Now that the ribs have been prepped and the grill is heated up, it's time to put the two together. Take the ribs and place them bone side down, on the side of the grill away from the direct heat (be it your coals on a charcoal grill or the burner on the gas grill). Some pitmasters will add an additional water pan on the upper grate close to the ribs (but not directly over the fire, as we don't want to boil the water). If you have enough room on the grill, go for it. If not, don't sweat it too much. the pan below will do just fine. After that, close the lid and walk away. We're in for the long haul.
Let them be for the first hour. After that, it's time to check on them to be sure they are not drying out. This is usually done by spraying or mopping the ribs with something. It can be as simple as apple juice or a combination of juices, oils, vinegars and spices. Usually I will end up using one part apple juice and one part cider vinegar, sometimes with a bit of rub dissolved in the mix. Use a spray bottle or a a brush (the silicone brushes work, but the cloth/string mops like THIS are even better for this task). Add enough to keep the ribs from drying out, but not enough to wash the rub off.
Close the lid and repeat every 45 minutes or so until the ribs have been on for 3 hours.
At this point, you could continue to let the ribs cook until they are done in another hour or two. However, a number of pitmasters, especially in competition, will use the 'Texas Crutch', whereby the ribs are wrapped in foil with a bit of liquid to help tenderize and flavor the ribs further. Is it necessary? Probably not. Should you give it a try? Depends on how much time you have. For this cook, I did, with a twist. Using grill tongs, pull the ribs off the grill, place in a pan and bring them inside. Using heavy duty aluminum foil, pull a sheet 1 1/2 times as long as the ribs. Now it's time to gather your materials for the ribs:
The Parkay will help tenderize the ribs even further while inside the foil. The brown sugar and honey will add a layer of sweetness that will go between the spice from the rub and the sauce that will be used later. Place the ribs in the middle of the foil, lengthwise. Sprinkle a bit of the rub used on the ribs. Next, squeeze a line or two or Parkay on the ribs. Add a hand full of brown sugar, and follow up with a line or two of honey.
Bring the edges together above the ribs, then fold/crimp them together lengthwise so it is sealed. Do the same for the ends of the foil so that the ribs are now sealed. Alternatively, if you did not want to go the sugar/honey/Parkey route, that is perfectly fine. Wrap the ribs in foil as described above. Before crimping one of the ends of the package, add a bit of juice (apple, orange, pineapple, etc) into the foil packet, bone side down, then crimp the end tight. Once the ribs are done, place them back on the grill for another 45 -60 minutes with the lid closed. Pull them off the grill and remove from the foil packet. Be careful, as the steam may burn like a bag of microwave popcorn. When done, return to the grill for sauce
After 4+ hours, we're just about ready to eat. At this point, the meat should be starting to shrink back from the edges of the bones. The bones should twist just a bit, but should not fall out of the ribs. When held with tongs, the ribs should have quite a bit of give, but should not break in half. We can now add our sauce. What kind of sauce really depends on your preference. Homemade or store bought, mass market or bouquet, whatever tickles your taste buds. Using a brush or mop, add the sauce to the ribs. If the sauce seems too thick, or you prefer a thinner glaze on the ribs, just thin the sauce with some apple juice. Close the lid and let the sauce set for about 30 minutes. After that, it's finally time to pull them and get ready to eat.
The ribs should be tender, but with a bit of pull. The meat should be nice and moist, with a balance of spice sweet and a hint of smokiness. Contrary to popular belief, the ribs shouldn't fall off the bone, which is a sign that the ribs were overcooked. How you serve them is entirely up to you. You can take a knife and cut them into individual rib bones, or serve half or the entire slab at once.
That's it folks. The technique isn't really that complicated, but it does take time. Trust me, your patience will be well rewarded. As stated in the prologue, I am far from a professional. Every pitmaster may not follow the same exact steps as mentioned on these posts. After you try it yourself, you may want to tweak a few things more to your circumstances or liking. Have at it. As long as you can properly prep your ribs and keep a stable temperature you will be fine. Now go out there ans make yourselves some ribs people! Let me know how they turn out.
