The Third Annual Tower Dweller Superbowl party is coming up. Bizarely, I don’t really watch football, but I like having people over and entertaining, so here we are.
Last year I tried to make ribs. I marinated them overnight and then baked them in a pan in the oven for a couple of hours. They were tasty and delicious, but really tough. I’d like to try again, but I need some help.
How do I make perfect ribs? Should I cook them longer? What’s your secret?
The thing is. . .the only ribs I’ve been able to get to come out really tender and perfect are the baby back ribs. Those are the ones that are probably in excess of $5 or $6 per pound.
If there’s a way to get the regular ribs not to be totally tough , I don’t know how to do it. . .and it’s not for lack of trying.
With the baby backs, what you decribed will be fine.
Ah, I feel better now. When I have ribs at a restaurant, they’re usually super-tender and I have no idea how they do that. Good to see that others have tried as well, and failed… 
The only suggestion I’ve seen that might work is to cook them like normal for a couple of hours (basting them every once in awhile, etc) then turn the heat down and let them stew for a few hours. So I may try that and see how it goes.
I worked at a restaurant that would slow bake their ribs at a low temperature for a few hours totally submerged in vegetable oil with onions garlic and other spices (I guess the cooking term is confit). They didn’t overcook them to actual fall apart doneness, but left them with enough structure to finish on the grill. They weren’t baby back ribs but the “regular” cheaper type and always tasted pretty good and were very tender. I’m sorry I can’t give you exact times and temperatures, but I would imagine it would range from 200F to 250F over about three hours, just keep a close eye on them and make sure they are totally submerged in oil.
Simmer or boil them gently for 30-45 mins. The do fall apart if you’re not careful. Then bake or BBQ with whatever super-secret sauce your ancestors brought with them on the Mayflower, and enjoy.
I parboil my ribs until tender in water with a few drops of liquid smoke added. Sometimes I toss an onion, roughly chopped, in there, too. When they are tender, I sprinkle heavily with a dry rub and cook on the gas grill for a few minutes. My crew loves them this way.
I use pork country-style ribs but you can do spareribs this way, too.
The way to get ribs to be tender is to braise them (at least if it’s indoor cooking, which by all accounts it is.) I’ve only made them once before, but they were tender (however, I don’t recall if they were baby back or not.)
Basically, rub the ribs down with a good spice rub. I didn’t marinate, but if you want to, go ahead.
Here’s the secret: Wrap the ruibs in a foil pouch, nd then pour in some kind of flavorful liquid. This might be the marinade itself, or something else. A good rule to follow is to make sure there is some acid and some alcohol. Them cook them at a very low temperature on the oven (nothing higher than 250.) Leave them in ther for severla hours. If the temp is low enough, saw 180 or 200, then you can keep them in there allday (well, 8 hours.)
What makes the ribs tender or not depends on connective tissue. Ribs have a lot of it, and so are tough normally, but at low heat in liquid, a lot of them get dissolved into the liquid.
Now, when theyare done, save all that liquid. Reduce it down, and you can have a glave for the ribs too! (This only works if there was a good amount of sugar in the rub and/or liquid, though.)
This method you mention sounds very much like Alton Brown’s suggested indoor method. I’ve also utilized this, with fabulous results. The only thing I’d alter from AB’s recipe would be to reduce the amount of salt in the rub. My ribs were too salty, but tender as can be.
There’s a reason for that, it’s cause I basically followed his method (though my rub and liquid were a little different.) I agree, though, that his method has too much salt (the salt was one of the things I didn’t change, and it was too salty for me.)
I make a southern style rib that is quite tender. I’m not sure if anyone would be interested in the recipe, so I’ll just describe how I make them instead. Basically you make a dry rub of several spices and coat the ribs with them over night. You can use baby back ribs or spare ribs…I think spare ribs are best. You wrap the ribs in aluminum foil, making a kind of packet. Then you make a braising sauce. WHen you are ready to make them you open one end of the foil wrapping and pour in the brasing sause, then heat for 4 hours on low heat. When you are done you pour out the liquid and reduce it to a sauce in a sauce pan. You then pour some of the sauce over the ribs. I then use a cooking torch to carmalize the sauce on top, though you could broil them in an oven for a few min. When you are done carmalizing the top you cut them up and toss them with the rest of the sauce. The meat is usually very tender.
I learned how to make these when I lived in the South and if you have the time to invest, they are worth the effort.
-XT
Oh, fantastic - thanks for the link. I’ll use this method. And just looking at it, that is a LOT of salt (8 sugar, 3 salt, 1 chili powder?) Does anyone have a ratio they like better? Maybe 8:1:1? I could just taste it as I’m making it, see how I like it.
So I’ll try this method, take the heat down a little and just check on them every once in awhile. If I start them sometime in the afternoon, they should be ready halftimish.
Thanks for all the tips, everyone. I’m getting excited about some ribs!
That recipe from Alton Brown is very similar to what I was describing (I might try that one myself). I use different ingrediants in my rub though…and different proportions. From the link, I’ll just show the difference:
Dry Rub:
8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed: About the same for me
3 tablespoons kosher salt : Don’t use ANY salt…you are right, you don’t need it
1 tablespoon chili powder : 3-4 TS of Chili…but I prefer spicy.
