Posted: 3/28/2006 1:00:11 PM EDT
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I grill all the time, but have never tried ribs as I just got a big enough grill at the end of last summer. I plan to cook up a couple racks this weekend and I'm in need of some recipes/methods. I use a Char-Broil two chamber charcoal grill/smoker, and cook over natural lump charcoal and hunks of applewood, hickory, or mesquite. |
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Bob's Rib Rub 8 Tbls Brown Sugar 5 Tbls Paprika 3 Tbls Kosher Salt 1 Tbls Garlic Powder 1 Tbls Onion Powder 1 Tbls Chili Powder 1/2 Tbls Cayenne Pepper 1/2 Tbls Black Pepper 1/2 Tbls White Pepper Mix Well Remove silver skin membrane from back of Spareribs. Coat ribs evenly with rub. Place ribs on a medium grill (250 degrees) for two hours. Reduce heat and smoke ribs for 2-3 hours (150 degrees). Finish the ribs at 250 degrees for 2-3 hours until meat has pulled away from the ends of the rib bones about an inch or so. Remove from heat and allow to set for 15 minutes or so before serving. Serve the ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce. NEVER cook the sauce on the ribs! Enjoy! |
I will probably use hickory and applewood with the ribs. I usually only use the mesquite for steaks. |
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Let me get this out of the way: DON'T BOIL RIBS. Ever. Anyone who boils ribs probably eats boogers as well. Get a clean fire going in your smoker and get the temperature up to 225*. You want a thin stream of white smoke at most. Heavy smoke will kill the taste of your food. Wash and pat dry the ribs. Remove the membrane. The rack can be trimmed "St. Louis" style if you desire by trimming off the knuckle and trailing flaps. Coat the ribs with worstershire sauce and your favorite rub. I use either Texas BBQ Rub or Grillin Mud for my ribs. Smoke the ribs for 3 hours, meat side up. Then wrap them in foil and smoke them for 2 more hours. Then open the foil, add a coat of Texas Pepper Jelly Pineapple Habanero jelly and smoke them for one more hour. Spraying or basting is not necessary if you keep your temperature at 225*. They are tasty!  |
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I never liked my ribs cooked in foil, I always do my brisket in foil for half of the cooking time, but I like my ribs cooked open for the whole time. A lot of it depends on how well you can control your heat. I like to start my cooking then reduce temperature and smoke for an extended period of time and then increase temperature to finish cooking. An occasional apple juice spritz really just keeps the rub from drying out and adds a nice finished shine to the ribs. I don't normally like sauce cooked on BBQ, but I do once in a while glaze some ribs with jalepeno jelly. YUM! By the way, Ribs come from PIGS! Whatever those things are that come off of cows, they ARE NOT RIBS! |
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Careful Temp Control in the cooking chamber. Here's a good starting point (the recipe originator has won several large competetions with these ribs): Best Ribs In The Universe - The Original Recipe Text This recipe and cooking procedure won the prestigious title "Best Ribs in the Universe" at the 1996 American Royal Invitational and the 1993 American Royal Open Bar-B-Que contest as the Overall Grand Champion. They also took "Reserve Grand Champion" at the 1994 American Royal Open. Meat Premium Standard Farms Loin Baby Back Ribs, 1-3/4 to 2 lb. size. Membrane on the inner (stomach) side removed. All excess fat trimmed. Dry Rub Mix all ingredients thoroughly and store unused in moisture-proof container. Ingredients List 1 cup sugar 1 cup non-iodized table salt 1/2 cup brown sugar* 5 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon chili powder 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons ground cumin 4 teaspoons Accent (MSG) 4 teaspoons cayenne pepper 4 teaspoons black pepper, freshly ground Important 4 teaspoons garlic powder 4 teaspoons onion powder * Dried out lightly by exposing on cookie sheet room temp, several hours, or in slightly warmed oven. Sprinkle meat two hours before cooking with rub and allow meat to come to room temperature. Do not over season. A good overall dusting of the spices is all that's needed. The spices will become a nice red, liquid coating after sitting for about an hour, if you used the proper amount. Basic Cooking Procedure Smoke ribs in a "water pan" smoker, i.e. Brinkmann or Weber "Smokey Mountain Cooker" (the best!). Start charcoal (10-15 lbs.) and 4 chunks of white oak and 2 chunks of cherry wood (about the size of a tennis ball) at least 1 hour before cooking meat. All fuel should be started in a chimney-style starter, no starter fluid, and all must be gray/white hot. Remove all bark from wood chunks, do not soak. Very little smoke will be visible. Don't worry about that! You'll get the flavor. Use straight water in the water pan and keep full during the entire cooking process. Control oven temperature of cooker by regulating the bottom vents only. Never, ever completely close the top vent! If you don't have one, put a thermometer on your cooker. Cook ribs for 3 hours fairly cool at 225°F on rib racks. After 3 hours lift the lid for the first