It has been awhile since I last posted about ribs. I think it was back in September. Well, it’s high time I posted again about them as you can never have too many rib, rub, or barbecue sauce recipes as far as I’m concerned. Besides, it gives me a chance to play with my smoker yet again. Man, I love that thing! While have have gotten quite adept at barbecuing on my Weber kettle grill, life has become so much easier with my smoker. Now, instead of having to babysit my barbecue all day, I can load it up and let it go, checking it once an hour or so. The downside to that is I can’t use barbecuing as an excuse not to do things around the house. It won’t be long before my wife catches on, and the days of “tending the grill” all day, while sucking down copious amounts of beer will be at an end. If she hasn’t already caught on, I’m SOL now, as she reads this blog. Don’t worry though, I’ll find another excuse to waste away the day drinking beer and cocktails (if anyone has any good suggestions for such an excuse let me know).

Of course, if you have read this blog for any amount of time you are well aware of my love affair with all things pork – aka, god’s gift to all mankind. Grilled, roasted, braised, stuffed into sausage casings, cured, and/or smoked, there is nothing that can compare with a piece of well cooked pork. I feel for my friends who, because of religious or other reasons, are forbidden to consume the flesh of the pig. If they only knew what they are missing! While I think this nation as gone a little “bacon crazy” in the last few years, I am fully of the opinion that “everything is better with bacon,” a phrase I have uttered here numerous times, because if pork if delightful by itself, once you pair it with long, slow cooking in a smoke filled chamber it becomes absolutely divine!

In my personal heirarchy of pork, bacon reigns supreme, followed closely by pulled pork – slowly cooked over wood for hours on end. In close third comes ribs, the subject of today’s post. Today I’m just going to focus on a great rub and simple barbecue sauce to go with the ribs. I am going to assume you already know how to barbecue them. If you are not familiar with barbecuing then check out my earlier posts on pulled pork or barbecued ribs and it will walk you through how to barbecue on a kettle style grill. The most important thing when cooking in this style is to use an indirect method of cooking and making sure that your grill doesn’t get too hot. I like to barbecue between 225°F and 250°F. Depending on their size, baby back ribs will take you 2 1/2-3 hours to cook properly. Any shorter length of time and you will end up with dry or tough ribs. Talking about tough ribs, there is a misconception, here in the north, that ribs should be falling off the bone tender. I’ve got news for you, if they are then chances are they are dry, and that’s why so many places in the north end up drenching their ribs in sauce. Properly done ribs should still cling to the bone, yet yield easily when pulled, with just the slightly resistance before coming free.

Let your ribs rest for 2 hours to overnight after applying your rub

Depending on the thickness of your ribs, your should apply your rub anywhere from 2 hours to overnight before you commence cooking. This will help to ensure the development of the “bark,” or crust. As far a sauce goes, many regions of the US consider sauce to sacrilegious, but if you like sauce, like I do, wait until the last 20 30 minutes of cooking before brushing it on. If you brush it on too soon, chances are the sugars in the sauce will end up burning, creating an unpleasant bitter, burnt flavor to your ribs.

Rib Rub
enough for 4 racks of baby back ribs

1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Place in an air tight container and store for up to 3 weeks. To use, sprinkle liberally on both sides of the ribs and gently rub it in. Allow to rest for at least 2 hours or overnight before cooking.

Bourbon Molasses BBQ Sauce
enough for 4 racks of baby back ribs

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup bourbon or whiskey
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 oz. yellow mustard
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer over medium heat until onions are tender, about 15 minutes. Blend then cook until thickened and reduced by about 1/3. Brush onto ribs about 20 minutes before ribs are done. Brush again with about 10 minutes. Serve any left on the side for people to add more. Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Barbecue…barbeque…BBQ; no matter how you spell it, that word makes me giddy. I’m not talking when it is used, in the generic sense, meaning any type of cooking on a grill, or over an open fire, but real, god honest barbecue; the kind done slow and low that can turn some of the toughest cuts of meat into melt-in-your-mouth morsels, bursting with smoke flavor. Not that I’m against cooking out, in any of its forms. In fact, a rather large portion of the food I cook is done one a grill, but there is something special about making true barbecue, whether it is ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork or any number of other items that benefit from a long slow cook while being bathed in smoke.

Let’s set the record straight though, before we begin. Grilling and barbecuing are not the same thing. Yes, they can both be done on a grill, but grilling is done over a relatively high heat, directly over the heat source. It’s this high heat that sears and chars the meat providing plenty of flavor, and it works best for tender pieces of meat such as steaks, chops, chicken, etc. Barbecuing is done at much cooler temperatures, away from the heat source, and requires hours of cooking. It is used on tough cuts of meat such as brisket, ribs and shoulder cuts to transform them into a tender finished product. While most people use the the words interchangeably, they really are 2 different styles of cooking, and believe me, the easiest way to tick off a serious barbecue aficionado is to talk on and on about how you like to fire up the grill and barbecue some steaks and burgers.

I am no barbecue expert. That’s evidenced by the fact that I do not, yet, own any type of barbecue pit or rig. I do all my barbecuing on my Weber kettle grill. There are those in the barbecue community that will scoff and say that I can’t truly barbecue with a set up like that, but I think I do all right. Sure, there are some issues to overcome, and I certainly won’t win any major competitions with my set up but it works for me and I like to believe that I make some pretty good ‘cue. And I have a number of fans that would agree.

