Pork Ribs -- Baby Back and Spare

[JimH]

(we are testing the Bullet’s temperature stability before smoking pork butt overnight).

These were the sole survivors, somewhat worse for wear after being refrigerated overnight and microwaved this morning. Still, they made a lovely breakfast.

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They look great, now I want ribs. If it's the WSM you are talking about, then I've done 3 overnight sessions without any issues. Once you have the temerature stabilized, a full ring of charcoal & wood chuncks will keep it chugging away till morning. My longest smoke was 18 hours and it could have held 250*f for another 4 hours at least. The WSM produces very tasty pork butts.

[Marlene]

Bruce, we have often used the WSM for overnight smoking for pork butts. We usually start them right before we go to bed around 11 ish or so. It's never been a problem at all in holding temp overnight.

[C. sapidus]

JimH and Marlene, thanks for the words of encouragement on overnight smoking with the WSM. We will be serving pulled pork for a smallish crowd in a few weeks, so I’ll report results on the appropriate thread.

[fiftydollars]

Just keep an eye out for wind and you might want to check on things every couple of hours anyway (since you're having guests over and you probably don't want to wake up to a surprise).

I do a lot of smoking with the WSM and once in a while things don't turn out as planned. Often it is due to wind, which will wreak havoc on most any barbecue and isn't a big deal... unless you happen to be asleep and can't therefore make the small corrections to the vents. Other times, the fire is slowly choked out by accumulated ash clogging the vents and whatnot. Again, not usually a problem unless you're asleep. Luckily, you can well avert disaster by getting up every couple of hours to make sure things are hummin' along. Or get yourself a remote smoker thermometer, keep it next to your bed, and get up only when absolutely necessary (you can set it to go off if the smoker drops below 200 or above 250, for example).

[JimH]

JimH and Marlene, thanks for the words of encouragement on overnight smoking with the WSM. We will be serving pulled pork for a smallish crowd in a few weeks, so I’ll report results on the appropriate thread.

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It wouldn't hurt to do a test run. Pulled pork freezes and re-heats well.

[lancastermike]

JimH and Marlene, thanks for the words of encouragement on overnight smoking with the WSM. We will be serving pulled pork for a smallish crowd in a few weeks, so I’ll report results on the appropriate thread.

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I echo the merits of the WSM for overnight smoking. Get it going and stable and snnoze away. The WSM will do a wonderful job. Have done it many times and it takes the worry out of having the butt done in time to eat. Start it at 9PM and at 9AM you already got 12 hours in. Even if you need another 4 or more still plenty of time till you need to eat.

[C. sapidus]

Just keep an eye out for wind . . .

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Gotcha.

It wouldn't hurt to do a test run.

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A fine idea.

Get it going and stable and snnoze away.

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I like this advice best of all.

I hope to try an unattended test run this weekend. If all goes well and no wind is forecast the night before the dinner party, I may take my chances and get a good night's sleep. If wind is forecast, I will probably be the host with the bags under my eyes.

Thanks to all for the advice!

[Ufimizm]

I have been experimenting with taking loin back ribs, giving them a good spice rub, vacuum sealing them and putting them in a large pot of water that I keep about 225 degrees for about 3-4 hours (poor mans sous vide). I cool them down and then broil them in the oven to bring them up to temp and then sauce them. The flavor is excellent, but I am struggling with getting the cooking time right, they either have too much tug to them or too little. Any suggestions on the cooking time to get a better mouth feel to them. I want tender with a little bi of tug, but not completely fall off the bone texture.

[klkruger]

Consider altering your approach: Rather than going right to the broiler, wrap in foil and roast at 325 or so. I'm not sure how tender the meat is when you remove it form the water bath so can't really give you a time, but take the ribs to just tender--a probe inserted between the bones goes in with only the barest of resistance (you don't have to unfoil to check, just probe right through the foil). When just tender, broil to firm and add texture to the surface, briefly, and sauce if desired. See if that works for you.

