Central's Famous Porketta Roast

Ingredients:
1 3-5 Lb Porketta Roast
1 Large Onion

Procedure:
Peel the onion and slice into 1/4" discs. Line the bottom of a dutch oven with the onion slices and top with the porketta roast. Cover, and cook in a 350¢ª oven for 30-45 minutes per pound until the internal temperature reaches 165-170¢ª or juices run clear.
Remove the roast from the dutch oven and allow to rest on a cutting board, loosely covered with foil for 10-15 minutes. Remove netting, and slice. Serve with its own natural drippings an cooked onions.
Serves 5-6

What is a Porketta?
You might find yourself asking, what exactly is this Italian Porketta roast and what makes it so good? The Porketta roast starts out as a boston cut pork shoulder, one of the juiciest and most flavorful cuts of pork. The roast is deboned, excess fat is removed and it is butterflied in preparation for the spice blend. This is where the magic happens. Our craftsmen apply Central's secret spice rub, to all sides of the meat; a delicious Italian blend that has been improved and refined for years. Our Porketta spice blend is one of Central's most coveted and sought after secrets. One taste of the Porketta roast and you'll know why: a flavor explosion that is sure to become a new family favorite! Finally, the roast is hand tied in netting and ready for your oven.

Recipe By: Nelson Colwell, Pitmaster of Old Dominion Smokehouse Championship BBQ Team

Smoked Bone-in Beef Chuck Plate Ribs (Also Known as Dino Ribs, Texas Ribs, or Short Ribs)

This weekend I decided to smoke some beef chuck short ribs. This was my 2^nd time smoking beef ribs and I did them a little differently than the last time. I think they turned out a little bit better this time around.

The key things I learned about smoking the ribs is patience. Beef Ribs take a long time to smoke, it took me just about 8 hours to cook them and I still think they could have been smoked a little longer.

I also learned that trimming the top layer of fat on these ribs helps a lot with the bark & smoke ring forming on the meat. The first time I smoked these ribs, I didn’t trim the top layer of fat off. They were still good, but I had to eat around a lot of the chunks of fat that didn’t melt into the meat. The bark was also on those chunks of fat, since the bark formed on the top layer of fat. Trimming the top layer of fat off, formed a better bark & allowed me to actually enjoy the bark because it formed on the actually meat and not the fat.

Here are pictures to show you the difference between one chuck rib smoked with the fat layer and one without the fat layer:


**Smoked Beef Chuck Plate Ribs With Top Fat Layer Intact	**Smoked Beef Chuck Plate Ribs with Top Fat Layer Removed

If you have any questions that aren't answered on here feel free to ask me in the store any time, or you can reach us on the phone while we are open at 757-547-2161. I will do my best to answer any questions you have.

I don't claim to be an expert smoker. I've only had a smoker for about 5 months now and am doing a lot of learning myself. I figured I will start to post these blogs/recipes onto our website to share my journey with everyone. My mistakes, what I figured out works for me, what doesn't work. Thanks for reading. My ingredients, preparation, and cook process are below. Hope your Beef Ribs turn out great!

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Trim the top layer of fat off the ribs. You don’t need it to be perfect, some fat will be left on because it runs into the meat so much. Just try to trim it as much as you can. If you want us to trim it for you while you are here in the store, we can certainly do that for you.
Apply the Bovine Bold Rub to the ribs. Make sure to pay special attention to the sides, as well. Don’t be bashful with the rub, make sure you are coating the entire rib top to bottom.
Cover the ribs and put into the refrigerator to rest overnight. Make sure to cover them, the beef will dry out on you in the fridge overnight if you don’t cover them.

Cooking Method:

Prepare your Smoker or whatever cooking device you are using. I use the Weber Smokey mountain 22” smoker. It uses charcoal for fuel and wood chunks/chips can be added to the charcoal. I used Chigger Creek Oak Wood Chunks for the Beef Ribs.
My Smoker has a water pan at the bottom that I did fill up before I started the smoker. It helped to keep the Beef Ribs moist & not dry out during the long smoking process. If you don’t have a water pan, you can always get a spray bottle, fill it up with water or maybe apple juice and then spray the ribs with it every hour or 2 to keep it moist.
I smoked the Beef Ribs at around 225-250 degreesF thru the entire process. I smoked the beef ribs for around 8 hours. I turned the beef ribs about every 2 hours to try to give everything an even bark/smoke ring.
Our target temperature we are trying to reach is about 200-205 Degrees Fahrenheit. You should use an instant read thermometer in the thickest portion of the ribs to check the temperature.
A good indicator that the ribs are almost done is when you insert the thermometer into the meat. It should slide into the meat, almost like putting it into hot butter. There shouldn’t be much resistance. If there is, then the ribs still need more time.
When the ribs are finished smoking, take them off and put aluminum foil over the top of the ribs and let them rest for 15-30 minutes.
Take the foil off, cut the beef ribs up and enjoy!

Here are some More Pictures Throughout the Smoke Process:


Raw Beef Chuck Plate Ribs Before Trimming or Doing anything to them	Beef Chuck Plate Ribs on the Smoker with Bovine Bold Rub on Them


Oak Wood Chunks on top of Weber Charcoal inside my smoker	The Finished Product - Smoked Beef Chuck Plate Ribs

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Central's Famous Porketta Roast