I had the day off, and it was the first day in a long time with decent weather.  70's, but lots of wind. Fired up the whole hog for the first time in awhile.

Seasoned with salt, pepper, and menudo chili powder. This is about an hour in.


Two hours at 275, wrapped with bourbon and some rub for about 30 minutes, sauced and cooked unwrapped for about 20 minutes.


Sliced, sauced, and ate.


I normally have pretty low expectations for "specialty" meats. I usually think taste difference versus value is just
not there. I've been pretty impressed with my snake river farms purchases. I would probably not spend the 30 dollars when full price, but I'd definitely spend the 15 a rack when half price. They were really delicious. It's a 2 pound rack of St Louis spares though. Not a ton of meat, but what is there is really really good.

Nicely done!

 I can side with the wonderful warm weather and the desire to be cooking.. Nice photos, so good I can almost taste it. 

Very nice presentation/photos, FMT.
Everyone values your opinions.

They look great.

I have really wanted to try a SNR brisket but just can't bring myself to pay that for one.

Thanks for the nice comments.

They look great.

I have really wanted to try a SNR brisket but just can't bring myself to pay that for one.

Me too.  They were in the half price sale that I participated in, and I still couldn't pull the trigger. I've heard from a few people that their choice briskets are similar in quality to Costco prime. So if you have Costco with prime briskets in your area, they are probably a better value.

I ordered 2 flat iron steaks, a sirloin, a mini ham, and 2 racks of St Louis ribs. The flat iron and sirloin were excellent. The mini ham was pretty standard ham, but wasn't overly salty which was nice for a ham.  This was the first rack of ribs I smoked. Most likely wouldn't pay full price for any of it, but would get in on another bogo deal.

Thanks for the nice comments.

They look great.

I have really wanted to try a SNR brisket but just can't bring myself to pay that for one.

Me too.  They were in the half price sale that I participated in, and I still couldn't pull the trigger. I've heard from a few people that their choice briskets are similar in quality to Costco prime. So if you have Costco with prime briskets in your area, they are probably a better value.

I ordered 2 flat iron steaks, a sirloin, a mini ham, and 2 racks of St Louis ribs. The flat iron and sirloin were excellent. The mini ham was pretty standard ham, but wasn't overly salty which was nice for a ham.  This was the first rack of ribs I smoked. Most likely wouldn't pay full price for any of it, but would get in on another bogo deal.

Our Costco normally has the prime briskets available but the prices for them have been creeping up.  Our local cash and carry has "certified" angus ones that I have been very happy with as well.  Just depends on what is cheaper when I need one.

I am on the SRF mailing list, I will have to keep an eye out for a sale and order some steaks.

Spares are probably our favorite but often times they are awfully light on meat but do agree the flavor is really good.

This might be little off topic and I truly do not mean to insult anyone, however, I see a lot of folks on various forums and blogs touting Angus beef.  But I wonder how many know that Angus beef is a breed of cattle and does not imply how it was raised to include feed grazing etc..  In many cases they are raised on factory farms and are not free range.  IMO that is why you see a large price variance.  It takes only about 21 to 22 months at a factory farm to bring the beef to market whereas it can take an additional 6 months or even longer to bring free range beef to market. 

The same can be said for pork.  Heritage pork will always be more expensive then pork raised on factory farms.  Against basically for the same reason.  That is why I personally prefer purchasing my meats from a butcher, however, only after they can answer some of my questions on where and how they get their beef and pork.
Again just my opinion

Spares are probably our favorite but often times they are awfully light on meat but do agree the flavor is really good.

I typically find spares much more meaty than baby backs, but I don't count the top (loin meat) on baby backs. I'm kind of weird I guess in that I trim all the loin meat off baby backs. I like the meat between the bones, not on top. Spares typically have more of what I'm looking for. I buy mine 90% of the time from gordons, and most often am satisfied with the product.

This might be little off topic and I truly do not mean to insult anyone, however, I see a lot of folks on various forums and blogs touting Angus beef.  But I wonder how many know that Angus beef is a breed of cattle and does not imply how it was raised to include feed grazing etc..  In many cases they are raised on factory farms and are not free range.  IMO that is why you see a large price variance.  It takes only about 21 to 22 months at a factory farm to bring the beef to market whereas it can take an additional 6 months or even longer to bring free range beef to market. 

The same can be said for pork.  Heritage pork will always be more expensive then pork raised on factory farms.  Against basically for the same reason.  That is why I personally prefer purchasing my meats from a butcher, however, only after they can answer some of my questions on where and how they get their beef and pork.
Again just my opinion

I personally understand the difference, and can appreciate the reasoning behind the higher price tag. There is a line though where I fail to see the value over the cheaper option. Kind of like WAR in baseball. Wins above replacement. Sometimes I'll take the replacement, but it's nice to have the top of the heap occasionally too.

This might be little off topic and I truly do not mean to insult anyone, however, I see a lot of folks on various forums and blogs touting Angus beef.  But I wonder how many know that Angus beef is a breed of cattle and does not imply how it was raised to include feed grazing etc..  In many cases they are raised on factory farms and are not free range.  IMO that is why you see a large price variance.  It takes only about 21 to 22 months at a factory farm to bring the beef to market whereas it can take an additional 6 months or even longer to bring free range beef to market. 

I am well aware of that.  Our local cash and carry stocks "certified" Angus briskets, typically for about 15 to 20 cents a pound more than the choice ones.  I have cooked them side by side and prefer the flavor and texture of the angus ones.  I still prefer prime to both, but the primes are typically quite a bit more expensive.