[C. sapidus]

We rubbed three racks of ribs last night, and then smoked the ribs with hickory smoke wood in the WSM. For the rub, we modified “magic dust” from Peace, Love, and Barbecue, substituting ancho chile powder for cayenne to reduce the spice level for house guests. Guests loved the juicy, smoky ribs, but I prefer ribs with a touch of cayenne heat.

Edited to make sense.

Edited July 5, 2008 by C. sapidus (log)

[DocDougherty]

I have been experimenting with taking loin back ribs ... and putting them in a large pot of water that I keep about 225 degrees for about 3-4 hours ...

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Since water boils at 212°F, you must have made a typo, or you are cooking at 5950 ft below sea level (on a 1976 standard day), or perhaps you are pressure cooking the ribs. If either of the latter they would truly fall off the bone before you could get them to the broiler, so the temperature must be much lower, perhaps as low as 180°F if they are still less than totally tender after 4 hr. How are you measuring the water temperature?

If you really want to sous vide your ribs, try 185°F for 4 to 5 hr, but since there is no place for the moisture to go, you will be essentially doing a low temperature braise and I would expect the meat to slip off the bones about the time they are as tender as you want them. If your oven will reliably hold 225°F, just rub them and bake them on a rack over a drip pan for about 3 to 4 hr @ 225°F (less if you have a convection oven). If that is still not tender enough, take the temperature up to as high as 250°F the next time. If they are still not done to your satisfaction after 4 hr @ 250°F, add up to an additional 2 hr @ 225°F. Once you find a process that works for you, repeat until you find a better way.

Edited July 8, 2008 by DocDougherty (log)

[jayt90]

Back Ribs course at Buster Rhino's, March 21/'09

This one day course is given in Whitby, Ontario by pit master Darryl Koster.

15 of us assembled and prepared to enter a clean production facility.

We learned how to remove the back skin in a matter of seconds

And then apply mustard and a rub

Then into the cherrywood smoker, 4 hrs@225F

We learned a quick snap test for doneness

And out they came for tasting and wrapping up

Here is a rib with good smoke flavor, succulence without falling off the bone, and nicely pink throughout.

Best of all, we learned how to do this in several devices, from gas grills to WSM. A pleasant 1 day course.

[DrewUK]

Here is my foolproof recipe for ribs done in a standard oven for winter; you still need ribs when it is cold!

Just follow the link in my signature and then search for ribs you should hit this entry:

Ribs and Paper Towels what more do you need in life…

I think it is something to do with the beer under the ribs in the roasting tin which kind of steams them slowly and keeps them moist while it cooks slowly transforming the collagen. Kind of like a poor mans combi oven.

I have transitioned to the dark side (gas BBQ) and don't want to mess with charcoal for smoking, so what is the best smoker?

[HowardLi]

I have been experimenting with taking loin back ribs, giving them a good spice rub, vacuum sealing them and putting them in a large pot of water that I keep about 225 degrees for about 3-4 hours (poor mans sous vide). I cool them down and then broil them in the oven to bring them up to temp and then sauce them. The flavor is excellent, but I am struggling with getting the cooking time right, they either have too much tug to them or too little. Any suggestions on the cooking time to get a better mouth feel to them. I want tender with a little bi of tug, but not completely fall off the bone texture.

Unless you live in a very deep hole, you can't bring water to 225F.

[Darienne]

Spareribs.  Something I have never made before today but something I love to eat.  I think I've eaten them 3 or 4 times in my life.  Yes...or no...it doesn't make sense.  But then why should it?

 

And DH always picks chicken the odd time I have had ribs.  He said he wasn't interested in ribs.  And on top of that he likes stuff sweeter than I do.

 

So DH bought some Pork Back ribs at a local grocery a couple of days ago and I was to render them edible.  Simple, I said.  I'll go to eGullet and see what I can find as a recipe. 

