Pellet Smoker Cooking: Pastrami St. Louis Cut Ribs

Feb 19 2016

When I saw this recipe at Bon Appetit, I knew I had to try it. I love pastrami but never thought of trying it with pork ribs. I was waiting on a nice day to come along to try these. It was about 60 deg. today but sure was windy, gusts to 44 mph. I think the wind finally settled down some at 12:00 AM.

I changed the rub and the cooking method; if you want to check out the original recipe it is at bonappetit.com courtesy of Vine Street Cafe, NY.

Most all the meat I get comes from my butcher and is from local beef and pork. His spare ribs are just that, spare, he does not leave much meat on them. I wanted some more meat on these so bought some St. Louis Cut spare ribs by Tyson from Walmart. They had a 7% salt and water solution added so they are really brined. The rack was 4.5 pounds.

Late Thursday afternoon I rinsed the ribs and dried well. I cut the flap meat off and pulled the membrane. I cut a couple of ribs off to square them up. I added the rub to both sides; a little lighter on the bone side. I had them on a sheet pan and covered well with plastic wrap and in the fridge overnight.

I was having some twice baked potatoes and slaw for my sides. I was afraid the wife and daughter would think the ribs were too hot with the pepper so I did some bone in country style ribs. I used Penzey's Galena St. rub and some sweet BBQ sauce on them.

I made up my slaw at noon so it had time to meld the flavors. It was kind of a cross between Billy Merril's recipe with my touch.

I got my Traeger fired up at 195 deg. And got the ribs and flap meat on at 1:00 PM. Grill level was at 210 deg.

2:00 added the Country style ribs and went to 225 deg. grill level.

3:00 double wrapped the St. Louis ribs in foil and went to 250 to 260 deg. grill level.

4:30 unwrapped the ribs and went to 275 deg. grill level

5:00 sauced the St. Louis and the country ribs.

5:20 Sauced the St. Louis ribs and flipped and sauced the country ribs. Went to 300 deg. grill level.

6:00 all was done so pulled and took inside to serve.

While the ribs were cooking I baked six potatoes with potato rods in my induction oven at 350 deg. for one hour. I cut off the tops and scooped out the potato, added about 6 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, mashed and added back to the skins. At 5:30 I added some shredded 4 state cheddar to all and bacon to 3 of them. They went into a 320 deg. oven until I brought the ribs in.

It was good, the wife and daughter didn't think the pastrami ribs were too hot but only ate one and had one of the country ribs. I thought the pastrami ribs were good, something different, I would do them again maybe not real soon; but it was a new adventure in having something different!

Click Here for printable recipe