I saw a thing about a place in Texas I believe, that made Bacon Ribs. Now they had them cut special, the belly was still attached to the rib, no idea where I would find that around me. Was at Gordons a while back and they had Back or St. Louis cut ribs for $2.49/# I searched through them for a rack of fairly meaty SL ribs to try this, and bought a few racks for the freezer of both kinds.
I took the rack and split it in half, easier to fit in the chamber sealer that way. Weighed each half and calculated out my cure mix. I mixed the cure separately for each half, applied it all rubbed in and vac sealed. Stashed in the garage fridge, they were in there for probably 3 weeks, 1 would have probably been sufficient. But things kept getting in my way of making them.
Mix= Percentage of weight.
0.25% Cure 1
2% Sea Salt, could probably use what ever you want, this was up front in the cupboard.
1% Regular Sugar.
Took the thinner end pack out today and rinsed off well, I cut a small piece off the one end to taste to see if it was salty, it didn't seem to be. I put Larwrys Garlic Salt and Course Black Pepper on them. Into the little cookshack at 250° for 4 hours give or take with some hickory. I did temp them, not something I usually do. They were 180-185 in most places.
Taste was not bacon and was not ham, a little on the salty side, Maybe next time I will soak or just add garlic powder and black pepper like I do the butts when I cure them. Wondering if I were to cut them apart after the smoke and toss on the griddle or on the hot gas grill if that may make it more bacon flavored.
I will be grabbing a few more racks and trying this again, possibly vary the salt amount and maybe find some maple sugar or even dark brown sugar instead of white. Maybe try some sort of glaze on them, although for me I liked them as they were, but never hurts to experiment.