 

Needless to say I was overwhelmed with recipes and brining and boiling and smoking and many sauces and various methods of cooking and degrees of heat so on and so on till I thought...enough!  So I copied about 10 different recipes/methods and then fretted.  I always fret when I make something for the first time. 

 

We didn't have all the ingredients in some recipes and I decided that I didn't really want to follow other recipes...too Chinese...too Hawaiian, didn't want garlic in them, etc, etc.  So I took ideas from the various recipes and marinated the ribs overnight in the mixture which emerged.  And fretted.

 

Cooked them this morning in a 300 degree oven starting at 8:30...won't do that again...but oh man!  They were delicious.  Messy as can be, but so satisfying.

 

Here's my marinade which I also spooned over the ribs on our plates (next time I'll make it into a proper sauce.  Didn't have the presence of mind today.)  We ate them with Ed's coleslaw and corn chips.  Next time rice also I think.

 

2 pounds of back ribs

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoon medium hot chile powder

1 Tablespoon Lea & Perrins

2 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 teaspoon hot chile powder

 

The two ground chile powders used were bought in little cellophane packages in the Hispanic section in a Utah grocery and they were marked medium and hot respectively.  I have dried peppers on hand, but was just too paralyzed to grind and use any.  

 

I would appreciate any commentary on my exploit.  Not looking for praise, if any, but rather for further information, etc.  Thanks.  I have every intention of doing this again.  Often.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Darienne (log)

[rane008]

This thread is fantastic, just finished reading the whole thing.  

What I love about BBQ is that it marries pork and pork fat with its best partner: smoke.  This is something that Asian treatments tend to leave out.  

[dcarch]

BBQ is considered unhealthy in many parts of China.

 

That's why they steam buns and bread.

 

Steamed ribs in black bean sauce, wonderful!

 

 

dcarch

[Jaymes]

BBQ is considered unhealthy in many parts of China.

 

That's why they steam buns and bread.

 

Steamed ribs in black bean sauce, wonderful!

 

 

dcarch

 

I'm sure glad that the Koreans don't feel that way. Korean BBQ is one of my favorite things on the planet. In particular, love the way they do ribs - both on and off of the bone.  Was just out in the San Francisco Bay area to visit my son and his family and we went to a favorite restaurant - Han Sung Korean Charcoal BBQ.  https://www.facebook.com/HanSungBBQ  If you're in the Bay area, I really recommend you try it.  And if you're not, I recommend you try to find a real Korean charcoal (real coals, not just a grill) BBQ restaurant in your area.  I'm fortunate enough to live in Houston, which has a sizeable Asian population, including Korean, so there are several of these restaurants here (although I have to admit that the ones we've tried here, while very good, are not so good as Han Sung).

 

Although it's true that Korean BBQ ribs are typically made with beef short ribs, you can give pork baby-backs the same delicious treatment at your house.  Here's a recipe/method for doing just that: http://steamykitchen.com/27330-korean-kalbi-baby-back-ribs-recipe-video-2.html

Edited March 10, 2015 by Jaymes (log)

[Darienne]

Thanks all for continuing this thread. Now that I have made ribs once and they were a smashing success, I think I have the wherewithal to go back and read the entire thread. 

The Korean rib recipe looks great, Jayme, and thanks for posting it.  Where we live there are no Korean restaurants, just the usual array of second-class All-you-can-eat buffets which leave much to be desired.  I think we have two Japanese restaurants and one Thai.  We tried the Thai and liked it.  Must go back.  I have no idea of whether the Thai do ribs or not.

 

The local rib restaurants are pretty much all chains with Southeastern American type names...

[Norm Matthews]

Seeing this thread was started over 14 years ago, I didn't see much use in saying anything since the ribs would be dust by now but since it is still alive, I might as well put in my 2¢.  Forgive me if I repeat something already said.

