Share your rib skills

[89911]

Originally Posted by 126coupe

I can't make better ribs than Costco's Curley's Brand

I saw them and was wondering if they were any good. I know this is blasphemy, but I could never get my ribs to tastes as good as some better rib joints. And from what is sounds like, spending $20 for a rack, compared to half a weekend preparing and cooking them isn't such a bad deal. Then again, I've never had your home cooked ones. Send me a sample?

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Moses

Never, ever boil or steam ribs. Makes them tender but flavorless.

Buy good meat. I prefer Niman ranch stuff but you can find quality meat anywhere. First I remove the membrane from the back of the ribs. If you want "Floppin' offa da bone" ribs, the membrane has to go.

Use a dry rub that is salt free. Salt will dry out the meat. For best results, let the ribs soak up the dry rub overnight in the fridge.

The key to cooking ribs properly is simple: Low temperature-Indirect heat. If you can keep your smoker aroung 250 degrees, that is perfect. Different hardwoods add different flavors, but they are all good; green oak, hickory, cherry, even alder. Green woods will give a much "sweeter" smoke than dried, cured woods. Cut some small local cherry or oak branches if you can.

When ribs are done, the meat will retract from the bones showing an inch or more of white rib bone. NOW the ribs are sealed, smoked and flavorful. If you want them even more tender, wrap each rack tightly in foil and let them sit in the smoker for another half hour.

You can serve these ribs dry with a sauce on the side or coat with a finishing sauce just before serving. Either way they will taste great.

Ditto

I have always used salt very sparingily in my rubs.

Problem with green woods is that you have the bark which adds cresote. Moses just try using Green Mesquite...you will be needin a new Q if ya do that...cause you can never get rid of the cresote taste.

I have gone from having a heavily smoked piece of meat to one where one just has a subtle hint of smoke..usually I will use hardwood logs burned down to glowing chunks. The idea is for the meat to only get about 20 to 30 minutes of smoke time. That imparts just that subtle hint.

If ya want them falling off the bone then one usually has to foil them for an hour or so. Lately though if I cook them at 200 to 250 and keep the lid closed I get a nice tender ribby. Also you sauce them for the 20 to 30 minutes to carmelize the sugar in the saucey.

[Dueller]

"Cheater" Ribs

Yes, I prefer slow cooking on indirect heat in a smoker. But if you don't have the time try the following:

Season ribs with your favorite dry rub or wet sauce. Wrap in Saran wrap (yes, the clear plastic wrap). Then wrap in aluminum foil. Bake in oven at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from oven. Unwrap from foil /saran wrap and grill them for 15 minutes on BBQ grill. Flip frequently and baste with your choice of wet sauce or dust with dry rub as you prefer for the last 5 minutes or so. They turn out moist, tender and tasty. Not as good as truly smoked BBQ with a "ring", but fine if you're in a hurry.

Boiling ribs is a mortaL sin.

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by Dueller

"Cheater" Ribs

Yes, I prefer slow cooking on indirect heat in a smoker. But if you don't have the time try the following:

Season ribs with your favorite dry rub or wet sauce. Wrap in Saran wrap (yes, the clear plastic wrap). Then wrap in aluminum foil. Bake in oven at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from oven. Unwrap from foil /saran wrap and grill them for 15 minutes on BBQ grill. Flip frequently and baste with your choice of wet sauce or dust with dry rub as you prefer for the last 5 minutes or so. They turn out moist, tender and tasty. Not as good as truly smoked BBQ with a "ring", but fine if you're in a hurry.

Boiling ribs is a mortaL sin.

I see Dueller already KNOWS the secret...

[Joeaksa]

You guys are making me hungry and I have two racks of baby backs in the fridge right now! Guess I know what I am having for dinner tomorrow night!

[TimT]

http://www.lobels.com/store/main/item.asp?item=102

http://www.lobels.com/store/main/item.asp?item=209

http://www.debragga.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=4&cat=Free+range+Iowa+Pork

[Brian 162]

I don't have a smoker just a natural gas bbq.
I marinate the ribs in a mixture of beer, Jack Daniels, and brown sugar for 2 to three hours.
Once I place the ribs on the bbq at a low heat I flip them every 5-7 minutes for a couple of hours. Just before they are done I'll put hickory bbq sauce on the ribs for a few turns.
The meat falls off the bone and you can taste the borboun in the ribs.