With the ribs cleaned, skinned, trimmed, and rubbed, it's time to talk about the grill. Charcoal grills and smokers. Gas grills and smokers. Electric grills and smokers. Pellet grills and smokers. Kamado grills/smokers. UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker). Prices that can range from under $100 into the thousands. Grills big enough to cook for 2 people or for a small army. What grill is best then? Honest answer: whichever one works for you. When cooking ribs, I want my cooker to do 3 things:
1. Be able to cook the ribs indirectly (away from the flame)
2. Be able to produce smoke
3. Be able to reasonably maintain a consistent temperature
I am not going to get into whether charcoal or gas is a better method for your cook. Both have their pros and cons. Of the 3 items listed above, a charcoal grill will give you better smoke, while temperature control is much easier on a gas setup. While each type of grill has it's own particular tricks and tweaks to be made, either can be used to cook a fine rack of ribs, or anything else you'll want to cook. I'm also not going to go much into depth on what type of grill, be it kettle, off-set, water smoker, or whatever. You can spend $1500 on a heavy duty Lang smoker with 1/4" steel panels and your food may not taste nearly as good as someone with a $100 Webber kettle (which, in all honesty, is one of the best, most versatile grills on the planet). Remember, it's all about the technique.
With that out of the way I'll introduce my setup at home. While I've got no issue with gas grills, I'm a member of the charcoal coalition
In the back is my Char-Broil barrel style grill, which has seen it's share of cooks in the past 4 years. In the front is my Char-Griller Akorn kamado style cooker, which has become my main cooker for longer cooks like brisket and pork shoulder. While I could use either to do my ribs, I'm using the Akorn for this cook.
Now let's talk heat sources
Here I have charcoal briquettes, lump charcoal, and a mixture of hardwood chunks, all in 5 gallon buckets. The small 1 gallon bucket holds soaked wood chips. Each have their use, depending on what food I'm cooking and what grill I'm using. It has been argued that lump charcoal burns hotter than your charcoal briquettes, and possibly burns longer. Lump also produces less ash than briquettes. On the other hand, lump is also more expensive than briquettes, isn't carried in as many stores and unless used properly can be less consistent temperature-wise because of the varying sizes of the pieces of lump. With briquettes, they are always readily available, less expensive, and burn extremely consistently from bag to bag. You will find people that champion either form of charcoal with a diehard fervor. While I don't know if there is a 'best' in this battle, I do know my Akorn (and other kamado smokers) recommend using lump charcoal, mainly because of how these cookers are designed. With my other grill? Either works fine. What brand? More than a few pitmasters say it really doesn't matter. You can find Kingsford practically anywhere. Royal Oak is also pretty popular and available across the country. I've used Stubbs lump briquettes (not sure if that's really a thing or just marketing, but whatever...) for the last few years. Whatever you do, please DO NOT use those MatchLight briquettes or any charcoal that has been pretreated with fluid!!! It takes forever for those chemicals to burn off the charcoal, if it ever does. 9 times out of 10 your food will be left with a nasty taste, and is one reason some people don't care for charcoal grills. There are much easier, safer, and better ways to light your coals, which we will get to in a bit.
While the charcoal will provide it's own smoky flavor, we'll need some more for the ribs. That's where the wood chunks come in. Hickory and mesquite wood chunks are usually easy enough to find at the store. However, some pitmasters prefer the smoke from fruit trees, like cherry, apple or peach. Oak, maple and pecan are also popular on the cooking circuit. You'll find some that say apple wood goes good when cooking chicken, or cherry goes well with pork. You'll also find those that believe you really can't tell the difference. Most do agree, though, that mesquite can provide too heavy of a smoky flavor to your food. My take? Try a few and see what you like. My bucket has a mix of apple, cherry and pecan wood chunks that have served me well. As for the chips, those I will use when grilling foods that will cook much faster, like seafood. The chips are usually soaked in water first, since they will burn much quicker than chunks, then put directly over the hot coals. For the chunks, they don't need to be soaked.
