Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Ribs
I'll start with an apology to my vegetarian friends. This post is not for you.
On Father's Day, I decided that one of the things I wanted to do was use my BBQ to cook some spare ribs. We went to Costco and bought a package of ribs on Saturday along with some other meal items. I then went home to research how to fix them.
The internet has a lot of conflicting suggestions on the best way to make BBQ ribs on the grill (vs. a smoker). I reviewed this and determined that if nothing else, I needed many, many hours to cook them right. I was up for the challenge once I picked up some extra charcoal and mesquite chips at the grocery store.
I am NOT a gas BBQ person. I prefer charcoal as much for the experience of lighting it and the pride in the fire I make as in the actual cooking.
On Sunday, we made the rub with a recipe I found on the internet and wrapped the ribs in foil covered with the rub in the morning. Not quite the overnight marinating that is suggested, but good enough.
I started the fire at around 2:30pm. I got my foil pans of water ready per the indirect cooking suggestion and soaked my wood chips. At 3:10pm, the ribs hit the grill.
Over the next few hours I tended the fire and turned the ribs every half hour. I added wood chips and charcoal throughout the afternoon. The goal is low heat and slow cooking, but it was lower heat then I expected. One thing I didn't have was a thermometer to make sure it was the right temp. I also didn't get as much smoke as I expected from the wood chips (I'm sure that my neighbors thought that it was too much smoke though!). The rub was fully cooked in and for the last 1/2 hour I added BBQ sauce to cook in.
We finally had dinner when I removed the ribs at 7:00pm. The first rack that we had was fully cooked. The general consensus was that they were good, but a little more salty than we prefer. The ribs were not tough, but also not as tender as I expected.
The 2nd and 3rd racks were a little pink, so we decided to cook them some more. The fire was still going, so I added some coals and went for direct cooking over the fire vs. the indirect method used the rest of the day. I cut these into smaller portions (Drew's suggestion) and let these cook another 1/2 hour while turning them occasionally. These have made great leftovers for meals and are better than the first rack. We used a different BBQ sauce on these too which might make a difference.
Total cooking time was around 4 hours for the first rack and an additional 1/2 hour for the other two racks. If the family will put up with it, I plan to try the slow cooking method on something else again and see if I can perfect it. The overall process was time consuming, but very enjoyable.
Cooking meat over fire that I get to eat off of the bone -- a great Father's Day!
On Father's Day, I decided that one of the things I wanted to do was use my BBQ to cook some spare ribs. We went to Costco and bought a package of ribs on Saturday along with some other meal items. I then went home to research how to fix them.
The internet has a lot of conflicting suggestions on the best way to make BBQ ribs on the grill (vs. a smoker). I reviewed this and determined that if nothing else, I needed many, many hours to cook them right. I was up for the challenge once I picked up some extra charcoal and mesquite chips at the grocery store.
I am NOT a gas BBQ person. I prefer charcoal as much for the experience of lighting it and the pride in the fire I make as in the actual cooking.
On Sunday, we made the rub with a recipe I found on the internet and wrapped the ribs in foil covered with the rub in the morning. Not quite the overnight marinating that is suggested, but good enough.
I started the fire at around 2:30pm. I got my foil pans of water ready per the indirect cooking suggestion and soaked my wood chips. At 3:10pm, the ribs hit the grill.
Over the next few hours I tended the fire and turned the ribs every half hour. I added wood chips and charcoal throughout the afternoon. The goal is low heat and slow cooking, but it was lower heat then I expected. One thing I didn't have was a thermometer to make sure it was the right temp. I also didn't get as much smoke as I expected from the wood chips (I'm sure that my neighbors thought that it was too much smoke though!). The rub was fully cooked in and for the last 1/2 hour I added BBQ sauce to cook in.
We finally had dinner when I removed the ribs at 7:00pm. The first rack that we had was fully cooked. The general consensus was that they were good, but a little more salty than we prefer. The ribs were not tough, but also not as tender as I expected.
The 2nd and 3rd racks were a little pink, so we decided to cook them some more. The fire was still going, so I added some coals and went for direct cooking over the fire vs. the indirect method used the rest of the day. I cut these into smaller portions (Drew's suggestion) and let these cook another 1/2 hour while turning them occasionally. These have made great leftovers for meals and are better than the first rack. We used a different BBQ sauce on these too which might make a difference.
Total cooking time was around 4 hours for the first rack and an additional 1/2 hour for the other two racks. If the family will put up with it, I plan to try the slow cooking method on something else again and see if I can perfect it. The overall process was time consuming, but very enjoyable.
Cooking meat over fire that I get to eat off of the bone -- a great Father's Day!
# posted by - Rob @ 10:32 AM 
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If you come up with any good salmon bbq recipes, let me know. I'd be the only one eating it at my house, but I really like salmon :)
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