Old School Ribs - Excellent Read for Rib Novices Out There

Over the weekend we celebrated the Grillin Fool's birthday with some serious grillin, chillin and poker shillin. Ribs, Bacon Wrapped Deer Tenderloin, Grilled Beans and an entire Chub of Bologna. Dad did the ribs as well as the prep work on the Deer Tenderloin. For the ribs he didn't bother with the latest Rib crazes right now like the 3-2-1 method or trying to produce a flavor "bark" with loads of rub. This was simple, indirect grilling of ribs along with some fruit wood smoke for extra flavor. Would you believe that the smoke ring above was produced in less than 2 hours on a grill that is not a designated smoker?

This is the perfect post for those of you that have not done ribs or are new to cooking ribs. I took some pics of what to look for to figure out when your ribs are done (hint the top pic above is a good indicator). Also, for those of you without dedicated smokers this proves that you can cook some mean ribs without having to have a special grill for it. Click the link below to see what I am talking about.


It was quite a gathering at Fool’s Pappy’s house for the Fool’s birthday and what else would occur but firing up a few grills? Fool indicated he would like ribs for his big day and I obliged (since I’m the supreme griller of ribs among the Fools).**Editor's note - The other two Grillin Fools beg to differ**

Very meaty baby back ribs were obtained from a couple of local grocers and the stage was set. Five full slabs were cut into ten ½ slabs for easier handling and fitting into the rib racks on the grill. The Ribs prior to being sliced in half:

Prep was very simple but the first step is very crucial to having a good result. The ribs must be ‘skinned’. This is mandatory if you want to have tender tasty ribs. ‘Skinning’ the ribs refers to the removal of the membrane (skin) on the back or bone side of the ribs. Getting this started is sometimes difficult. I usually insert a finger between two bones at one end of the rack and work the skin loose. Occasionally a knife or opposite end of a spoon is required to get it started. I then grab a paper towel to grab the skin (it’s naturally slippery and the towel enhances the grip) and peel the skin the length of the rack as shown. Removal of the skin eliminates toughness when you bite into it and the skin really has no flavor. Removal also allows what ever dry rub used to penetrate the meat (also the wood smoke) thus enhancing flavor. For maximum flavor and tenderness, ‘skin your ribs’:

The dry rub spices were applied next with the first application being a light dusting on both sides of granulated garlic. This was followed by a light application of KC Sweet and Smoky Rub (Master Griller Steve Raichlen’s recipe with a bit less salt). The spices were then ‘patted’ into the meat and not actually rubbed. Some experts I’ve read suggest ‘patting’ the meat aids in preserving tenderness as opposed to actual ‘rubbing’. I don’t know if there is a lot of credence to this but I’ve been doing it for quite a while with good results. Utilizing a ‘light’ amount of spices enhances the flavor of the meat. Many grillers ‘cake’ the ribs to the point of obtaining an overpowering crust on the ribs. I try to avoid that. The rub was applied a few hours before the ribs hit the grill:

Did anyone notice the big candle on the platter of ribs before cooking? It was just the special touch befitting the Grillin’ Fool on his birthday.**Editor's Note - the candle would've been more recognizeable had he actually gotten the flame in the only pic he took of it**

Before using a rib rack, always spray with Pam or a similar product prior to placing the ribs in the rack. This will make cleanup later much easier:

The fire is ready on both grills and it’s time to grill. Two grills were used as half the ribs were smoked with cherry chunks and the other half with apple wood just to have bit of variety. Cooking time was approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes using the indirect method (I had the coals on the left side of the grill and the ribs on the right).

Closeup of ribs on left grill:

Closeup of the ribs on the right grill:

Notice how the ribs are staggered in the rack? The first slab is pushed farther to the back, the next farther to the front, the next farther to the back, etc? This is to allow the heat and smoke to penetrate the meat better. While rib racks allow for more ribs per square inch of grilling space, they also inhibit the permeation of smoke and serve to insulate the ribs against each other. Staggering them like this helps to alleviate both problems.