Let's take a second to talk about how to light your fire:
My favorite way to light charcoal, hands down, is with the chimney starter, shown on the orange bucket. The charcoal goes in the top. Next, 2 crumpled pieces of newspaper go in the bottom. Set the chimney on a fireproof surface or one of the grates of your grill, light the newspaper, and wait 10-15 minutes. The paper burns long enough to ignite the charcoal at the bottom of the chimney, which then lights the other coals. No muss, no fuss, no lighter fluid, and it only cost 2 pages of the sports section.Personally, I believe every charcoal grill should be sold with one. Two other really good options are shown to the left or the right. The Weber lighter cubes, or other similar paraffin lighters, work really well. Simply arrange your charcoal in your grill, add the cube inside the middle of the charcoal pile (you can use more than 1 cube or break the cube into pieces as well) and light the cube. The cube will burn between 8-10 minutes, igniting the charcoal in the process. Fire Liters are popular with those who have a fireplace in the house, and work similarly to the paraffin cubes (though they don't burn as hot, they do burn a bit longer than the cubes). There are other ways to light your coals, like an electric starter (an electric coil that heats and ignites the coals) or a weedburner (a modified propane torch), but these shown have worked for me without fail.
Now we can move onto getting the grill going. The grill is going to have to burn for 3-5 hours depending on your grill and the ribs you're cooking. The ribs will be cooked indirectly, meaning the they will not be directly over the fire. The grill will also be kept at a relatively low temperature (225 - 250 degrees). The type of grill that you have will determine what setup you will need. Here's what I have to do for my Akorn (other kamado style grills are similar):
One of the benefits of a kamado style grill is it's efficiency. It can maintain a constant temperature without using a whole lot of charcoal. Rather than filling up the entire grill, I fashioned a small basket of sorts with some expanded steel and metal zip ties, which I put in the center of the grill and fill with lump charcoal and a few chunks of apple and cherry wood for smoke. Next, I placed a Fire Lighter brick in the center of the coals and lit it.
After about 20 minutes, enough of the coals were lit to finish setting up the grill. Since the ribs were going to be cooked indirectly, I needed a shield to go between the fire below and the upper grill grate. I have found using a regular, 14" pizza pan wrapped in aluminum foil generally does the trick. Usually kamado grills will have a ceramic plate that can be used as both a heat deflector and a heat sink, helping to stabilize the temperature in the grill (it can also be used as a pizza stone when cooking pizzas on the grill). When I first bought the grill, the ceramic plate wasn't available at the store, and I never bothered calling Char-Griller to order one. At some point I will get one for my kamado. For the time being, the pizza pan has worked just fine.
After the deflector is in place and the upper grill is installed, it's time for one of the most important tools in my arsenal: a digital thermometer. Yes, many grills have thermometers embedded in the lids. However, by and large these thermometers suck. At best, the position of the thermometer is such that you can't get an accurate reading on how hot the grill is at the grate where the food is. What the thermometer will read is the temperature of the air near the top of the dome, which at best will still be inaccurate. With a digital thermometer, you can set the probe much closer to the grate and the food, giving you a much more accurate reading. My personal choice (and choice for numerous other pitmasters) is the Maverick ET-732. The Maverick comes with 2 temperature probes, so you can set one probe up to monitor the grill temperature, and have the other inside the meat to measure it's temperature at the same time. There is a wireless receiver as well, so you can monitor the temperature while doing something else around the house, which is extremely useful for a long cook. An alarm can be set for either probe to alert you when the target temperature has been reached (or if the temperature is too high or too low, if you chose). You can generally find these online for about $50-$60. It will be money well spent, trust me.
When cooking ribs, I will set the Maverick up with just the temperature probe, which I place close to the grill grate. Then I shut the lid, adjust the vents, and wait until the temperature stabilizes at 250 degrees. Since I've got the receiver on hand, I don't have to keep running back outside to check the temps.
As mentioned earlier, your setup will vary depending on your grill. If you're working with a gas grill, it's pretty simple. Light one of the burners on one side of the grill, and place the ribs on the other side where the burners aren't lit. Maintaining the temperature is as easy as turning the burner up or down. In order to add smoke, toss some chunks of wood (or wood chips that have been soaked for an hour or so) in aluminum foil, then fold the foil into a pouch. Poke a few holes in the foil and place the pouch over the flavorizer bars (or lava rocks, depending on your grill). There are also smoker boxes (small metal containers where you can add wood chips) specifically made for gas grills that you can find at your local hardware store if you so choose.
