed an issue and would not work, so I intended to put a gallon of injection into the pig but did not get anywhere close to it. After this I added 2 layers of rub to the entire inside of the body cavity, starting with a salt, pepper, and garlic rub (The Everything) as a base layer, and then followed through with a heavy layer of my primary rub (The And Then Some) for maximum flavor and color, then back into the cooler overnight to dry marinade.

The next morning at O’ Dark Thirty, came the time to fire up the burn barrel to prepare coals, put the rotisserie spit through the pig, sew up the stomach cavity and get the pit fired up. Because this was a 2 person job, my awesome wife had to wake up early to help me, she was not a fan of the mouth, or the tail… Once we got the pig onto the pit, I fired up the rotisserie and got the coals lit.

The pig cooked for about 11 hours and I burned through about 200 pounds of charcoal along with about another 40 pounds in hickory and cherry wood as well over that 11 hours. I used my Thermospike temp probes by Thermoworks to monitor the temp on the pig. These probes are wireless, which obviously is best for a rotisserie setup, but these probes also read the ambient temperature as well, which helped me know when to add more coals. The probes were placed in the Shoulder and the Ham specifically, and it really helped me know where to lay charcoal. After the 11 hours, the pig was taken off the pit and slid into the cooler to rest. The temps were above 180 in both probes and after a rest, pulled absolutely perfectly.

What would I change? I would make sure that I have a better injector to get that injection all throughout. I was very pleased with how juicy it was when I pulled it, and it had a very strong pork flavor, but I was hoping that it would have more flavor in general. That is really the biggest thing that I was concerned with, but it was great meat and definitely fed the party. All of these adjustments are easy enough to make and I think the next pig will be a winner.

I have attached some photos of the pig roast here, and I here to answer any questions you have, and want to connect and converse about it on the Facebook post.

Welcome to Lovely Jubbly!

Drive in to learn about the start of my journey of LJBBQ!

I am Mitch, and I am the head Pitmaster here at Lovely Jubbly BBQ. I want to use this opportunity to welcome you and introduce myself a little bit. I also want to take the opportunity to tell you the purpose behind my blog and my goals for it as well.

I have always loved grilling and during the ever popular Covid era I asked my awesome wife, Dani, if I could by my first smoker for my birthday. I found the Pit Boss Classic while shopping online and having very little experience with smokers at the time, I based my decision off the online reviews I saw and bought it that day.

My first weekend I had it all set up I cooked every day and did my first every pork butt, brisket flat and some chicken. The pork butt turned out fantastic, and the brisket flat did not, but from that moment on, I was hooked. 

I was then asked to cook for my step dad’s birthday in Monticello, MN on the first weekend in May and naturally, if you are looking to cook for many people, a small cooker isn’t going to get the job done. This lead me to buying the Pit Boss Sportsman 1100, which was more than twice the size of the Classic and able to feed the masses. I ordered it to be sent right to their home so I would only have to travel with it once, but it never showed. I ended up doing the entire party on a gas grill; pulled pork and all. Amazingly the pulled pork turned out well enough to be eaten, but the brisket flat was burnt to a crisp.

2 weeks late(r) the new one arrived and my horizons opened up even more with 2 cookers. Since then, I have acquired a Masterbuilt 1050 Vertical Charcoal Smoker, 2 Weber 22″ Kettles, an Oklahoma Joes Bronco Drum Smoker and a custom built (by the previous owner) Rotisserie pig roaster trailer. In this seemingly long 4 years, I have spent a lot of time and effort creating my own line of BBQ rubs and sauces (on sale soon), multiple BBQ competitions with many more to come, and a lot of fun trying to come up with my own recipes that I will be sharing with you over time.

With this blog, I plan on sharing a new recipe every week and offering my insights on the recipe itself and I hope to encourage you to make it yourself for your own friends and family. In addition, to the recipe of the week, I also want to do a wing recipe of the month because I love wings, especially during football season. Every blog post will be cross-posted to my Lovely Jubbly BBQ Facebook page and I hope that it will generate some conversation as well. My goal is that if you have any questions, comment on the link for the post and I am always happy to answer anything that comes up, and I would hope that if you know the answer, that you would respectfully jump in and help! I know how social media can be, and bullying and rude comments will not be tolerated.

Given that this week is the introductory post, I will not be sharing a recipe, but you can look forward to my whole hog follow-up from this past weekend.

As always, Keep cookin’, and Lovely Jubbly!