45 minutes later the ribs on the left:

The half rack in front is cooking at a much faster pace than the rest of the ribs. Time to rearrange:

Not only did I put the half slab that was cooking too fast to the back, I turned the other ribs to be perpendicular to the heat and put some space between the slabs to allow the smoke to circulate in and around them better - basically the theory of staggering them taken a bit farther with the extra room in this rib rack. Here we have a shot that shows how much room there is between them:

And while that half slab that was on front was cooking faster than the other four, the ribs on the other grill were cooking faster as well, but not as quickly of the darkest slab in the pic above:

A pic from above even shows a slight bit of meat separating from the bone:

**Editor's note - Some are going to ask at what temp the grill on the right was cooking at. Well that's a little tough to tell. Here is a shot of the grill on the right with the lid closed:

And here is a close up of the thermometer:

good luck checking the temp on that thing.

Here is the grill on the left:

And the temp on the side with the coals:

And the temp on the side with the ribs:

The true temp of the Brinkmann is somewhat higher than these thermometers indicate considering the cold weather we were grillin in. The Brinkmann was probably over 250 and the old Charbroil on the right was hotter than that. Probably at the 275-300 range on the side with the coals.

Wish I had some solid numbers here. This was my fault. I forgot my remote thermometer**

30 minutes later (75 minutes in) ribs on the left along with the Chub of bologna and the beans (more on those later):

Those are coming along nicely but the ones on the right are doing even better:

This pic is a bit dark so I hope you can see the meat pulling back from the bone. This is what you are looking for:

20 minutes later (95 minutes into the process) the ones on the right are looking fantastic. Meat is really pulling away from the bone:

10 minute later (105 minutes in) I pulled them out of the rib rack to get this pic before taking them inside:

I took the half racks above along with the the half rack that was cooking too quickly from the left grill and placed them into disposable tin trays with a little beer in the pan and foil on top and into a 150 degree oven to keep warm:

The other slabs were placed over on the grill to the right in order to finish up as that grill stayed hotter than the Brinkman. Those 4 slabs took about a total of 2 hours.

When served the knife went through them like they were warm butter, not falling off the bone though. Properly cooked ribs should not fall off the bone. They should maintain a texture that is pleasing, tender, and slightly chewy. Usually if you are served ribs that fall off the bone they have been cooked improperly or parboiled (ugh!). This batch came out perfect as many of the guests that night exclaimed. You may have noticed the lack of barbeque sauce. There was none offered and certainly none needed. Occasionally I will add sauce to the mix and try to ‘glaze’ a coat or two on the ribs as some prefer that addition.

Money shot: Notice the meatiness of these ribs! They were very tasty and the smoke ring was readily apparent as you can see. There were no leftovers on this evening!


**Editor's note - Excellent Job Dad!!!

Click here for the rest of the process

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.

Click here for the rest of the process

How about a little Rib Off?

Every year about 30 of my family and friends go up to Michigan in the middle of July. The weather is amazing. Go to the pool or the beach during the day, wear a sweatshirt at night. The place is rustic. Not many frills, but it's a great time. Particularly if you like to eat food cooked on the grill. We rent five cabins each cabin has a grill. We line up the grills next to each other and about 5 of the 7 nights a few of us grill for all 30 people. Last summer we decided to have a rib off between my cousin, my dad and I:

Yeah, that's the three of us after many hours of grillin and a little too much chillin considering we posed for this pseudo Iron Chef type picture. Gotta love my Dad's farmer's tan!?! The rest of the riboff can be read by clicking the link below. It was quite the experience and well worth the read...


First off I have to mention a couple issues we had. My dad (Fool's Pappy) got an amazing "deal" on some baby backs. Well, they weren't baby backs. They were a little bigger than BB's and a little smaller than spares. Second. The membrane would not come off of these things. All three of us had issues. So we just scored them really well with a sharp knife to keep the membrane from making the ribs tough which worked quite well. And the biggest obstacle was the grills we were using. I mentioned this place was rustic. These grills are Uber Cheap Wal Mart Specials. They are not ideal for smoking at all. You'll see the pics in a minute and understand what I mean.

Now on to the Rib Off. So for the couple of months leading up to vacation we were talking about this Rib Off. All three of us were experimenting with different rubs, marinades, smoke woods, etc. My dad has some crazy Chipotle Rasberry Marinade he going to used. I used Mussleman's apple sauce and my cousin applied his mainly brown sugar rub the night before and wrapped in cling wrap. All viable beginnings to great rib endings.