With a charcoal grill, adding smoke to the proceedings is a snap. Maintaining a steady temperature over the 3-5 hour time period is the hard part. The most effective way to do this is to use either the Minion method or the Snake method. The idea behind both methods is to have a large load of charcoal set up in the grill, but only light a few of those coals initially. Those coals are then placed on top of the unlit coals (for the Minion method) or at the beginning of the chain of coals (for the Snake method). The lit coals will then slowly ignite the rest of the unlit coals over the course of the cook, keeping the temperatures relatively stable. A detailed explanation of the Minion method can be found here. A thread detailing how to set up a grill for the Snake method can be found here. For those of you that are visual learners, you can get an idea of the minion method here:
For the snake method, check this out:
Once the coals are set up the temperature is then set and maintained through the vents on the grill. A fire needs fuel (charcoal, wood, etc) and air to burn. The more air the fire has, the hotter it will burn. The less air, the exact opposite. Opening or closing the vents on the grill will control the temperature. A much more detailed discussion on controlling the grill temperature with your vents can be found here.
Once the fire has been started, there's one last thing to be set up: the drip pan. There's going to be a lot of fat rendering off during the cook, which will drop to the bottom of the grill. Now, if you don't mind cleaning up the mess after the grill is cooled down, be my guess. a much better way would be to place a metal or aluminum pan beneath the part of the grill you will have your ribs on. Filling the pan with water will give you two additional benefits. First, the steam from the water will add additional moisture to the ribs, helping tenderize them. Second, and more technical, the water pan will act as sort of a heat sink, which will help stabilize the temperature of the grill over the course of the cook.
One of my favorite things to eat are BBQ ribs. Over the last 2 years or so I've done quite a bit of reading, cooking and taste testing to come up with a baseline technique to make tender, juicy ribs that people will come back for. One thing to note: While the prep work doesn't take that long, cooking the ribs does - between 3 to 6 hours depending on your grill/smoker setup and a few other variables (weather, wind, how many racks are cooking, etc). Do not try and rush this. Since the food is cooked over low heat and smoke, it is going to take time for the fat and collagen in the meat to warm up, render off, and offer up it's juicy goodness. Any attempt to rush the process will turn out tough, bland meat that has to be hidden by sauce (rather than enhanced by it. There is a difference). And please, please, PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, DO NOT PARBOIL YOUR RIBS!!!! If you're making stew, fine. If you're making 'que, absolutely not. One website I look at said if you parboil your ribs the terrorists win. Not sure I'd go that far, but you get the point. Let's get started, shall we?
NOTE: As mentioned in the prologue, many things in BBQ are variations on a theme. This applies not only in a micro sense (what ingredients are in the rub or sauce, etc) but on a macro level as well (what steps almost everyone takes, and what steps vary from situation and pitmaster). Those steps, and the discussion on those steps, will appear in italics.
- I cook either spare ribs, cur 'St. Louis Style' (whereby the spare ribs are squared up with the rib tips removed, leaving a flat, rectangular slab) or loin back (baby back) ribs, which don't have quite as much meat on them as the spare ribs, but seem to be more tender. The cooking time changes a bit (Baby backs cook a little quicker than spares), but the prep and cooking technique doesn't really change. Since I haven't found a butcher shop just yet, I head to the local grocery store and see what they have in the case (or if their butcher is out, I can ask then). While you can choose to save some money and trim your spare ribs yourself (for a good breakdown of that, look HERE), it's easier for me to just find them already cut for you. In my area, either Whole Foods or Wegman's is a solid choice.
- Once the cryovac bag is opened I rinse the ribs in the sink then pant the slabs dry and lay them on the cutting board (if I'm cooking a number of ribs, I'll place them in a plastic container to work on them one by one).