time, flip the slabs end for end, and upside down, and open all the vents on the smoker wide open. Temperature of the cooker should rise into the 250-275°F range. Peek every half hour to monitor doneness. Ribs will be finished when fairly brown in color and the meat has pulled down the long bones at least 3/4 of an inch (usually another 1 to 2 hours). Remove from cooker and sauce both sides before cutting individual ribs. I like K.C. Masterpiece sweetened even more (5 parts sauce, 1 part honey), and so do the judges! This basic cooking procedure is probably the most important of all, and works well with other meats as well. Forget about how much smoke is coming out of the cooker. If you've got the wood you like in there burning cleanly, the flavor will be in the meat. Smoke is nothing more than a smoke screen, and any coming out the top of the cooker is flavor lost! Ribs to ya! Enjoy. |
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someone said dont boil.. ok.. i do this.. and they are great.. i dont care what anyone says... pressure cook baby backs for 15 minutes. have a barbecue grill ready. put water soaked hickory chips on coals, put ribs on the side, cover, smoke for 15 to 20 minutes. remove from fire, paint with bbsauce, put back on grill, cover, smoke/cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. serve.. this is prolly blasphemy to many. but i swear doing this makes them very tender. the right sauce helps of course. i eat at bbq places sometimes. i dont like the smoked-for-24-hours tuff babybacks near as much.. the above is quick and i bet you get rave reviews. |
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I am plagiarizing my post from last week to bring you.... Dry Rubbed SMoked BBQ Spare Ribs - Macro Style  Pick up two nice racks of spare ribs. Dry-rub with paprika, black pepper, green pepper, vegeta seasoning, and kosher salt - wrap up in plastic and massage the spices firmly into the meat, then wrap in tin foil and keep in the freezer until you are ready spend the day on this project. Here they are still in the plastic getting ready to become a meal...  Find 3 branches about 8 feet long, some cordage and a knife, light duty gloves to deal with hot stuff, some decent tongs, and a grill mesh or other slotted platform you can smoke meat from...  Using the cordage and the grill mesh, form a tripod with the branches, then lash the mesh to the tripod as shown about 2-3 feet up from where the coals will be. Now you have a platform to smoke the meat from...  Build a fire pit from stones like you would to make a campfire - it will work perfectly to direct smoke up through the rack. Keep the coals in the fire low, so that the right under the meat is just warm enough to be uncomfortable to a bare hand but not hot enough to sear the meat. The end product is a very slow cooking and smoking process that will take about 3-4 hours for fully cooked and flavored ribs. The wood being burnt in the picture was apple, but you could substitute any aromatic wood of choice...  And in the end, after a few hours of tending the fire...  Just before serving them, I lowered the grill top on to some rocks that I made a platform with, then kicked some coals under to just put a nice crisp on the meat. Dont have any pics of that part as it got a bit hectic, and once the food was ready to eat, it was all about the the meal - less picture taking - more rib eating! Of course, you can accomplish the same thing by tossing them on a regular old grill with a medium flame...the object being to just finish the ribs off. The smoke and low heat have already done the important work by this point...the rest is a matter of preference. Smoked BBQ ribs are hard to beat  |
Funny you should mention mequite. I typically don't use it for anything but beef, however on occasion mix it with hickory on pork for just a flare of taste mixture. It tends to mellow the hickory a bit without leaving a heavy mesquite taste. That's just a few chips here and there. By the sounds of it, you are going for a slight sweet taste (applewood). Something to try is adding just a dash of Old Bay to your BBQ sause. It adds a little flare with a sweet tinge that mellows the smoke tartness but not overly sweet. If you get a touch too much (taste test before basting), you can offset the Old Bay sweetness with just a squirt of lemon juice. Hot and sweet is another of my favorites combining a slight fruit taste with a pepper overtone. Numerous ways to get at this taste sensation as well. I actually started taking BBQ serious in the early 80s while living in Texas and then refined it the 15 years I've been here in TN. Its like the national dish in both states. Texas taught me about "All you all sause". All you all got in the house you put on the meat. Its kind of rough at times but it does give you a distinct opinion of what things taste well together over time. If you find interesting, you ought to get going on charbroiling a steak. That's a different world for its more dependent on playing the flame to match the meat you have, type and testure. I just wore my gas grill out last night. I'm afraid I have repaired it too many times and its time for a new one. We grill or smoke at least three times a week year round. We get looks in winter. Tj |