But the night before my cousin is saying that he wants to skip the Rib Off and just grill the ribs and not have a competition. He's making excuses left and right and just wants to have fun. Dad and I aren't having any of that. Dad's got his marinade and I've got the apple sauce that I heard the guy who owns 17th street grill (and winner of the Memphis Rib Contest 3 different year) uses.

I also had my secret weapon. Someone told me about Penzey's spices the week before we headed out for vacation. I tell everyone that will listen that Penzey's are the best. They are far and away better than anything you can get at the grocery store. Part of the reason they are so good is they are much more powerful than anything from the grocery store and much less of the spices are needed. I did not know that little fact prior to using them for the first time during the Rib Off. More on that later.

My cousin and I used apple and my dad used cherry. All of the wood chunks were baseball size. My dad also soaked his cherry wood. My cousin and I did not. This is why I never soak my smoke wood. I really don;t use chips anymore and chunks just don't need to be soaked. Of the 5 grills we used one of them had the soaked cherry chunks. Guess which one:


Yeap, that would be Grill #4 with no smoke. And now do you understand what I mean about the grills being not well suited for smoking?

About 30 minutes into the process my cousin has to leave to go take care of something. I'd had a few at that point so I cannot remember what that was so Dad and I are cooking his as well as ours. So here I am, my cousin is AWOL, my dad has no smoke. I've got a perfect 235 degrees and billowing smoke rolling out of my grill. 30 minutes in and I think I've got it in the bag already.

But this is no short cook. There is plenty of time for the tables to turn. My dad settles in to pick up a few tips from the real master while we wait:


With no smoke for close to an hour from Dad's cherry we decide to throw all of his wood onto the grill (not in the fire) to essentially kiln dry it to get the moisture out so it will smoke when it is eventually added to the fire:


Of course Grillin Fools can't live by beer alone. We need to maintain our strength. During the process the rib tips were munched on as appetizers for us:


90 minutes in. Let's check the process. Dad finally has some smoke:


My cousin's ribs being attended to by us are doing just fine:


And here are my ribs:


About 2 hours in, my ribs are ready for the foil:


I placed them bone side down, slathered the top with syrup and for half of them added more rub to get a really nice bark. Then I sealed them up in the foil and back on the grill:


My cousin's are looking great:


And here are some of his foiled. Not sure why he didn't foil the one slab:


And my dad decides to add a little wine to his foil. I use the term "wine" loosely:


Someone told him the wine was really good. It was terrible. My dad really knows his wine, but he's dabbling in this boxed crap because every now and again someone rates one at 90 points. Not that one...That one was horrible.

BTW, remember me mentioning that we had to score the membrane on these ribs as the membrane just wouldn't come off? Here's what it looks like when cooked. Sorta looks like inverse cross hatched grill marks!?!?!


Here is my dad and cousin looking over dad's ribs:



Here are my dad's. Some sauced, some not:


Here I am tending to my Ribs. If you are a Cub fan look really close at my shirt:



Here are mine. The slabs on the right had more rub added for a really nice bark:

And here are the winning ribs:


That's right, my cousin who disappeared for about 3 hours won. He was there for 30 minutes to start and the final 30 minutes.

What went wrong?

Penzey's that's what went wrong

See, when someone like me who has used obviously very mediocre spices all his life gets a hold of Penzeys for the first time bad things can happen. Sorta like only driving a V6 all my life and then getting into an Enzo Ferrari and attempting to win a road rally without ever test driving the car. I did two rubs. And both were WAY too spicy for the crowd I was cooking for. I loved them. My Cousin's wife gave me the nod for best ribs as well as a few others who enjoy spicy food but for most of the people they were just too spicy. My idea of Chipotle spice is very different than that of Penzey's idea. I still say they are the best out there by far, I just wish I had a chance to test drive them first.

My Dad's were really good to me but he used that Chipotle Rasberry Marinade that happened to be very spicy as well. So, guess who wins? The guy who rubbed in brown sugar and slapped his ribs on the grill and I cooked them

Click here for the rest of the process