Ribs and Mystery Meat

Moving right down the hog, I cooked up a couple of racks of ribs this weekend. I just dry-rubbed them (with a commercial product--I don't have a secret rib rub recipe), then put them in the smoker for about five hours. They turned out wonderfully--BBQ is, at its core, a simple process. Combine a tough cut of meat, low heat, and smoke. Wait a long time. Eat.

Here's how the ribs went into the smoker:


Here's your host playing with fire:


And here's Jasper, with ribs marked off:


I didn't get a photo of the final product, because the camera batteries died and I was hungry. You've all seen ribs, though--they were black from the smoke, and shiny from the grease and sauce--a vision of smoky goodness.

Also, I cooked up some salt pork. I sometimes use it for cooking greens instead of jowls. It's quite salty, and you can see that it's clearly pork. Beyond that, I'm at a loss as to just where this little square of meat comes from. It cooked up well, and made the collards taste good, and that's all that matters. I didn't mark it on Jasper because it's kind of a mystery.