What was in your braising liquid? There might not have been enough sugars in the glaze. You need a decent amount of natural or added sugars to get the right thickness and syrupy consistency. Also, you might have to reduce it beyond 75%… just keep it at a rolling boil until it starts to get syrupy.
Oh, I wanted to add that grilling baby backs is acceptable, as well. Baby backs work well with the higher temperatures of grilling. I’ve never tried grilling spares, but I imagine they would be pretty difficult, as they really get tough if cooked at too high a temp, and really do best at 225-250 smoking range.
I always have a hard time with grill cooking. The outside tends to get done long before the inside. With pork, there’s a danger of getting sick. Yes, I know it’s not that big a deal anymore, but it used to be and that’s when I learned to cook.
The key is to cook low and slow. Low temperature for a long period of time will thoroughly cook the meat without charring. Make sure you cook fat side up… and the foil trick several people have mentioned helps prevent dryness, basically you use the latent heat the ribs have absorbed after a few hours of smoking to finish the cooking process by wrapping the ribs in foil and letting them rest untill they’re warm and ready to eat. I usually put my ribs in a dry empty cooler for some additional insulation.
Protecting my heart and lungs thank you.
grin Thank you for that.
Sorry, but your first sentence made my head explode. Aside from the microwave, what cooking method DOESN’T cook the outside first?
Besides, I have never in my entire life heard of anyone undercooking ribs. Ever. How could this possibly happen?
This is the recipe I always use. It is a huge hit with friends and relatives. No sauce, just dry rub, and they are excellent ribs.
Ok, I’ll ask in this thread.
I’m a big fan of ribs, and so is my wife, but most ribs we can buy have far too much bone to meat ration. We’re looking for some ribs with frickin’ MEAT on them.
Suggestions?
Well, there are Country Style Ribs. They come boneless or bone in and are cut from the blade end of the loin near the shoulder. They are very meaty and substantial and take well to long cooking times, so you can use them interchangeably with Sparerib or Babyback recipes.
The meat is almost comparable in taste and texture to rib meat… but not quite. They are very good, however.
I also like to braise them slowly with sauerkraut, onions, and apples. Just serve them with mashed potatoes and you have a great fall meal.
Spare ribs. I’ve had spare ribs that were like freakin’ steaks they have so much meat on them. I don’t bother with the St. Louis cut, I like the whole spare rib section. A single rack of them could easily feed 2-3 hungry people. This is what I’m talking about.
It cooks it too quickly. There’s not as much control on the grill. And I’m not one to hover over the food. Too much work, too little payoff. I’m cool with it. All you grillmeisters can have it.
Frolicking in the field as part of a living animal.
(on rereading I feel I should clarify that was meant as a silly remark, not some militant veggie thing)
I spent a summer in Memphis and fell in love w/ Corky’s dry ribs.
Nobody here is “grilling” their ribs, unless it is only to put a quick char on the meat at the very end. They are “smoking” them, which is done at about 225 degrees. That cooks meat a lot more slowly than immersing it in 212 degree water.
No smoker? You’re still better off wrapping your ribs in foil, placing some sort of braising liquid in with them, and putting them in the oven at 225-250. You won’t lose any flavor, and the ribs will be more tender than they would had you boiled them.
I followed Altons directions to the letter on the braising liquid. The one difference, which he said shouldn’t be an issue, was using rice vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. Now, the rub I used wasn’t the one Alton uses, and maybe there wasn’t enough brown sugar in it. I’ll try it again and add some brown sugar to the braising liquid.
Most people in this thread are grilling their ribs. I don’t smoke anything. It ruins the flavor.
The term “par boil” means “partially” boil. You don’t immerse them. There is a little water and you only keep them in a short time. Then they go in the oven with foil.
No, sorry. You’re quite wrong. Smoking, not grilling (which is done over high heat) is he most popular method employed by people in this thread. I count at least 8 people here who prefer a smoker.
In professional kitchens, parboil typically means partially boil, as you said. In other words, partially cook them, or stop cooking before they are done. It does not, however, mean to partially cover them in water. That would essentailly be steaming.
Like I said: The only people grrilling their ribs in this thread are those who are finishing them on the grill (with one exception) after starting them with some sort of wet method. Eevryone else is talking about low and slow.
Huh. That’s a rather odd thing to say, especially since smoking is pretty much defines true “barbecue”. Once again, ask anyone from the BBQ capitals of the US, from Memphis to KC to Texas to Arkansas to the Carolinas (although one of the famous Memphis joints, I think Corky’s or maybe Rendezvous, does grill their ribs.) Although you may get an argument as to what meat constitutes “barbecue” (in the Carolinas, we’re talking pulled pork exclusively; Texas, it’s beef; KC and Memphis, all sorts of pig parts, mainly ribs), you won’t get an argument that low, slow cooking over wood is a requirement.
In my opinion, what ruins the flavor is dousing ribs in sauce that contains liquid smoke. You know how hard it is to find BBQ sauce that doesn’t have that rancid stuff in it? Pretty much impossible.
Also, the problem I have with parboiling is that it leeches away some of the porky flavor into the boiling liquid, and also the steaming/parboiling techniques yield a rather soft, gelatinous product that is almost, but not quite, meat. I prefer styles of cooking that yield a tender, yet toothsome product, and slow cooking over hardwood & lumpwood charcoal does exactly that, with the added benefit of rendering the fat while concentrating the pork flavor. The true sign of good BBQ is that the meat requires no additional flavoring. “Sauce on the side” is the mantra around this household. A little as an accent is fine, but if your meat is not good enough to eat on its own, you’re not doing your job. Heck, a simply rub of salt and pepper should be enough to make great barbecue, if you know what you’re doing.