Fall Off the Bone Baby Backs

Since nothing says Merry Christmas like smoked ribs, I thought I would share the last time I did a big batch of ribs.

When it comes to ribs I think there are two kinds of people - those that like them to fall off the bone and those that like them moist and chewy. I fall in the latter category, but I have no problem with those that are in the former. And if I cook my ribs a bit too long and they are fall off the bone I will still enjoy them a great deal. I mean if the worst thing that happens to me in a day is that I have to eat ribs that fall off the bone I've had a good day!?!

On this such occasion I was at my in-laws. My in-laws like fall off the bone, sauced ribs. Since that is what my audience wanted, that's what I gladly made. My FiL is the type of guy to get up at the crack of dawn and smoke ribs for 8-10 hours. I just don't have that kind of time. And I can provide them with exactly what they want in under four hours. That's right, four hours for fall off the bone ribs....

The ribs were marinaded in apple cider, garlic and black pepper over night. The next day my MiL made her wonderful Cumin based rub. Cumin, garlic, some brown sugar, onion powder and black pepper. I'm sure I left out some ingredients so I will check with her and update this post when I know more.

I salted the ribs with some coarse salt and then applied the rub and threw them on the my FiL's sweet Brinkman Offset Smoker. I held back one half slab for myself for a little while so they would not be fall off the bone. Here they are with all of the slabs on the grill:


I know some of you are looking at that pic and see that the coals are actually in the cooking chamber rather than the firebox. This was required to achieve my goal of fall off the bone BBRs in under four hours. To do so I needed to raise the temp from the standard 225 to closer to 275. In order to accomplish this I needed the fire in the cooking chamber rather than the firebox. I slid the grill grates over to the right to have easier access to the fire to add wood and more charcoal.

I was having one problem at this point. The ribs were practically stacked on top of each other which would slow the cooking process as they would insulate each other. I had a couple of options, try to transfer red hot coals from the cooking chamber to the fire box (and add a ton more charcoal to get the temp up) or find away to separate the ribs. After a little digging in the garage I found a rib rack. Problem solved:

In the above pic you can see the lead from my thermometer that leads to the base (out of the pic). With long cooking chambers like this, the thermometer built into the middle of the top of the grill can be off by more than 50 degrees or so from the ends of the grill. I wanted to see what the temp my ribs were at right near where they were cooking.

After 2 hours on the grill, it was time for the foil. Put the ribs on the foil bone side down, slather with either honey or syrup. For a really great bark add more rub but it's not necessary. These were getting sauced so no extra rub:


After I took this pic I just stacked them on top of each other, folded up the foil around them and back on the grill. After 45 minutes or so in the foil I pulled them, and dunked them in a disposable tin foil pan full of sauce.

The sauce was kicked up Cattleman's. I took a sauce pan, added some oil, brought some minced garlic up to a sizzle, added some brown sugar and syrup, as well as fresh cracked black pepper. Cooked that for a bit and then added the sauce. Half a pumpkin ale and cooked it down for about an hour to thicken.

While I was doing all of this I also threw on some rib tips. While I normally cook those as a chef's prerogative and enjoy them throughout the smoking process these were for my BiL's girlfriend (now fiance) who likes ribs but doesn't like the bones. Here are the ribs in their BBQ sauce bath, the tips off to the side and my half slab in foil. I hadn't gotten to removing my slab from the foil yet:


I put the ribs in the sauce right over the heat so they would cook some more in the sauce to guarantee that fall off the bone consistency. Here is a closeup of the ribs in the BBQ bath:


I left the ribs in the sauce for about 30 minutes. So total cooking time was just under 3.5 hours.

This was the second time in about a month I was to grill ribs. I didn't get a chance to do this method the time before as my FiL's neighbor started the grill up and put everything on about eight in the morning. When we ate at 6 that night, they were great. I kept telling my FiL that I could do the same in four hours.

So there we are, sitting around the table chowing on ribs and sides. After a few bones, my FiL, looks at me and says, "four hours?" After a couple more bones says it again. All in all I think he said that about 6 times. He just couldn't believe what he was eating only took four hours.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not a proponent of rushing anything on the grill. Less time grillin meand less time chillin. But I just can't do 10 hours on the grill. Maybe in a Big Green Egg where you set it and forget it, but not with the equipment available to me.

BTW, I did this method with spares about 6 weeks prior. No pics. The wife had obsconded with the camera. I'd heard about this higher temp shorter time method and wanted to see if it worked. I did two hours in the smoke, and then 90 minutes in the foil. As I was pulling one of the half slabs from the foil, one of the bones hit the edge of the foil that was sticking out and the bone actually fell out of the meat!!! Think about that for a second. How much resistance does tin foil have? Next to none. And the entire bone fell out of the half slab. I almost laughed outloud and was really sorry I didn't have the camera!?!?