[fuelie600]

Originally Posted by tabs

Ditto
If ya want them falling off the bone then one usually has to foil them for an hour or so. Lately though if I cook them at 200 to 250 and keep the lid closed I get a nice tender ribby. Also you sauce them for the 20 to 30 minutes to carmelize the sugar in the saucey.

+1

Google "3-1-1 ribs"

Easy way to make great fall off the bone ribs.

[dtw]

Alright, it is time to revive this thread, as I have been cultivating my rib-fu all summer long. If anyone cares, I took runner-up in the chili contest, with a completely made-up recipe of turkey w/mango-habanero sauce. It was excellent, and not a bad finish for something I invented the same week. The key to the flavor was searing some turkey drumsticks in an iron skillet on high heat, then braising them for several hours to make the sauce's base. Heavenly.

Anyway, back to the ribs. This thread and the 'net at large have been invaluable. I threw a party 2 weekends ago in which many pigs gave their lives. For that batch, I went 100% smoke on 10 racks. I bought a new offset smoker for this party, but I am going to need to do some mods on it to get better heat distribution. Here's a pic of one of the meatiest racks:



As you can see the color is excellent and the ribs were juicy, but they were too chewy and did not pull cleanly off the bone. Still, much better than most restaurant dreck and I couldn't keep the serving trays stocked fast enough. I knew I could do better, though, and did not sleep well that night.

This coming weekend is LeMons South, and I will be doing another rib extravaganza. This past weekend I did a small family gathering with 2 racks just to try out one more technique. This time I used the "Texas Crutch" (foil) for 2:15, then smoked for 1:00. Half of them used original Bone-Suckin' sauce, and the other half used a homemade brew with chipotle peppers that I am developing. The results were astonishing. Clean, white bones. Tender, flavorful meat, that pulled easily off the bones. The best rack was so tender that the knife was tearing the ribs...gotta sharpen that knife. Also, I have been pulling the membrane off the ribs - it is really pretty easy to do if you don't mind really getting your hands dirty. Just slide a knife under the membrane in between two bones, then peel it off. Usually comes right off in one piece.

Here is the latest batch, just discussed. I am 100% satisfied with the meat now, now to refine my smoking technique. These used mesquite, which I am finding too harsh for ribs. This weekend I'll be using apple wood and hickory. To some of the earlier discussion, my rub is pretty salty but I am not having any problems w/my meat drying out.

[Shuie]

Here's mine. Actually, I copied it from somewhere on the web. I usually skip the sauce and eat them dry out of the oven, but they are really good with even a store bought sauce like Cattlemans if you don't have time or can't wait for step 3.


6 pounds pork spareribs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup salt
2 1/2 tablespoons ground black pepper
3 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 tablespoons garlic powder
5 tablespoons pan drippings
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 cups ketchup
3 cups hot water
4 tablespoons brown sugar
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup wood chips, soaked

DIRECTIONS

1. Clean the ribs, and trim away any excess fat. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, 1/4 cup salt, ground black pepper, paprika, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Coat ribs liberally with spice mix. Place the ribs in two 10x15 inch roasting pans, piling two racks of ribs per pan. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Bake uncovered for 3 hours, or until the ribs are tender and nearly fall apart.
3. Remove 5 tablespoons of drippings from the bottom of the roasting pans, and place in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion in pan drippings until lightly browned and tender. Stir in ketchup, and heat for 3 to 4 more minutes, stirring constantly. Next, mix in water and brown sugar, and season to taste with cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour, adding water as necessary to achieve desired thickness.
4. Preheat grill for medium-low heat.
5. When ready to grill, add soaked wood chips to the coals or to the smoker box of a gas grill. Lightly oil grill grate. Place ribs on the grill two racks at a time so they are not crowded. Cook for 20 minutes, turning occasionally. Baste ribs with sauce during the last 10 minutes of grilling, so the sauce does not burn.

[Joeaksa]

Looks delish!

Course you ba$tards always do this when I am overseas and there is not a mouth watering rib within 4000 miles... Still know what I am cooking when I get home!

