Rib Prep

I really prefer St. Louis Cut (SLC) ribs! To make SLC ribs, take a slab of spareribs, cut off the rib tips and square up the pointy end. What remains is a flat rectangular slab called the St. Louis cut.

Prepare the ribs the night before!

Rinse the ribs in cool water to remove any bone bits from the butchering Pat dry with paper towels.

Chances are that your ribs will still have the membrane on the back side. You really need to remove this membrane. It gets leathery and hard to chew, it keeps fat in, and it keeps smoke out. Insert the handle of a flatware (table spoon), or the tip of a butter knife under the membrane, then your fingers, work a section loose, grip it with a paper towel, and peel it off. After the membrane is off, trim the excess fat from both sides.

Coat the meat with a thin layer of vegetable oil. The oil reacts with the spices and releases all of their wonderful flavors! Sprinkle enough rub to coat al surfaces. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons per side, don’t sprinkle so heavily that yoiu can no longer see the meat. Spread the rub around on the meat, massage it in a bit. Wrap the slab with clear plastic food wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

See Memphis Style Rub recipe at end of note.

Cooking

Preheat your smoker to about 225°F and try to keep it there throughout the cook.

Do not rely on the cheap cooker mounted bi-metal dial thermometers!

You can buy very reliable after-market dial thermometers from Tel-True.

I like to use a combination of Stubb’s Briquettes (Available a t Lowe’s), Cherry Wood and Apple Wood smoking chunks for the cooking process. For the fire, I use a technique called the Minion Method. You do not need to soak your smoking wood, EVER! The water barely penetrates the surface and evaporates in just few minutes when it’s in the smoker.

The concept behind the “Minion Method” is simple:

• Place a small number of hot coals on top of a full charcoal chamber of unlit briquettes. I like to intersperse my smoking woods throughout the charcoal so they light as the charcoal around  them gets hot.
• Open the top vent fully and never touch it during the cooking process. If you restrict the airflow out of the top you can get creosote buildup inside the smoker and it will ruin the flavor of the meat. Use only the bottom vents to control the amount of air entering the cooker, to keep the fire burning low and steady.
• The unlit fuel catches fire gradually throughout the cooking session, resulting in long burn times of up to 18 hours, depending on weather conditions.

One of the advantages this method has over the Standard Method is that there’s less of a chance that the cooker will run hotter than you want. This is because it’s easier to start with just a few hot coals and bring the cooker up to 225-250°F than it is to start with a red-hot cooker and fight to bring it down to 225-250°F.

Unwrap the slabs and place them in the cooker with the the meat side up. Close the lid and walk away! Monitor your cooking temperature and adjust the vents in VERY SMALL INCREMENTS to maintain between 200-250ºF throughout the cooking process.

RULE #1 of BBQ-If Yer Lookin’ You Ain’t Cookin’!

Ribs are one of the few meats on which you cannot use a thermometer because the bones are too close to give an accurate reading.

Allow 5 to 6 hours for St. Louis Cut ribs and spare ribs. The exact time will depend on how thick the slabs are and how steady you have kept the temperature. If the ribs are jammed close together because you’re using rib racks to fit more ribs in your cooker, you may have to add an hour to your cooking time.

To check if they are ready, perform the bend test. Pick up the slab with tongs and bounce it gently. If the surface cracks, it’s ready.

If you decide to sauce your ribs a bit, use your favorite BBQ sauce. One coat of a thick sauce should be enough. Thinner sauces may need two coats. Return the ribs to the  225ºF cooker and let the sauce set and caramelize, anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the ribs and pull them before the sauce starts to burn.

ENJOY!

Memphis Style Rub

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (for diabetics you can substitute Splenda Blend Brown Sugar)
• 3/4 cup Turbinado (Raw Sugar) sugar (there is no diet substitute for this as most sugar substitutes don’t caramelize)
• 1/2 cup Spanish Paprika
• 1/4 cup Morton’s kosher salt
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons rosemary powder