 

 As per the original post, re indirect heat on a gas grill:  with pork baby backs, indirect heat is OK but isn't necessary.  Low heat (upper rack) on a gas grill will work fine. We always do a dry rub. I have never considered a wet brine.  Baby backs don't need as long a cooking time as other ribs.  It's possible to over-cook them.  My son is 1/2 Korean and that country's traditional flavors do go well with pork and beef. When we make kalbi though, we use short ribs cut thin and grill them. Baby backs in the oven is an interesting variation.

[Darienne]

Thanks for your 2 cents worth.  I really appreciate your mention of the wet brine/dry rub options. 

As noted in my earlier post, I was too 'confused' (for want of the correct word) to go any further in my first attempt.  Yes, I can see where it's not needed at all.  I am so accustomed to making dishes like Puerco Pibil that I simply marinaded the meat...and well, some said it was a thing to do.  And it was a thing I knew to do. 

 

As for the oven cooking...it's all I have to work with right now and it's electric at that.  Our outdoor B-B-Q appliance is quite dead.  And we can't have gas or propane in our house.  Gas is unavailable, and having a propane stove and oven precludes having a Stove Guard (www.stoveguardintl.com/)  hooked up to make sure no one accidentally leaves a burner on and walks away.  Can't afford to have a fire in the middle of nowhere with no water mains within 3 miles.

 

As to overcooking the ribs.  I did.  They fell right off the ribs.  Completely.  Which probably made DH happy because he doesn't like the mess of eating ribs, but wasn't what I was looking for. 

 

So today, we are buying more ribs and soon it will be attempt #2.  Hard to believe that I never tried this one before....

[Jaymes]

Does your electric oven have a broiler?  After a bake, you can slip them under the broiler to give them a hint of that BBQ crust. Also, when I lived someplace without an outdoor grill (like Alaska in the wintertime), I'd sometimes soak hickory or oak chips and put them into the oven with the ribs to impart a bit of wood smoke. And, a friend up there made darn fine ribs in their fireplace. I never tried it but his were sure good. He took the grill off of his BBQ and stacked it on two cinderblocks.  If I were going to try this, I'd have baked the ribs in the oven with an apple cider baste (2 C apple cider, 1/2 C bottled Teriyaki sauce, 1/4 c brown sugar) and then finish them over the wood fire in the fireplace.

 

Here's a previous thread you might find interesting: Ribs in the Oven - http://forums.egullet.org/topic/142299-ribs-in-the-oven/  (Darienne, you participated in that one, too, so it might be worth revisiting to jog the ol' memory brain cells)

 

Also, although BBQ is the first thing that comes to mind, and Darienne, you clearly are going for that, there are other ways to cook pork ribs, of course, and one of my all-time favorites is to open a couple cans of Bavarian-style sauerkraut (sweeter than regular sauerkraut, with caraway), dump them into a big stewpot or slow cooker, add some ribs and a sliced apple and onion, maybe a splash of brown beer if I'm in the mood, and let them simmer together until the ribs are tender. Serve with mashed potatoes and German brown bread. (Know most of y'all probably already knew this, but, hey, eG's pretty big, and there might be someone that didn't that is reading this thread for rib ideas since the title doesn't specifically say "BBQ.")

 

But now, back to BBQ...

Edited March 10, 2015 by Jaymes (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Apple juice spritz on the ribs is a good idea. I do it quite often.  If you are interested in a good BBQ rub for baby back ribs, here is one everyone seems to like.  I put it on the ribs, wrap them up and leave them in the refrigerator overnight. 

 

2 tablespoons sugar 

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

 

The ribs and kraut is also classic but I would prefer country style ribs instead of baby backs for them.  

[Norm Matthews]

FYI I just noticed the heading on this thread also mentions spare ribs.  Here is a video on how to do a St. Louis trim  on spare ribs to prep them for BBQ.  

 

Edited March 11, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)