[berettafan]

rub salt/pepper on ribs

1 min. under broiler

1/4" of sauce in bottom of crockpot, put in ribs (no need to cover with sauce yet) set crockpot to 'low' and go to work.

come home from work and baste ribs (if you like them that way...i prefer not) and put under broiler for a very short time to cook on sauce.

i have yet to eat better ribs than what this produces. not very glamorous but very, very effective. keeps from drying out the ribs and you can't pull them out of the pot without them falling apart.

[Looking_for_911]

I've got a slab working in the fridge right now, as a matter of fact.

Last night I first stripped the membrane off the back side of the ribs. Then mixed up a wash/marinade of 1/2 part white vinegar to 1/2 water. Added paparika, a little red pepper, black pepper, some Soul Food seasoning which has more of the peppers and some salt -- a little will not make 'em dry -- and then I threw in some cumin for good measure. I put the ribs in a deep dish and poured the vinnegar mixture over them and set them aside in the fridge where they reside over night. In about a couple hours I will get them out and let them start to come up to room temperature.

During this time I will have made a big fire in my oil drum -- a clean one, not used -- pit. I'll use natural hardwood charcoal, not briquets which are basically oil impregnated paper and such.
The fire will burn down quite a bit, until I can hold my hand about three inches off the grill for about a slow four or five count. I also add some water soaked hickory chips to the coals.

I place the ribs meaty side up and let them start to heat. Just as the fat starts to melt and the fire starts to react I close the lid. I resist the urge to open the lid for about 20-minutes, then quickly open and flip the slab. Close the lide quickly and resist the urge to open it for another 20-minutes or so. During the times when I quickly open and close the lid I re-baste the ribs with another vinegar/water/paparika/cumin wash to cool the meat.

The key to tender ribs, to me, is not par-boiling (Heresey!) or baking or steaming. If you like those methods, fine. But I believe the best way is to cook them "low and slow" for a couple hours minimun... maybe longer depending on how large the slab is. Oh, I usually use Spare Ribs, not Baby Backs. I suspect they may take a little less time.

One other method I like is to strip the membrane from the ribs, then baste the ribs heavily with any yellow, prepared mustard. Coat very liberally with your favorite dry rub, cook in the same method... Low and Slow!

[Shuie]

Do we have a similar chili thread? I've got a couple of good chili recipes to share.

[dtw]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Looks delish!

Course you ba$tards always do this when I am overseas and there is not a mouth watering rib within 4000 miles... Still know what I am cooking when I get home!

Did you at least get to do the ribs that were in your fridge in April?

Some great points in many of these posts. One of them that often goes un-noticed: always let the ribs come to room temp before cooking!!

[tabs]

Some new thoughts...Propane grills will not make BBQ..the water in the Propane steams em.

While watching a BBQ show the guy used a coupla large red clay pots that he got at the nursery for his cooker. On the bottom he placed a hot plate and then a store bought metal pie plate upon which he placed the wood chunks. He also bought a BBQ Grill and placed it inside the pot and the second pot acted as a lid...He also bought a cheap thermometer to put through the hole in the top. Ingenious....instant clay cooker (Big Green Egg).

Anyway I always remove the membrane, I find less spice is more spice. So I use a very light coat of salt, pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion and paprika. If you like you can add cumin, cayenne, celery powder and brown sugar.

I have been using Mesquite Hardwood charcoal which I buy for $12 for a 40 lb bag. I will put on a couple of Apple wood or other hardwood logs to impart a bit of woodys flavor. Let them burn down a bit to get the creosote out of the bark and damper down to 200 to 250. On ribs I need about 2 hours and 45 minutes. After the first hour I MOP em and for the last hour I MOP and wrap em in tin foil. This tin foil wrapping tends to steam em a bit and they will come out fallin off the bone. Subtlety of flavor is what I am after now.

You can also not wrap em in foil and with the Big Green Egg they will come off the bone as well. One just needs to keep the gddamed lid closed.

For a MOP*

Apple juice
Apple Cider Vinegar
Vegetable Oil
Brown Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Onion
Cumin
Crushed Red Chili Pepper
Celery Powder
Cayenne Pepper opt

You could use some Molasses instead of Brown Sugar.
Some white wine, whiskey or beer might work as well

Anyway you bring it all to a boil to meld all the spices and flavors..