While I am not a snob about barbecue, like some that I know, I will say that unless you own a smoker, barbecue pit, or at the very least a kettle grill, you can stop reading here. Sorry but a gas grill is not going to cut it for the recipe I have, nor will a regular grill, even if it has a lid. It needs to be a kettle style grill to create a proper smoke chamber. A regular grill keeps the meat too close to the coals and doesn’t allow for the proper convection of heat.

As for charcoal, lump charcoal is always the preferred charcoal of choice for those serious about barbecue (unless they are using logs to fire their pit), but for some people, in some areas, lump charcoal can be hard to find. If you must use the standard briquettes it is imperative that you always burn them down before adding them to your grill. If you don’t, the chemicals and fillers used in these things will contribute nasty, off flavors to your final product. Always start them out in a chimney starter and don’t add them to the grill until they have burned down and are completely covered with white ash.

A few more things before I get into the recipe. The recipe as written is for making 1 pork butt. Most of the pictures will show 3 butts being made. I was doing this for my brother’s wedding reception and was feeding many people. 1 pork butt should easily feed 20 people with some to spare, unless they are big eaters. Also, plan on making a day out of it as this is going to take about 6-8 hours to cook. You don’t need to sit there and watch it all the time, but you will need to regularly replenish charcoal and do a few other things as the meat cooks. You can do other chores, or even run a few quick errands, but you need to stay close. Or you can do like I do…make a big production out of it, convince your wife that this delicate procedure takes constant vigilance then sit around all day drinking beer with a buddy or 2 and watch the grill…don’t tell! Finally, it just dawned on me that some people might be wondering why the hell I would want to cook pork butt. In culinary terms pork butt refers to a cut taken from the shoulder area of a pig. Don’t ask my why they call it “butt.” I have no clue. Anyone want to chime in?

Pulled Pork

1 pork butt, 7-9 pounds, bone in
2 Tbsp. paprika
4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. black pepper, ground
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup apple juice
2 cups wood chips (your choice-I often use hickory, apple, cherry, mesquite, or hickory nut hulls)

Four hours before you want to start barbecuing, remove the pork butt from the refrigerator. Combine the paprika, salt, mustard, cayenne, black pepper, and sugar. Rub all over the pork, using every last bit. Allow the pork to remain at room temperature. Soak wood chips in water. 20 minutes before starting to cook, fire up about 25 charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter. When ready, and covered in white ash, place charcoal coal in a ring along the outer edge of the grill. In the center place an aluminum pan or pie plate (don’t use one of your wife’s good ones or there will be hell to pay) filled with a couple cups of water. Place the cooking grate on the grill and allow to heat up briefly. Place pork in the center of the grate.

Place about 1/2 cup of the soaked chips directly on the charcoal and cover the grill with the lid.

Sweet Smoke

For proper heat control and air flow, if you have bottom vents make sure they are only open about 1/3 of the way. You want to allow oxygen in to keep the charcoal burning but you don’t want too much oxygen to allow the fire too get too hot. On the top vent you want it opened about 1/2 – 2/3 of the way open. This allows the smoke a relatively quick exit, which you want. You don’t want the smoke to become trapped in the chamber for too long or it will deposit many of the particles suspended in it onto the meat.

After about 35-40 minutes of cooking you want to start another batch of charcoal, in the starter chimney. This time use about 15-20. When ready add to the grill, again placing them in a ring around the meat, on top of the almost spent charcoal. Add another 1/2 cup of soaked wood chips. This process is much easier if you have a grill grate with hinged sides. If not you will need to remove the whole cooking grate, pork and all to accomplish this. Do this quickly to prevent the pork from cooling too much and adding considerable time to your cooking.

Meanwhile, combine the vinegar and apple juice. Once you hit the 3 hour mark, brush the meat every half hour with this mixture, making more if necessary. Continue adding charcoal, at the same intervals throughout the cooking process. We are looking to maintain an approximate temperature of about 225-230°F throughout the cooking process. Keep adding the wood chips when you add new charcoal. Once the wood chips are gone don’t worry abou them anymore, the pork has probably taken in all the smoke flavor it’s going to anyway.

After about 5 hours start checking the temperature each time you add new charcoal or mop the meat with vinegar mixture. You are looking to pull the meat at about 190°F. This may seem awfully high, especially if you are used to cooking steaks and eating them MR to medium, but this temperature is important for a nice and tender product and don’t worry, with the amount of fat and connective tissue in this cut of meat it will still be plenty moist. A quick warning though, at about 180°F you might run into a problem with what some people refer to as the “stall” or “plateau” were the temperature refuses to climb. It is a waiting game, but the temperature will eventually start to rise again. If you seem to have a problem with an exceptionally long stall (over an hour) try adding an extra 5-10 briquettes the next time your replenish your heat.

Once the meat hits 190°F remove from the grill, cover loosely in foil and allow to sit for 15 minutes, at least. Once the meat is just barely cool enough to handle start pulling and shredding the meat by hand. If cooked properly this task can be done almost completely by hand, though you may need to use a knife to chop a bit of the innermost meat.

Serve however you like and with whatever sauce you choose, but I’m partial to the way they serve it in North Carolina, on a big, soft, white bun drizzled with a North Carolina style barbecue sauce.

North Carolina BBQ Sauce

1 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp. brown sugar

Combine all ingredients. in a nonreactive saucepot, bring to a boil, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

This sauce may seem rather sour compared to the sauces that most people are used to, but it’s a great sauce for pulled pork as it cuts through the richness of the fat laden meat. Just remember, you don’t need to dump it on like regular barbecue sauce. It just takes a good drizzle over the meat.