BBQ Rib Recipe

I received a couple of e-mails today for the recipe that I use for bbq ribs.  The way I do it probably isn't that much different than the way most others do it.  I can't believe I haven't really ever written about my rib recipe on the bbq blog, so here goes.

BBQ Ribs Recipe

• Try to find pork loin back ribs weighing 2 1/2 pounds or less per slab.
• Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs, if it has not already been removed.
• Apply your favorite bbq rub on both sides and on the edges. You can use something like Blues Hog BBQ Rub, Bad Byron's Butt Rub, Smokin' Guns, or most any other of the "brand name" bbq rubs used by competitive bbq teams and it will work pretty well.
• I like to apply the rub the night before I plan to cook and I always refrigerate the ribs while they are marinating.  Some competition teams swear that you have to let them sit out at room temperature for up to 2 hours, but I disagree. You need to make sure the ribs are not in the danger zone (above 40 degrees and below 140 degrees for more than 4 hours). I prefer not to risk food poisoning and I would hate for my friends or family to experience it either after eating my ribs. It's just not worth the risk to me.
• Start your fire with lump charcoal and a little apple pecan, or hickory wood chunks.
• Bring the cooker to 225 - 250 degrees and add the ribs.
• Cook the ribs at 225 - 250 for 2 1/2 hours, flip them, and wrap in foil with some grape juice, apple juice, or a mixture of both.
• Cook the ribs in the foil for one hour and check for doneness. When done the meat should pull away from the bone when you pull it with your fingers.
• Open the foil. Flip the ribs to meat side up and apply your favorite bbq sauce before serving. You can also optionally add a small amount of brown sugar and allow it to melt onto the meat for 30 minutes before adding the sauce. If you choose to add the brown sugar, you'll want to keep the ribs wrapped in foil so the meat doesn't dry out.
• Allow the sauce to "set" for 15 minutes on the smoker before serving.

There are many other ways you can do it, but this is the basic method that many people use. Feel free to experiment with this basic recipe and tweak it for your own preferences and tastes.

I've not tried it, but a lot of people like to mix the Smokin Guns Original and Smokin Guns Hot spice rubs together. That sounds like a nice future experiment for The BBQ Guy's BBQ Blog.

BBQ Pork Spare Ribs for Labor Day

I spent my Labor Day celebrating with some bbq pork spare ribs. I used Blues Hog spice rub, Royal Oak lump charcoal, hickory chunks, apple juice, and Blues Hog Raspberry BBQ Sauce.  I have no idea whether the Raspberry flavor is still available from Blues Hog, but I received my sample along with an order I placed several months ago.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Orion BBQ Cooker

I had a close up look at the Orion cookers a few years ago. They looked interesting, but weren't really my cup of tea so to speak. My opinion might be changing.

I was checking out Old Dave's bbq blog and things on the Po Farm are getting interesting. Check out Old Dave's review of the 70 minute spare ribs cooked on the Orion cooker. Nope...that's not a mis-print. He really did cook some pretty good looking spare ribs in 70 minutes. I'm sure the Blues Hog and honey helped things along pretty well, but Dave posted some very nice looking pictures.

I've already got 3 smokers...why not four? The more the merrier right?

How to bbq ribs

Linda took some pictures as I prepared 8 slabs of ribs for the neighbors birthday party.

First, I trimmed the extra meat at the "knuckle" to create a St. Louis cut.

Then I removed the membrane. Some people leave it on, but it makes the ribs tough to chew.

Next, I sprinkle the ribs with the "secret" dry rub. In this case, I used my "Southern Rub" that I originally developed for brisket.

And finally, I cooked them in my red bbq smoker for 5 1/2 hours.

Barbecue Pork from a BBQ Champion

Mike Davis



Myron Mixon

July Fourth Menu Ideas

Linda has been reading Dr. BBQ’s Big-Time Barbecue Cookbook again. When I arrived home today, I found the book sitting near my laptop computer. She's planned our menu and even made a trip to the grocery store for supplies and ingredients. I'm sure lucky, aren't I?

Here's our menu for Independence Day:

-Backyard Championship Ribs
-Whole Smoked Cabbage
-Bonesmoker Potatoes
-Sibbie’s Baked Beans (Family Recipe)

There are some items on tap that are not traditional bbq foods, but every once in a while I like to spread my barbecue wings a little. Two of these items will be first timers for me.

We'll post some pictures on July 4th so you can see how it all turns out.

What is one your weekend menu?

Free Clipart or Photos

Cooking Ribs on a Kettle Grill

You don't have to buy an expensive bbq smoker to begin cooking your own mouth watering ribs in the backyard (or in the front driveway in my case). Traditional style charcoal grills like those manufactured by Weber, Charbroil, and numerous others, are perfectly capable of producing excellent barbecue.

To get started, go to Sam's Club, or your favorite other source, and purchase a three-pack of baby back or loin back pork ribs.

Rub both sides of the ribs with your favorite bbq rub mixture. Pat the rub into place to make it adhere to the meat. The meat should be completely covered with rub. Wrap each rib in several layers of plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 10 to 12 hours until ready for cooking. Overnight works well.

