I’ve decided to make ‘barbecued’ ribs today – in quotes because I only have an oven and a charcoal grill, not an actual barbecue. So here’s the plan:
Get a rack of beef ribs and a rack of pork ribs. Rub with a rub. Put in a 300º oven for about three hours. Baste with BBQ sauce. Toss on the charcoal grill.
The goal is to make them tender an falling off the bone by slowly cooking them in the oven, and then to get the charred taste by caramelizing the BBQ sauce over fire.
So the rub: What to use? I have kosher salt and the usual spices. I’m thinking of kosher salt, garlic powder, cumin, and a dash of cayenne. Or should I use a mixture of brown sugar, salt, garlic powder, and paprika? Or something else? Since I want to do both beef and pork, it would be nice if one rub went with both.
I’m thinking of BBQ beans or baked beans, and corn on the side.
Your ribs will be better if you reverse and rethink your process. You can use a Weber kettle as a BBQ. Just get nine or ten briquettes going off to the side. Cover with wood chips soaked in water. Place the ribs opposite the coals. Cover with lid and adjust vents accordingly. Every hour to 45 minutes, add nine more white hot briquettes. A chimney helps but it’s not strictly needed. You can make due lighting the next round of briquettes in a foil basket or even piled and lit on a shovel. Add a little handful of soaked chips with every new load of briquettes. Lump charcoal works fine too.
After 3 -4 hours of BBQing, the meat cannot absorb any more smoke flavor. So, if you want to finish them off in the oven, that is the time to do so. The ribs are done when you pick the rack up with tongs and it bends a good deal.
There never seems to be enough room on the Webber when I go meat-crazy. Not sure if I can space the meat and coals properly. The bottom vent is in-op. When I’ve tried to slow-cook on it before, it was still too hot. I don’t know where to get wood chips. So…
For today I don’t think I should experiment with slow cooking over coals. Roomie says she needs a road trip, there’s a seminar coming up, and she might attend that and visit her niece and her niece’s new baby. That would be a good time to try your suggestions. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. But cooking for another person, I should get some practice first.
Your rub sounds good. Below is my base rub that I change up by adding various things like a little brown sugar, coriander, cinnamon, ancho chili powder, and even ground coffee.
I have all of the listed ingredients except for sage. Roomie likes the spices in Chefguy’s Balls, which contains coriander. I never thought of using it with beef or pork. Of the ingredients not in the recipe, I don’t have the ancho chili powder.
My favorite way to cook ribs is on a Weber. I saw this on a cooking show and it works great. The secret is you put them in longer than usual and you stack them. As the fat renders, it drips down the other ribs and bastes them. You have to rotate them about every 45 minutes to an hour, so you lose a little heat. If I do ribs normally (unstacked) I cook them for about 5 hours at 200-250 on the Weber. If I stack them, about 6 hours. I don’t like fall off the bone, but I like them to pull off the bone clean when I bite the rib.
For a rub, I don’t really rub, I cure–think of it as a dry brine. Cup of kosher salt, cup and a half of brown sugar, tablespoon of black pepper, half a tablespoon of red pepper and a tablespoon of Rosemary all ground to a powder in a coffee grinder. Mix, then rub on the ribs the night before. Take them out the next morning, rinse the “rub” off thoroughly (flavors have permeated the meat and given it just enough salt). Pat them dry, let them sit in open air for about 30 min to dry then cook as above. BBQ sauce over the last hour (slather a side, let it cook for 30 then slather the other side and finish for another half hour)
Yep. And if you’re doing baby backs, 300 is on the edge of what is acceptable. I personally don’t think it’s too high (I generally do ribs in the 250-275 range in the smoker), but if you truly want fall-off-the-bone ribs (which I consider “overcooked”) rather than ribs with a little bit of pull, you’re going to want to stay closer to 250, or you can shudder foil them. Getting ribs to fall off the bones is easy, especially if you foil them.
This Alton Brown recipe will give you what you’re looking for. Not my cup of tea as far as ribs go, but it works as advertised, and, from what you describe, it sounds exactly like what you’re looking for. You might want to extend the oven cook time slightly to 3 hours if you want a really soft texture.
As far as rubs are considered, I rarely do them the same way twice, but I generally have the following ingredients:
salt & pepper, one unit each (that’s where they all begin. Sometimes, like for brisket, they might not go farther than that)
one unit paprika (aids with browning and adds some flavor)
half unit of any of the following:
allspice (I like this on pork)
fennel (also something I like on pork)
cumin (prefer on beef, but works with pork)
granulated garlic
onion powder
sage (prefer on pork)
chile peppers (ancho, cayenne, etc. adjust amount to personal preference and type of chili. May be used to substitute for some of the paprika)
celery seed
dry mustard
a quarter unit of clove is also nice, especially for pork
I don’t use all the above ingredients, but that’s where I generally start. I tend to like my pork with the “sweeter” spices like fennel, clove, and allspice, while I tend to like my beef with the “earthier” spices like cumin, garlic, and onion powder, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. I also generally do not use any sugar–brown or otherwise–in my rubs. It’s not so much an issue with ribs, but I find with pulled pork and brisket, it tends to caramelize a bit too much during the long, long cook times. Shouldn’t be an issue so much with ribs.
I did these a few weeks ago was amazed, and I did it with some crappy “country style” ribs I found for 1.49/lb. I didn’t have the hickory salt so I just skipped it. Some people sub liquid smoke, buy I didn’t bother.
I’ve mixed up some rub from I_Know_Nothing’s link, and added a couple of things. Let me see… Freshly ground black pepper, some dried basil, some cumin, some onion powder, and some savory.
And, IMHO, no liquid smoke. That stuff tastes like soot, and so does any BBQ sauce with it (which, unfortunately, is most of them.) If you’re using wood to add smoke flavor to your ribs, don’t ruin them with a sauce that has liquid smoke in it. (Once again, IMHO. If liquid smoke is your bag, go for it.)
Turned out good. The pork was a bit sweet, but that’s to be expected when you use brown sugar in the rub. I also made collard greens with ham hock, and au gratin potatoes. Drinking unsweetened iced tea I made last night.
A beef rib, a country pork rib, a nice helping of greens, and a large spoonful of potatoes. I can barely move. And roomie just reminded me I’d bought a frozen peach cobbler.