Pork Ribs -- Baby Back and Spare

[Jaymes]

It was the peanut butter and hot peppers that intrigued me.... Reminiscent of a sauce for satay... And other Asian recipes that use peanuts. However, Ethiopians do as well... so.

And ketchup and soy sauce....kinda Thai.

But, was just curious.

Thanks for responding! And the ribs do sound wonderful.

[pastramionrye]

i had some "fall off the bone ribs" for the super bowl...ribs soooo tender that it was hard to put them on the plate in one piece....

No brine....just cooked them at about 200 to 250 degrees for 9 hours....count em.....nine hours slow cooked; basted with a bbq sauce made from scratch....

i think with ribs slow, long cooking = tenderness...

[Marlene]

Recipes captured from this thread for the archive

Jaymes' Baby Back Ribs

Mark's South Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce

Klinks dry Rub ok, this one was already in there

[tommy]

No brine....just cooked them at about 200 to 250 degrees for 9 hours....count em.....nine hours slow cooked; basted with a bbq sauce made from scratch....

pastramionrye, that seems a little excessive. i'm probably doing 200 or for 4 hours.

any thoughts on this folks?

marlene, thanks for grabbing those recipes. for the past year, i've had to search on this thread every time i want to make ribs.

[=Mark]

No brine....just cooked them at about 200 to 250 degrees for 9 hours....count em.....nine hours slow cooked; basted with a bbq sauce made from scratch....

pastramionrye, that seems a little excessive. i'm probably doing 200 or for 4 hours.

any thoughts on this folks?

marlene, thanks for grabbing those recipes. for the past year, i've had to search on this thread every time i want to make ribs.

Spare ribs I might do for 5 or 6 hours at 225, babybacks might go for 4 or so. Any longer than that you risk either falling off the bone meat (i.e. overdone) or worse, dried out.

[pastramionrye]

the meat was far from dried out...it was falling off the bone tender...

the idea came from my buddy who was dining out at the local Houston's...who do in fact have great ribs....he asked the cooks how they got them so tender...and they told him they put them in the oven late night...and the morning guys grab them out of the oven the next day...they cook them for about 9 hours...

[Marlene]

i'll be cooking ribs in 2 days.  i'm using mark's mustard sauce.  i'm also going to cook them a day ahead and put them in a zip-lock, and then reheat over low heat on the grill.  

.

Tommy -

I've hesitated to enter into any of the "BBQ cooking" discussions because I know there are much finer smokemasters on eGullet than I.

And, because I live in a city where where BBQ restaurants are on literally every corner, I have no desire to buy a big, wood-fire smoker. So, I've got a little gas grill out on the back deck of my bachelorette condo.

But, everyone brags on the BBQ ribs I make, so - here's what I do.

I do start them in the oven -- especially in the summer when it's 100 degrees, I don't like standing out there sweating over the ribs. Sometimes I even cook them in the oven a day or two before, so I have more time to sit around swilling Sangria with my guests. And, I don't have a hot oven heating up my kitchen during the party.

Night before: remove membrane from ribs (very important and many people - often even restaurants - skip this step).

For one rack of ribs, marinate overnight in mixture of:

2 C apple cider

1/2 C bottled Teriyaki sauce

1/4 C brown sugar

Bake ribs slowly in 250 degree oven, basting frequently.

Pretty darn good that way but for BBQ ribs, finish off on outdoor grill. (Can add flavorful woodchips of some kind to coals if using gas grill.)

Can baste with some sort of traditional BBQ sauce last few minutes of grilling to caramelize sauce, or just serve as is with sauce on side.

Ok, Jaymes, help me out here. I just bought a ton of country style pork ribs from Costco today, and the next few days are perfect BBQing weather. So, I shall attempt your recipe here. When you say cook em in the oven slowly, - how long please? Two hours? More? lLess?

I'm a relative newbie when it comes to ribs and I've never brined either

[tommy]

Ok, Jaymes, help me out here.  I just bought a ton of country style pork ribs from Costco today, and the next few days are perfect BBQing weather.  So, I shall attempt your recipe here.  When you say cook em in the oven slowly, - how long please?  Two hours?  More? lLess?

I'm a relative newbie when it comes to ribs and I've never brined either

you're looking at about 4 hours here. well worth the wait.

[Marlene]

So when I opened the rib package there were 4 racks of ribs! Soooooo, for the first two, I've made a beer marinade and I will use +Mark's mustard sauce for basting, and for the other two, I've made Jaymes' cider marinade. Both are now marinading merrily away (in my Tupperware marinade containers ). Since I did not want to anger the Rib Gods, I removed the membrane for the very first time. Remind me to get my butcher to do that from now on!

Tomorrow, into the oven they go for 4 hours. I shall report back.

Edited July 3, 2003 by Marlene (log)

[col klink]

I just bought a ton of country style pork ribs from Costco today . . .

If you took off the membrane, they're not country style ribs, they're either spare ribs or back ribs. Country style ribs aren't actually ribs at all, it's a pork shoulder cut into 1" square strips and look like ribs. Often times they're better.

Good luck!

[Marlene]

I just bought a ton of country style pork ribs from Costco today . . .

If you took off the membrane, they're not country style ribs, they're either spare ribs or back ribs. Country style ribs aren't actually ribs at all, it's a pork shoulder cut into 1" square strips and look like ribs. Often times they're better.

Good luck!

you are correct. They are spareribs. My mistake. At Costco, they had two types of ribs side by side. Country style and side ribs. I thought I was grabbing the country ribs, but actually grabbed the spareribs. Which is fine. These are nice and meaty. Costco does a pretty good job with their meats.