- There are two things that need to be done to the backside of these ribs. First, the diagonal flap of meat that's attached needs to be removed. You can cook it separately if you like or use it in a stew, or toss it if you don't mind being a little wasteful. There's nothing wrong with the meat at all; it just gets in the way of the ribs:
The next step is removing the membrane from the rib, the shiny looking skin that you see in the picture above. The vast majority of pitmasters, from novice to professional, remove the membrane. It's a rubbery, chewy 'skin' that won't render off when the ribs are cooked and keeps any rubs from sticking to that side of the meat. There are a few people that say it doesn't matter, or at the bare minimum will score the membrane with a knife to let some of the rub get through. However, it's not hard to remove at all, so I suggest just pulling it off. Here's how: Start with a bone near the end of the slab. Using a butter knife, spoon, or other flat utensil, slide between the membrane and the slab, and pry the membrane away from the slab. Then, just grab a paper towel and pull the rest of the membrane down the length of the slab, removing it in one piece. The membrane may tear, which is fine. Just go back and remove it separately. After a few times doing this you may not even need to utensil to get the removal started. Here's a video showing how it's done as well:
When your finished, the backs should look like this:
- Next, we flip the ribs over and inspect the front for any trimming that needs to be done. Some pitmasters will trim off any large pockets of fat that may be on the ribs. Others leave the fat alone, figuring the fat will render off during the long cook and impart some level of flavor to the meat as it does. For me, it depends on the slab and how much time I have. Most of the time the ribs look fine, but cutting back some of the large pockets of fat never hurt.Use your knife to square up the ribs as needed (sometimes there may be a bone sliver or really loose piece of meat at one of the ends that could stand to be cleaned up).
- There are some pitmasters that will use a 'pre-rub' at this stage. The pre-rub is usually a light rub with some salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and a few other spices. Some have used packets of ranch seasoning. Some have used a dry marinade like THIS to add to the meat. And some don't even bother with using a pre-rub in the first place. One thing to note: If a pre-rub is being used, be mindful of the salt content. If there's a good deal of salt in the pre-rub, reduce the salt in the main rub. I'm on the fence on a pre-rub for ribs, so there's a 50/50 chance I will use one or not. For this particular cook, I used a pre-rub.
One of the rubs was a store bought rub (Texas T-Bone seasoning), which went on the top rack of ribs. The bottom rack of ribs were pre-rubbed with a homemade mix of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, sage, and cumin. The pre-rub went on both sides of the ribs
- Next up is the rub. Which rub you ask? There's really no wrong answer. Almost every rubs have some combination of salt, sugar. pepper, and various spices (paprika, cumin, some chilies, mustard, onion and garlic powder, etc). Some rubs may be spicier than another, some sweeter, some earthier than another. Some recipes may have 10 or more ingredients, some may only have 3 or 4. One pitmaster won an event with a simple salt, pepper and garlic rub. At some BBQ competitions, some pitmasters have secret homemade recipes that have supposedly been handed down for generations. Johnnie Trigg, a well known and successful pitmaster from Texas, has said he has no time to mix up batches of rubs and will buy one particular rub that has the flavor he likes that has given him success. The main takeaway here? In my opinion, there isn't one specific rub that's better or worse than another. You may prefer ribs that have a bit of a spicy kick. Your friends or customers may like their ribs with a sweeter note. If you're in a BBQ competition, they may be looking for a balance. So there may not be one specific rub for your target audience. More importantly, if your preparation and cooking techniques aren't sound, it doesn't matter what you put on the meat. A tender, juicy rack of ribs that only used a few spices is going to be worlds better than a tough, dry rack of ribs that used your great great granddaddy's super secret spice rub.
Now that I got that out of my system, we can get back to the cook. Usually I will use a rub that I make myself, which leans a bit to the spicy side of things thanks to the homemade chili powder that I use, which varied depending on which dried chilies I have on hand (I will say if I have the choice of a store bought chili powder and a homemade one, go with the homemade powder every time. I've had really good results with my man Alton Brown's chili powder recipe found HERE. The chili peppers can usually be found in the Hispanic aisle of your local grocery store) . For this cook, however, I was fresh out of homemade rub, and didn't feel up to mixing a batch. No matter. I had 2 other rubs I got from the store that would work just fine.
I had used Lambert's Sweet Rub o' Mine before. It's got a nice sweet flavor with just a bit of heat from the spices in the rub. It also has a nice reddish hue (likely from the paprika) that makes the ribs look good too. The Booty Rib seasoning is similar to a rib I had used before (Three Little Pigs Memphis Style BBQ Rub), which doesn't have a lot of sugar, but a nice balance of peppers and a hint of Worcestershire powder. Even though it doesn't have the color of the Lambert's, at the end the ribs will still look (and taste) great.