You can also mix it with your BBQ sauce to give it some custom punch.

Anyway any Gddamed fool can light a match or press an electric starter button and cook up some BBQ. Or so they think. When ya first start out its all about fussin about with this an that. Usually one tends to impart too heavy of smoke taste which passes in many cases as de rigueur for good BBQ. After awhile that heavy smoke flavor gets old, and you want just that subtle hint of woodys flavor, The same goes for spicin em up, what are ya tryin to do disguise rancid meat or sumthin...at the end of the day the spices and smoke should complement the flavor of the meat and not over power it.

Then there is the matter of sauce or not to sauce. If you chose to do so the last half hour or 20 minutes will caramelize the sauce. Caramelizing changes the flavor of the sugars in the sauce.

Since I have been sick, I just do em naked and dip the sauce afterwards..it might be a good idea to heat the sauce first. Also I have gotten away from the really sweet sauces and like the Texas vinegar style better now. Sweet and sour as it might be.

But again sauce disguises the flavor of the meat, which can be a cover for heavy handed BBQ techniques...So pour away felllas... I wonder if in your neck of the woods they sell it by the drum?

Anyway enough levity, when you make em naked you can't hide your mistakes with sauce. And when ya can't stop em from stuffing them down by the rack without sauce ya have arrived cuase now ya are relying on the flavor of the meat or else they are a bunch of people who havn't eaten for a month.


* No measurements on the MOP, done just by sight and taste.

[Looking_for_911]

Originally Posted by dtw

Did you at least get to do the ribs that were in your fridge in April?

Some great points in many of these posts. One of them that often goes un-noticed: always let the ribs come to room temp before cooking!!

I should have highlighted where I put this in my post.... it's important because the bones and fat can hold so much cold. To me it's best to not have to overcome this with the low, slow heat.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by dtw

Did you at least get to do the ribs that were in your fridge in April?

Some great points in many of these posts. One of them that often goes un-noticed: always let the ribs come to room temp before cooking!!

Dave,

They are long gone but I have six racks in the freezer right now just waiting for my return.

Lots of good ideas here and cannot wait to try some of them!

Joe

[Looking_for_911]

Originally Posted by tabs

Some new thoughts...Propane grills will not make BBQ..the water in the Propane steams em.

While watching a BBQ show the guy used a coupla large red clay pots that he got at the nursery for his cooker. On the bottom he placed a hot plate and then a store bought metal pie plate upon which he placed the wood chunks. He also bought a BBQ Grill and placed it inside the pot and the second pot acted as a lid...He also bought a cheap thermometer to put through the hole in the top. Ingenious....instant clay cooker (Big Green Egg).

Anyway I always remove the membrane, I find less spice is more spice. So I use a very light coat of salt, pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion and paprika. If you like you can add cumin, cayenne, celery powder and brown sugar.

I have been using Mesquite Hardwood charcoal which I buy for $12 for a 40 lb bag. I will put on a couple of Apple wood or other hardwood logs to impart a bit of woodys flavor. Let them burn down a bit to get the creosote out of the bark and damper down to 200 to 250. On ribs I need about 2 hours and 45 minutes. After the first hour I MOP em and for the last hour I MOP and wrap em in tin foil. This tin foil wrapping tends to steam em a bit and they will come out fallin off the bone. Subtlety of flavor is what I am after now.

You can also not wrap em in foil and with the Big Green Egg they will come off the bone as well. One just needs to keep the gddamed lid closed.

For a MOP

Apple juice
Apple Cider Vinegar
Vegetable Oil
Brown Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Onion
Cumin
Crushed Red Chili Pepper
Celery Powder
Cayenne Pepper opt

You could use some Molasses instead of Brown Sugar.
Some white wine, whiskey or beer might work as well

Anyway you bring it all to a boil to meld all the spices and flavors..

You can also mix it with your BBQ sauce to give it some custom punch.

Anyway any Gddamed fool can light a match or press an electric starter button and cook up some BBQ. Or so they think. When ya first start out its all about fussin about with this an that. Usually one tends to impart too heavy of smoke taste which passes in many cases as de rigueur for good BBQ. After awhile that heavy smoke flavor gets old, and you want just that subtle hint of woodys flavor, The same goes for spicin em up, what are ya tryin to do disguise rancid meat or sumthin...at the end of the day the spices and smoke should complement the flavor of the meat and not over power it.