Edited July 3, 2003 by Marlene (log)

[tommy]

If you took off the membrane, they're not country style ribs, they're either spare ribs or back ribs. Country style ribs aren't actually ribs at all, it's a pork shoulder cut into 1" square strips and look like ribs. Often times they're better.

Good luck!

isn't the membrane silverskin, and quite hard to chew? or does the slow and low method melt it to a point where it's manageable. i'm pretty sure i'm making ribs this july 4th, after all this talk.

[snowangel]

When smoking ribs, don't drink so much beer that you fall asleep and leave things untended. Lesson learned!

[col klink]

isn't the membrane silverskin, and quite hard to chew?  or does the slow and low method melt it to a point where it's manageable.  i'm pretty sure i'm making ribs this july 4th, after all this talk. 

I've never heard of it being referred to as silverskin but it is a decent analogy. It's chewy and detracts from the potential texture. Not only that, if you're smoking, it cuts your surface area in half since the smoke can't penetrate the membrane.

[Marlene]

Actually the Weber's Big Book of Grilling refers to it as membrane or silverskin.

[tommy]

I've never heard of it being referred to as silverskin but it is a decent analogy. It's chewy and detracts from the potential texture. Not only that, if you're smoking, it cuts your surface area in half since the smoke can't penetrate the membrane.

ah. i think i know what happened. you said

If you took off the membrane, they're not country style ribs, they're either spare ribs or back ribs

and i thought you meant that removing the membrane *turns them into* spare or baby back. what you meant was if there is a silverskin (membrane) to begin with, then they weren't country style, as country style doesn't have the membrane.

shew. that hurt.

[Hickory]

Weber's Big Book of Grilling refers to it as membrane or silverskin.

Isn't all papery membrane like that called Fell?

I'm pretty sure is is with Lamb anyway. It may be different with Pork.

Silverskin is what you find around a tenderloin.

[Ruth]

Someone, I know, is going to crucify me for this but it really worked well. A few days ago I had visitors at very short notice and a cook-out seemed the only option. I was planning halibut, veal ribs and spareribs on my gas grill (medium sized Weber) and was not in the mood to tend to the ribs over indirect heat while preparing hors d'oeuvres and appetizers in the early afternoon. I seasoned the ribs with s&p and various spices and then cooked them sous vide at 170° for an hour. They emerged tender, juicy and flavorful and all I had to do prior to serving was to grill and glaze them along with the veal ribs. I am sure this method will work just as well with baby backs

[col klink]

There's no shame in what you've done, if you and everyone else was really happy with the result who's to say otherwise? That's the beauty of pork, there are many way to eat it.

You were throwing a party and as a good host it's very important to with your guests. The more I think about it, with your equipment, you've done about as well as you could. Gas grills are great for grilling but they're horrible for indirect cooking. It can be done, but you go through A LOT of gas. So nice job on the prep. The only thing I'd add is brining beforehand but you were cooking on the fly.

[tommy]

Tomorrow, into the oven they go for 4 hours.  I shall report back.

weeeelllll? marlene, how'd it go?

i'm throwing mine in the oven at 220 for what i assume will be 4 hours right now. i'll reheat them tomorrow on the grill.

[Marlene]

They were awesome! I slow cooked them for 4 hours at 250 and I could have left them for another hour I think. 1 rack was basted on the grill with =mark's spicy mustard bbq sauce, which had been marinaded in a beer marinade first, 2 racks were Jamyes' recipe which I bbq'd and basted with some of the marinade after I had brought it to a boil and thickened it slightly, and the other rack that had been marinaded in beer, was basted with a honey garlic bbq sauce. Myhusband's favourite was =Mark's, mine was Jayme's although I really liked =mark's as well, and my son liked the honey garlic. Everyone was happy!

Edited July 4, 2003 by Marlene (log)

[dumpling]

For my July 4 dinner, I tried making ribs really for the first time. Inspired by my neighbor and his Kamado. Did a salt and pepper rub then baked them for two hours in foil at 325. Let sit for about 10 minutes in the oven with it turned off. Then Let sit in a cherry cola glaze.

Cherry cola cooked down and mixed with cherry preserves, dijon mustard with horse radish, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar. Then grill about 5 minutes turning and recoating midway. Came out really nice. Accompanied with homemade lemonade, mashed potatoes, corn and homemade blueberry pie. We later went to the Fireworks with friends and brought the lemonade and the rest of the pie and the comments were "best pie they ever ate" . That looking up at the show-that's a fourth of July just the way Johm Adams said we should celebrate it. Food, fireworks and friends.

I see that you usually seem to be slow cooking for longer? also I probably cooked it with the membrane(me being a naive virgin). Should you take it off? What's the difference?

[tommy]

seem to be slow cooking for longer?  also I probably cooked it with the membrane(me being a naive virgin).  Should you take it off?  What's the difference?

i'm told the membrane remains chewy even after slow and low cooking. see comments at the beginning of this thread.

i had ribs in the overn for over 5 hours yesterday. they're in plastic zip locs now, and i'm looking forward to trying them today.

[Marlene]

So Tommy, how did your ribs turn out?

[tommy]

So Tommy, how did your ribs turn out?

very good. they were in the oven at about 220 for close to 5.5 hours. i threw them on the grill the next day to heat them up and give 'em some "char", and they went over very well. also, i brined them for about 1 hour before cooking.