- Once you decide on what rub is going to be used, it's time to figure out if you are going to use a 'binding agent'. Some pitmasters will simply shake the rub on the meat, making sure there's good coverage, maybe even pressing the rub into the meat as well. Others will rub a coat of oil on the ribs first, then apply the rub. Still others swear by using regular yellow mustard then applying the rub. The reasoning behind using mustard or oil is that it will help the rub stick to the meat moreso than if it was put on without it. Oil has the additional benefit of helping dissolve some of the spices that wouldn't dissolve in water.
My take? It really doesn't matter that much either way. If mustard is used, it will NOT impart any mustard flavor to your ribs. Will either help the rub dissolve into the meat any better than not using anything at all? Hard to say. Does the rub stick better with a binder on the ribs? It seems like it, but it's far from a requirement. So, if you have some on hand, feel free to use it. If not, don't sweat it. The ribs will rest for a bit anyway while you get the grill going, so the spices will have a chance to set in the ribs. For this cook, I used mustard on one slab of ribs and olive oil on the other.
- Now grab your rub and liberally sprinkle on both sides of the slab, making sure to get good coverage.
The top slab of ribs has the Lambert's rub over mustard, the bottom has the Booty Rub over olive oil. Once done, put them in a container and set aside, or cover with foil or wax paper until it's time to go on the grill.
How long the ribs should rest with the rub on (pre-rub or the main rub) varies depending on who you ask. Some pitmasters apply the rub and let it sit long enough to get the grill or smoker heated up. Others will let rubbed ribs sit in the fridge or cooler for a few hours before starting the cook. The extra time does allow the spices to act as a dry marinade of sorts. That being said I haven't found that it will make or break your ribs. If you have time, go for it (provided the rub isn't too salty). If not, I wouldn't sweat it.
Anybody that knows me (or has stalked through some of my Facebook posts) knows I like to grill. Day or night, summer or winter, beef, pork, chicken, seafood or other (on occasion I'm forced to put a vegetable on the grill grates), I've got the reputation of someone that knows his way around a grill. And with good reason: I know my way around a grill. I can do a brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, steaks, chicken, either in parts or the whole bird, ham, dogs, brats, burgers...you get the point. I've got standing orders from some people for wings and thighs. I brought some pulled pork to work one week and told 3 people about it, with the suggestion they share with others in the office. None of them did, opting to eat it all by themselves. Go figure.
I'd love to say this was all natural talent, but honestly, it wasn't. Over the past few years I have read numerous books, magazines, web articles, videos, blogs, etc, from backyard cooks to world champion pitmasters and everything in between to figure out how to grill and smoke food to have people coming back (or at least not to embarrass yourself when you present it to them). 3 basic things stood out:
There is a bit of difference in competition BBQ and BBQ for family and friends
Most recipes are variations on a theme. There really isn't one super secret ingredient that's going to make your food much better than everyone elses.
More than anything else, it's all about your technique. Not your spice rub, not your secret sauce, not what you're cooking with. If your technique is sound you can cook on anything and for anyone.
With that in mind I figured I would write a series of posts showing some of the foods I like to cook on the grill and the smoker. The title of the post (Semi-Pro) is indicative of the techniques I've read, tried, and use. That and the fact that I am far, FAR from a professional, and I am in no way suggesting how I do it is the right way or the only way, but what makes sense for me and seems to work based on the food I've cooked. Along the way, I will try to point out what steps the professional BBQ circuit pitmasters may use and where it may or may not be necessary or practical for what you or I chose to do for the cook at hand. I will also try to explain some of the reasons behind the techniques and products used, and share some links to resources that you can look at on your own.
Myron Mixon, multiple grand champion pitmaster, has said BBQ is really a humble food that, while it does take time and attention to detail, isn't that complicated. Anybody can cook on the grill, and do it well, regardless if they're using gas, electric or charcoal. And honestly, there's not much better than watching others enjoy that hot batch of food that just came off the grate, then having some yourself. Hopefully, the posts will encourage someone to try. Let's go!
