So today we started the day off prepping the ribs. Mr. Sussman told Ted and Myles to get the ribs out the fridge and put them on the table. Earlier, as we had covered the tables with brown paper, someone pointed out that the paper made it look like a solid table when in fact it was four tables pushed together with a huge hole in the middle. Just a few minutes later, when Ted walked over with a huge package of ribs, he went to dramatically slam them down on the middle of the table as a joke. Of course, they went straight through the “table” and we all laughed hysterically. Preparing the ribs involved lots of steps: trimming off loose scraps of fat and meat, removing bone fragments, covering with a light film of mustard, then sprinkling with the BBQ pork rub we made on Friday before wrapping them and putting them back in the fridge until they go into the smoker tomorrow morning.
After we all finished we took a trip down to Ralph’s to grab some meat for burgers we made for lunch. So we bought buns and the meat and brought it back to Van Meter Hall and started prepping them. Jack and Chase did most of the work with the burgers. Thanks to them we had a delicious meal. Molly also brought corn, which tasted amazing. After we feasted we had the official lunch break for about an hour. When we came back we pranked Mr. Sussman by putting a video of a broken screen on the enormous T.V., making him think we broke it. It took him several minutes to figure out it was a joke, which was hilarious.
The final event of the day was a BBQ sauce competition. Using grocery-store ingredients like Sweet Baby Ray’s, honey, worcestershire, hot sauce, brown sugar, and various spices, we worked in pairs to blend the best-tasting sauce. Mr. Sussman tasted them all without knowing which was which and ranked them. Jaiwant and Matt came out on top, but we all had a good time.
At the very end of the day, we prepped the smoker for the ribs so we can light it up first thing in morning. That means packing the bottom chamber with unlit charcoal and chunks of hickory wood. We’ll light a small number of coals in the morning, dump them on top, and then assemble the rest of the smoker on top.