In my last attempt at the "China Red" ribs, I made the mistake of not watching the grill and let the temp creep up. This resulted in the sauce and rib becoming too caramelized at the tips.

My latest attempt two weeks ago, came out a lot better.

Full size ribs - ready for trimming
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Trimmed the fat and flap meat; grilled the flap meat on the grate
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Coated with Chiu-Sui sauce and let sit overnight. I used a commercial prepare Chiu-Sui sauce from the local Ranch 99 Market.
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Line up on two rib rack, two slabs on each one. Emm??? they don't look as red as Cuskit
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Slow cooked at 250F until temp reach 170F
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How it looked during the slow cook. The back probe is inserted into the ribs, the front one is laying on top of the rib to measure the temp
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After two hours, I flipped the ribs. The top of the ribs are cooking faster than the bottom because the heat in the upper part of the grill is hot than the temp at the grate, using indirect heat. If you look closely at the top of ribs near the probes, you can see the trim flap pieces laying across the top of the ribs. Also during the last 45 min of slow cooking, I marinaded the ribs about every 15 minutes with more Chiu-Sui sauce. For the final glaze, I added some maple syrup to sauce for that extra sweetness. The syrup is added at the end and not at the beginning to prevent the sugar from caramelizing too soon and turning black.


Total cooking time was about 3 hr-45 minutes.
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Finish ribs read for craving
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Sliced ribs ready to server
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these came out with great color and quite tasty

Hike

hey thanks for the step by step...i really appreciate it...I love the science behind grilling and always curious where the probes go and I like how you had 2 thermometers going...

I'm assuming you were cooking with a propane grill? Just wondering how you were able to maintain a low temp of 250F? Did you have to leave the lid slightly open? Glad you rotated the ribs, i didn't do that once and it was a big mistake...I've been looking into doing the china red soon, but just have to wait for a warmer day here...just curious what the total cooking time was?

THANKS!

I edited the original post with the additional information you requested.

Below is an extract of my previous post and notes on attempting to maintain constant low temp for slow bbqing.

"Here is my experience with doing slow and low bbqing with a gas grill.
I can actually maintain temp as low as 180 degrees and the optimum range of 200-225 degrees for long period of time (up to 12 hrs in real use). During my learning process, I found that the individual burners vary quite a bit in their low temp range.
With the burners at their lowest setting, with just the #5 burner at its lowest setting - temp at the warming rack was 180 degrees
With the #1 and #5 burners at their lowest setting - temp at the warming rack was 250 degrees
With the #2 and #5 burners at their lowest setting - temp at the warming rack was 220 degrees
For my next slow cooking, I will swap the #1 and #2 burners and see if I can maintain the 220 degree with just the end burners.
The reason for doing this, I believe that just using the end burners gives a better heat distribution at the center of the grill for indirect slow cooking."

Normally my slow cooking is done at night because of the length of time 10-12 hrs. When I did the first ribs during the daytime, I found it was more difficult to maintain a constant temp because the grill is out in the open and exposed to the hot sun. On my previous attempt with the China Red, I went out and played tennis and in a couple of hours the hood temp was at 350F and the marinade and top parts of the ribs were really caramelized (carbonized??)

I did replace the original regulator with a Marshall two-stage regulator. This help in adjusting the LP gas pressure so that I can set the one or both end burners at their lowest setting to obtain the temp I want.

While this may sound conterdictory, I also use the top gap mod, which is placing a 36" angle iron 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 across the top of the fixed hood to reduce the air gap at the top. This reduce the escape of hot air from the chamber and helps in maintaining a constant temp. Some of the griller use a SS piano hingle for an adjustable mod.

Hike

Hike,

I think that you now have perfected the technique for low and slow ribs on your grill. If anything, you're suggesting that you want a deeper red color which you can get with red bean paste, a different brand of chiu sui sauce or even food red coloring, which is often used in restaurants.


Of course, none of us can tell what they taste like without an invitation or special delivery shipment.

Shelly

Hi Shelly,

Since you're also from Calif. you can appreciate this part of the story. I was in Ranch 99 (very large Asian SuperMarket) looking for the ingredients to make the Chiu-Sui sauce. I could not find any red bean paste, but lots of black bean paste. How can they not have any red bean paste????? I spotted these jars of pre-made Chui-Sui sauce on sale, looked at the ingredients list. The ingredients were in general the same as what I was looking for to make my own. I did notice that the color was not deep red and thought about buying some red food coloring to add to the pre-made sauce. I didn't because it was not going to add anything to the flavor.

But if you look at the last photos, as the ribs reached the final stage, they started to turn a deep red in color.

I don't think that we have any Ranch 99 stores in my area but do have several small Asian food markets. I plan to stop in one to see what they have in terms of the chiu-sui ingredients.

Wasn't sure just how red you wanted things to look but we all know that it's the taste that counts. And a little extra maple syrup usually does the trick, just as you used.

Shelly

Just to illustrate how we are not infallible even when we know what to do and not to do. Other attempts with the China Red were pretty good, but back in January, the week before SuperBowl Sunday, I did a batch of China Reds with baby back ribs. I set up the grill as normal, with the temp stabilized at about 230F. Went out and played tennis for a couple of hours and came back and found the grill with the temp up at 350F sitting out in the Sun.

Pictures of the this mishaps.

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Anyone have receipt for the Chiu-Sui sauce mentioned? We don't have Ranch 99 Market's in our area and I would like to try it as marinade on some skewered chicken thighs.
Thanks

The post below gives several receipes and a link to the original external site that started the "China Red" discussion.

Good luck.

Hike

http://www.bbqsource-forums.com/invboard/i...ost&p=14214