COB-SMOKED BEEF RIBS

 Today’s inspiration comes from the latest ‘Cook’s Summer Grilling’ issue. They demonstrate and exhaustively explain how to smoke a ‘South Dakota’ style rib. They take a St. Lois style cut pork rib and smoke it with corn cobs and corn meal. This medium of smoking material is supposed to impart a sweet type of smoke. Smoking with corn has grabbed my attention. ‘Cook’s’ magazine is a great resource for cooking methods. We will take their research and methodology but put a Chilebrown spin on it. First, instead of pork ribs we will use some meaty beef ribs. Cook’s suggests using certain rubs and sauces but we will use our own. We will be cooking these ribs by following their method. Grab a corn cob and let’s get smoking.

Using corn cobs will be a first for us. We used a sweet corn from the farmers market. Strip the kernels off the cob and reserve niblets for other uses.  We now will make a foil packet with 1/ 2 cup of corn meal. Fold the foil over the corn meal and poke some holes through the foil. We will be using a Weber Kettle grill. Here is the setup. A water filled foil pan will be placed on one side of the bottom. Place three quarts of unlit charcoal on the other side. (A large charcoal chimney starter holds 6 quarts). Layer 4 cobs on the unlit charcoal. In a chimney starter, light 3 quarts of charcoal. When the charcoals are lit, place over cobs and unlit charcoals. Place corn meal packet on top of lit charcoal. Put the grill over fire. You will now place seasoned ribs on the grill over the water pan side and cover with lid. Position the bottom and top vents to one-half open. Cook for 4 hours rotating the ribs at the 2 hour mark. There is no need to flip them. We sauced our ribs the last 15 minutes.

While the ribs are cooking a sweet toasted corn aroma will emit from the smoking kettle. It is tempting to look at the ribs during cooking but leaving them alone will produce better results. The ribs had a wonderful smoky flavor. They did not taste like corn but I noticed a sweet smoke flavor. The ribs were fantastic. Using corn cobs as a smoking medium is an old time method and flavor. I will have to try this with some pork ribs next time.  It is always fun to experience something new/old.