Start warming up the kettle grill, when ready to cook, by placing a large fist-sized amount of charcoal coals on one side of the grill and heat them until they turn grey.

Check the temperature of the cooking surface with a meat thermometer poked through the air vents until you achieve a stable temperature between 200 and 250 degress.

Fill an alumimum pie pan with water and place it in the bottom of the kettle grill, or partially over the coals. Refill as needed.

Cook the ribs on the opposite side of the grill away from the charcoal coals. Using a rib rack, you can fit all three racks of ribs on the grill at one time.

Once the cooking process starts, just monitor the temperature and water levels. Add charcoal to maintain 200 to 250 degrees and maintain water levels in the alumimum pan.

To check for doneness, gently tug at the bones of the ribs. If done, the bone and meat should separate with minimum effort. Using this method, cook times should vary between 4 to 5 hours depending on the heat of the fire and outside temperature.

Brush some bbq sauce on the ribs prior to serving.

BBQ Ribs for 750 Guests

Recently I received an inquiry about the feasibility of providing bbq ribs for a group of 750 people. Although I was flattered to be considered for such a large event, I don't have the proper equipment to prepare ribs in such large quantities and decided to decline the opportunity. However, it got me thinking about the possibilities.

If my arithemetic is correct, it takes 2,250 "bones" to serve 750 people (750 servings multiplied by 3 bones each). Each rack of ribs has 13 bones, so 2,250 divided by 13 results in 172 racks of ribs.

I have two medium sized smokers with a total of 11 shelves will hold three racks of ribs each for a total capacity of 33 racks. Cooking ribs in such large quantities calls for a little creativity. Instead of placing the ribs flat on the racks, as is customary, I could triple the smoker capacity by using rib racks and cook 9 racks of ribs on each smoker shelf and raise the overall capacity to 99. But, realistically, to cook ribs for 750 people I would need two more smokers.

BBQ Ribs

Here's some ribs from a test cook we did on Saturday. The ribs were made with two different types of rubs and two types of bbq sauces.

Our favorite included Ole Ray's Apple and Cinnamon sauce with Blues Hog bbq rub. The sweetness of the Ole Ray's sauce combines nicely with the Blues Hog rub.

The ribs were cooked for 3 hours meat side up, wrapped in a honey and dark brown sugar mixture with a little apple juice and then foiled for an hour. I unfoiled and applied finishing sauce for the last 15 minutes. They came out tender and juicy just like I like them.

BBQ Pork Ribs and Boston Butts

For stock car racing fans there are very few NASCAR races that compare to the night race at Bristol and for southern bbq fanatics there isn't anything that comes close to good old fashioned bbq pulled pork and ribs. And when you combine the two....you had better watch out because things just might get out of hand! I'm in the middle of preparing some pulled pork and bbq ribs for tonight's festivities.

It's also a good time to test some new competition recipes and validate some of the old standbys. We'll be eating well this week. Ummm...leftovers!

Cooking Baby Back Ribs

I originally posted this article and accompanying pictures in August '06. In the spirit of revisting some of my Best of 2006 articles for the New Year, I thought I'd bring this one back for another viewing.

A couple of Saturday's ago I performed a not-so-scientific taste test consisting of three racks of ribs purchased from Sam's Club rubbed with three kinds of rubs I happened to have in the pantry-- The BBQ Guy's Original Spice Rub, HomeBBQ.com Rib Rub, and Billy Bones' Original BBQ Rub.



Three racks of ribs rubbed up and ready for the cooker. I usually marinate them in the refrigerator overnight, but this time I put them straight on the cooker.

After two and a half hours in the smoker at 225 degrees.

Here's a picture of the ribs after cooking for 3 hours. I turned them meat side down and added some apple juice.

Even though it's upside down, this picture shows the ribs after flipping them meat-side-up. Just prior to the final stages of cooking.

In this picture I'm adding some brown sugar just prior to the last 45 minutes of cooking.

Here's a picture of the finished product. I like to add the bbq sauce during the last 10-15 minutes just prior to serving them.

BBQ Secrets Revealed, Click Here!

Better Barbecue Series: Day 16, Presentation

In the interest of sharing my experience with others who may be thinking about entering bbq contests, I thought I'd post a picture of what to avoid when preparing a rib turn-in box. This box is an excellent example of how poor presentation can affect the scores judges give you on your turn-in samples.

These ribs tasted very good and were probably some of the best ribs we've ever turned in at a contest. Unfortunately though, the ribs themselves were bigger loin backs than we usually like, but when buying cryovac ribs sometimes you just don't what you're getting until you cut them open.

To make matters worse, I got in a hurry when preparing the box for the judges and the ribs are uneven in the box. The lettuce was very crisp and "green", but the best looking lettuce in the world cannot makeup for poor rib selection.

In this case I think we'd have done better to turn-in only six samples and to attempt to make them as close the same size as possible. Normally I like to turn-in more than the required number (six in KCBS events) and usually turn-in eight ribs, but I think this box is an example of a "less is more" scenario.

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