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper: 1 TS pepper, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper: 2 TS cayenne pepper, or dried green chili
1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning: Never used this so don’t know
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning: Same here…never used it except on crabs
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme: About right
1/2 teaspoon onion powder: About right
Addition: 1 TS garlic powder in the rub
Braising Liquid:
1 cup white wine: 2 cups red wine is what I normally use…gives it more flavor IMO
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar: About right…maybe a touch more
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce: 3 TS worchestershire
1 tablespoon honey: This is to taste…if you want it sweeter, put in more honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped: I like the store bought chopped garlic…and 3 cloves
Addition: I like to use some teriyaki sauce and sometimes a bit of Guiness. THink it brings out the flavor.
Just some thoughts…good luck with the ribs. I think even if you stick to Altons recipe (get rid of the extra salt though) they will be wonderful. Think about the cooking torch though to carmalize the sauce afterwards…they really come out well that way.
-XT
I have a couple of smokers but my favorite by far is my Weber Smoky Mountain. If you can get your hands on one, follow THIS link. They’re named Best Ribs in the Universe for a reason! 
A few things… Wash and pat dry your ribs before dry rubbing. I don’t like to boil them, I dry rub and grill until they brown up/get grill marks. I grill over charcoal, pecan, and hickory. Then I wrap them in foil and cook for a couple more hours with the lid closed, rotating them periodically (I can do 4 sides on my grill). I like to lightly brush with sauce just before I put them in the foil, but don’t over do it or you get a gooey mess. If done correctly the sauce all but disappears into the ribs. I make sauce from equal parts of 3 different hot sauces,( Cholula, Bufalo Jalapeno, Bufalo Chipotle) apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and a squirt of catsup. Dash of the dry rub seasonings. Adjust with vinegar for a good whang, not too sweet.
These won’t be tough, slow cooking in the foil steams them to perfection. They’ll be spicy but not hot, and grilling them first over smokey wood imparts the smoke flavor right off and gets the “gray stuff” out of them.
Been cooking them like this for quite a while. It got to the point where I had to quit bringing them to gatherings, they became so popular it was costing me several hundred dollars a year just in ribs.
And forgot to mention… If you make the sauce, it has to be cooked for quite a while, not just ingredients mixed together, Sorry 'bout that…
Your Lordship,
Your ribs sound excellent, but unfortunately I live in a high-rise with no access to a grill - I don’t even have a balcony. 
I’ll probably be using a dry rub similar to XT’s, letting the ribs season overnight in the fridge, then start the braising sometime Sunday. I’ll let y’all know how it comes out.
The ribs should rock. Don’t forget to completely enclose your packets in foil. I usually get the extra wide heavy duty kind. The packets need to be air/water tight…to hold in the braising sauce. I think it also provides a steaming type effect that penetrates the meat.
Man…I’m getting hungry here now. I think I’m going to be making ribs this weekend myself after seeing this tread.
-XT
xtisme, your recipe sounds good (basuically like alton’s, but you modify it in places I think I would like. I too like spiceyness and garlic. )
However, I disagree on the ‘no salt at all’ thign. EVERY piece of food needs salt,. I don’t care if it’s a turkry, ribs, pie, cake, a steak, or vegetables. it NEEDS at least a little tiny bit of salt. You see, salt does more than make things taste salty, it makes them taste better. Obviously, too much salt makes them salty, but the right amount for the food you are cooking will bring out every other flavor a lot more.
Personally, I would use 1/4 to 1/2 part salt in the rub if I were to make it again (I think next time I do ribs, though, I’m gonna try my own rub. ell, maybe half my own rub, in case I screw it up I will still ahve some edible ribs left 
)
Well, as to the salt…I use onion and garlic salts in my rub. I think that these make things more than salty enough. I’ve never actually added salt to my rub for basically this reason. I also use a few other herbs and seasoning (I couldn’t remember which ones as I don’t have my super secret recipe memorized…its in a card folder at home, under lock and key ) that weren’t in Altons…I was just showing some of the differences I remembered off the top of my head.
And to be honest, when I cook its more along the line of ‘grab a dash of this, and a dash of that…and oh, lets try this too!’ type thing than following a recipe. My ribs always come out slightly different…sometimes a bit sweeter (more brown sugar and honey, say), or spicier (more New Mexico powdered red chilli, green chilli, cayan, etc). I’ve never had any complaints though…or any left overs.
But salt is one of those things to taste…if you like it in your rub, more power to ya! I think ribs this way almost always are great no matter what. The meat falls off the bone, the sauce that comes from reducing the drippings is heaven, and if you use the torch, broil in the oven or put real fast on the grill give the glaze a great flavor. As I said, I’m not getting pretty hungry for ribs! Definitely going to stop by the local butcher shop tonight and see what they have for spare ribs.
-XT
:smack: I’m NOW getting pretty hungry for ribs. Ah well, I’m sure that came thru…
-XT