Then there is the matter of sauce or not to sauce. If you chose to do so the last half hour or 20 minutes will caramelize the sauce. Caramelizing changes the flavor of the sugars in the sauce. Since I have been sick, I just do em naked and dip the sauce afterwards..it might be a good idea to heat the sauce first. Also I have gotten away from the really sweet sauces and like the Texas vinegar style better now. Sweet and sour as it might be.

But again sauce disguises the flavor of the meat, which can be a cover for heavy handed BBQ techniques...So pour away felllas... I wonder if in your neck of the woods they sell it by the drum?

Anyway enough levity, when you make em naked you can't hide your mistakes with sauce.

Very nice MOP, Tabs!

The highlighted parts of your post are why I didn't mention sauce in my original post. I figured -- probably wrongly - - that people knew not to put sauce on too early for it will burn the sugars and taste yukky. Also, Sauce or Not... a toss up, but I like the subtle flavors more so than the cake-icing-like covering thick red sauces give you.

Then there's mayonaise and vinegar based White Sauce.... never been my favorite, though.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by dtw

Alright, it is time to revive this thread, as I have been cultivating my rib-fu all summer long. If anyone cares, I took runner-up in the chili contest, with a completely made-up recipe of turkey w/mango-habanero sauce. It was excellent, and not a bad finish for something I invented the same week. The key to the flavor was searing some turkey drumsticks in an iron skillet on high heat, then braising them for several hours to make the sauce's base. Heavenly.

Anyway, back to the ribs. This thread and the 'net at large have been invaluable. I threw a party 2 weekends ago in which many pigs gave their lives. For that batch, I went 100% smoke on 10 racks. I bought a new offset smoker for this party, but I am going to need to do some mods on it to get better heat distribution. Here's a pic of one of the meatiest racks:



As you can see the color is excellent and the ribs were juicy, but they were too chewy and did not pull cleanly off the bone. Still, much better than most restaurant dreck and I couldn't keep the serving trays stocked fast enough. I knew I could do better, though, and did not sleep well that night.

This coming weekend is LeMons South, and I will be doing another rib extravaganza. This past weekend I did a small family gathering with 2 racks just to try out one more technique. This time I used the "Texas Crutch" (foil) for 2:15, then smoked for 1:00. Half of them used original Bone-Suckin' sauce, and the other half used a homemade brew with chipotle peppers that I am developing. The results were astonishing. Clean, white bones. Tender, flavorful meat, that pulled easily off the bones. The best rack was so tender that the knife was tearing the ribs...gotta sharpen that knife. Also, I have been pulling the membrane off the ribs - it is really pretty easy to do if you don't mind really getting your hands dirty. Just slide a knife under the membrane in between two bones, then peel it off. Usually comes right off in one piece.

Here is the latest batch, just discussed. I am 100% satisfied with the meat now, now to refine my smoking technique. These used mesquite, which I am finding too harsh for ribs. This weekend I'll be using apple wood and hickory. To some of the earlier discussion, my rub is pretty salty but I am not having any problems w/my meat drying out.

I could tell without reading your text that those Ribbys were going to be a little chewy and not fallin off the bone good. The clean knife cuts gave it away, if they were fallin off the bone those cuts would not have been possible.

One you didn't cook em long enough...when ya do mass quantity of BBQ the dynamics change a bit...even at room temp it takes awhile for the BBQ unit to be brought back u to temp after ya put the meat on. So ya might want to start off with a higher heat which will be brought down quickly by the meat acting as a heat sink or plan on cooking them longer.

I do hope you took my advice and have bought a HEAVY GAUGED offset cooker. The thin metal ones dissipate heat too quickly. They tend to fluctuate alot in temp and are ravenous on fuel to keep a temp.

If ya think you can modify one of those thin walled units to work well ..well your welcome to try.

U might say when you get tired of fussin about with the thin wall unit, you will give up and go HEAVY METAL>>>then ya won't need to do no fussin about...and then ya can get down to perfectin your style...