Brining and dry rubbing baby backs

[bobmac]

Somebody here recommended brining, but I also want some of the flavors I get from my dry rub. The brine is a vanilla, sugar, salt and pepper mix.

[fiftydollars]

I usually brine and rub. I don’t brine for very long and my rub isn’t too salty, so it works out alright.

Alton Brown has a recipe where he brines and then uses a rub that has no salt. I haven’t tried it, but if you’re worried about over salting it might be worth a try.

[Dave the Cook]

Brining does great things for the interor of the meat, but unless you've gone to extremes, you probably still need some exterior salt. For an untested rub recipe, I cut back on the salt by 75%, and work up from there until I find a satisfactory formula (which might be back to the original). In the meantime, I leave the salt shaker on the table. If you use sugar in your brine (for pork, I use a 2:1 ratio of salt to sugar), start at 50%.

[Jinmyo]

Brine then rub.

(Actually, today I served brined pork back ribs with a sauce made of gojuchang, sesame oil, shoyu, garlic that worked very well. I usually use a dry rub though.)

[ronnie_suburban]

I always do both with ribs (and most other pork for that matter), making sure to cut back the amount of salt in my dry rub accordingly.

For 3 slabs of loin ribs, I'll brine for about 12 hours in a gallon of water mixed with about 2/3 C of morton kosher salt. After the brining, I rinse and dry them, and hit them with some rub before they go on the smoker.

=R=

[snowangel]

I'll second what Ronnie said, with a caveat. Check to see whether or not the pork has been injected with that solution that some pork has been subjected to. If so, don't brine, or you are for some way too salty ribs.

For some great info on brining, check out Dave the Cook's ECI course on Brining.

And, there are several great rubs here, on recipe Gullet. I'm mighty fond of Klink's, that sumac really adds a lot.

[ellencho]

I believe Cook's Illustrated recommends brining and a dry rub for their BBQ ribs. I do that myself, mainly because you'll be smoking them for a while and they're not the thickest cut of meat, so the brining is sort of an insurance policy against overdrying your ribs.

[snowangel]

Word of warning about following the Cooks Illustrated instructions for smoking meat. They want you to bring the meat to room temp before smoking and smoke at a higher heat that is usually successful. Many of us have found that really cold meat and a smoking temp of 225-250 to be optimal.

[Bill Miller]

Baby backs just do not require the cooking of other ribs. I do not brine. I sear over an open fire on both sides, then smoke for about an hour at 225-250, then wrap in foil and cook for another hour--stays moist. I add some allspice to my rub--really adds a deminsion