To finish the spares I put them back on the grill for 30 minutes. I realize that the meat was done after 3.5 hours, but I needed to caramelize the bark as they were sauceless ribs. At the higher temp that only takes about 30 minutes. So for Spares, four hours is all you need for fall off the bone ribs.

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Ribs and a Brisket

OK, now onto some serious smoking. I did Ribs and Brisket for my immediate and the wife's immediate fam along with various Significant Others. Total of 13 people. I marinated the Brisket for about 60 hours in coke, teryaki, Worcestershire, Andria's, minced garlic and black pepper. It was a little over 4 pounds so it would be timed well with my ribs which I did with the 3-2-1 method.

I marinated the ribs in Apple Cider, Andrias, minced garlic, and black pepper.

I never put salt in a marinade. I put the salt on right before the meat hits the heat. I also never put salt in my rubs. I don't use garlic or onion salt. I want to know how much salt I am using. If I use a rub or garlic salt I don't really know how much I am using.

Here is a pic of the rub ingredients.



The largest jar is granulated garlic which is immensely than just garlic powder. The little jar on the right is powdered roasted peppers from Alberqueque. Adds a great flavor and a little heat but not much. The stainless container is brown sugar. I use a lot of the Sugar in the raw and just a little of the brown sugar to keep the burning down. I will say that I made this rub before I found the wonderful world of Penzey's spices. No one makes better spices.

Sorry I can't give you exact amounts of anything because I don't cook like that. I just add a dash of this a TBSP of that. A quarter cup of this. Here is what the rub looks like when mixed up



This was actually the first brisket I had ever done so I didn't do a rub for the brisket as I wanted to get a taste for the meat with just coarse salt, black pepper and the smoke flavor. But here is a pic of the Ribs with a nice coat of rub on them as well as a shot of the rib tips and the brisket





Before we get to the cooking process let's talk about the grill itself. The Grill is a Chargriller Smokin Pro which is an offset horizontal smoker with a fire box on the side.



I was not happy with the smoke distribution that this grill provided. The smoke would come through the hole from the firebox rise straight up, travel over the meat and out the chimney on the other side. The meat that was on the right side of the grill, right over the opening to the firebox, got all the smoke but the rest didn't get as much. With some simple disposable tin trays from the grocery store I resolved this problem.



Over the opening to the firebox I put a deep tin to act as a baffle to push the smoke down. Then along the bottom of the grill I put in to flat cookie tray tins with holes poked in them to usher the smoke along the bottom of the grill. The holes allow for the smoke to come up evenly throughout the cooking chamber. You will see what I mean in a minute.

I put the 4 LB Brisket on first as it needed to cook for about 6 hours but would also need about an hour in some foil at the end. The Ribs were cooked using the 3-2-1 method. Keep the temp at 225-250. 3 hours of smoke. 2 hours in foil with something sweet slathered on top. You could use syrup, honey, brown sugar, molasses, etc. 1 hour back on the heat with no smoke. The meat isn't absorbing anymore smoke at that point so don't waste the smoke wood.

Here is a pic of everything on the grill.



Here is what the augmentation with the tins do for the smoker



That's some serious smoke action

Here we have about 2 hours into the process. Ribs on the bottom and the brisket on top. Not exactly sure on the time as there was some drinking going on



No picks of the foiled ribs. Did I mention that there was some drinking going on?!?!

I did the foiling in two ways. One was just some maple syrup and back on the grill. The other was honey and more rub and back on the grill. Adding more rub will make a really flavorful bark once the ribs are pulled from the foil and put back on the heat for an hour. I prefer the bark to any sort of sauce but one has to cook to ones audience and I had a large contingent of people wanting BBQ sauce on the ribs so I did two whole sides with sauce. So I sliced them, dunked in sauce and put back on the grill to caramelize the sauce.

All of the ones I foiled with maple syrup and one of the honey with no extra rub got the sauce. The other two half slabs I did with Honey and extra rub I did not sauce and put back on the grill for hour or so as well as .

Here is a pic of the non sauced ribs. I should not have taken the pic with a flash because the smoke ring is washed out. You will see what I mean in a second when you see the pic of the Brisket with a flash.



The ribs were not fall off the bone, but they were incredibly tender, which is the way they should be cooked. If they are fall off the bone all you really have is pulled pork and that is very expensive pulled pork.

Here is the brisket. After about 6 hours I put it in foil and took it off the heat.



That is a serious smoke ring

I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the sauced ribs. I had a legion of very hungry people that were already giving me all kinds of grief by holding up dinner to take some pictures of the food.

I received many compliments which I don't ever know if they are sincere. No one is going to say, "hey the food you just cooked me sucked." Everyone just says, "hey, great job," etc. After many more beers I pretty much passed out at about 10. It wasn't until the next morning that I got the best compliment with how little food was left. Four thin slices of brisket, that made a great sammich, and about 6 bones which made for lunch at work the next week. An even bigger compliment than that was some dessert that my mom made in a large 9X13 pan had not been touched at all. Not a single slice. Everyone was too full. And my mom is one helluva baker....
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