An old post to a forum that I copied and saved to my hard drive:
I took the ribs of a yearling deer I shot last weekend and placed them in my Brinkman smoker. I had an old grapevine that I cut about 4 inch sections of, then split them lengthwise and soaked them in water. I have an electric element for the smoker, so I plugged it in and let it smoke for 5.5 hours. While I was waiting on the ribs, I made up some “Carolina Red” bbq sauce, modifying a recipe I found via google. My mom is from western Kentucky and every time we would visit the relatives down there, we would drive to Peak’s Barbeque near Waverly, Kentucky. It was a watery vinegar sauce, unlike the thick pasty stuff that some refer to as Kansas City sauce. Either way, I think I hit a home run with what I threw together.
I mixed the following and brought it to a simmer:
One half gallon cheap ketchup
One and a half gallon white vinegar
4 tablespoons each of white and brown sugar
One half tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
Two tablespoons black peppercorns
Six habenero pepper, cut in quarters
10 small jalapeno peppers, cut in quarters
I pulled the ribs off the smoker, put them in the big canner full of sauce, placed it in the oven and set the temperature to 225 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of hours, then backed it down to 180 F for a couple of hours, then turned the oven off overnight.
After cooling overnight, there was a solidified fat layer over the top which I skimmed off before boning out the ribs, returning the meat back to the sauce, added 6 more jalapenos and brought it back to a simmer. There is a LOT of vinegar in that sauce, which made the meat AND bones tender! I would recommend this for tough, old animals. I took a hoagie bun, split it lengthwise, added some fresh sliced onion, piled on the “chipped” bbq meat and I was in heaven. I might even try this with a better cut of meat. I do have the front shoulders and neck still in the fridge…….
