The Backyard Southern Gourmet: Datil Pepper BBQ Ribs

Datil Pepper BBQ Ribs

The Datil Pepper is not well known outside of the northeastern Florida area. But, for those who have visited America's oldest city, St. Augustine, many become a permanent Datil Pepper fan. St. Augustine and the surrounding local area grow 95% of the world's Datil Peppers. The Datil is not as hot as a Habanero and is much sweeter. It is used in everything from hot sauce to jellies, jams, seasonings, BBQ Dry Rubs and Grilling Sauces.

Over Labor Day weekend, we smoked several racks of baby back ribs using the just released NorthStar Honey Datil Grilling Sauce from Heartbreaking Dawns (Armadillo Pepper was the first retailer to offer Johnny and Nicole's newest sauce) and we paired this with Datil Pepper BBQ Rub from Old Style Florida Foods.

The following video illustrates how we prepared the ribs starting from removing the rib membrane through the smoking and finishing processes.

One of the yardsticks we use when evaluating a new sauce/dry rub is by the response from our guests. On Labor Day, we finished ribs with three different BBQ Sauces and Rubs. Only this combination of Datil Pepper Dry Rub and North Star Finishing Sauce earned kudos from every single guests including two teenagers. Both of these kids are not spicy food eaters, but they enjoyed the ribs. One of the great features of the Datil Pepper is that you can add a lot of flavor with mild spice.

We've got to tell you that Johnny and Nicole over at Heartbreaking Dawns and Mad John over at Old Florida Style Foods have hit home runs with these great BBQ products!

Heartbreaking Dawns has also just released their new Meridian Serrano Grilling Sauce . We look forward to reviewing this new sauce in the near future.