Has anyone tried to use tea as the smoking agent instead if wood?
I am going to be trying some Asianed flavored ribs on my Egg tomorrow and am going to try the tea method
Tea method: in a foil pouch, add tea leaves, ginger, orange peel and some uncooked rice; then close the pouch, make slits and toss onto lump
I am unsure what the uncooked rice is for but it appears to be included in the pouch in the few recipes I saw online.
I have not tried this, but that sounds pretty awesome to me. How did it go?
I was over all very happy.
I changed 3 variables from my normal technique
1) used tea instead of wood
2) used a marinade instead of a dry rub
3) used an applesauce mixture instead of honey during the foil stage
The flavor of the tea smoke was very mild (which my wife very much liked as the wood smoke can be overpowering for her even when I use a small chunk
I got a much much more pronounced smoke ring than normal. I don't know if that has to do with the marinade or the tea
I did not like the applesauce mixture. It did not break down as I expected it would. I am going back to honey during the foil stage
The glaze was great but took some time to balance the sugar, juice and base teriyaki to get it how I wanted.
I was very happy how long the one tea packet I made continued to produce smoke. It was still putting out a small amount after the 5 hours was up.
I was more than happy enough to use tea again and to try it on different meats with other flavor profiles. I don't think the tea smoke always needs to be paired with Asian flavors as it appears to be mild enough to go with any flavor profile.
Overall I would recommend the tea for anyone looking for a milder smoke flavor than your normal fruit wood provides.
==========
Here are the steps I took for this cook
1) butcher ribs to the style you like and remove membrane.
2) make marinade: soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, ginger, garlic, sriracha sauce
3) marinate ribs for 2 hours
4) make foil tea packet: cut up 7 bags of tea, fresh ginger, brown sugar, orange peel and uncooked rice
5) set up egg for 250 indirect and put foil packet with slits on hot coals
6) cook ribs for 3 hours
7) wrap ribs in foil with an apple sauce, sriracha sauce mix, cook for 1 hour
8) heat glaze on stove top: garlic, ginger, teriyaki, pineapple juice and a little brown sugar, heat until all blended
9) after ribs have cooked one hour in foil, take out of foil and let cook unfoiled for one more hour
10) add glaze during last 30 minutes, finishing off with one coat of glaze during the end