Close your eyes. Picture a plate piled high with barbecue. You're probably seeing racks of glossy, burnished ribs. After all, they're the obsession of competitive pitmasters and you'll find them on the menu of every barbecue place across the country.
Until recently, though, I could care less about barbecue ribs. Most that I’ve encountered are basically ketchup-glazed meat sticks, more bone than meat, and either too dry and chewy or a wet, stringy mess. At home, I never bothered cooking them, either. Many recipes call for long marinades, frustrating membrane-removal, a summertime-unfriendly combination of oven roasting and grilling, and sugary sauces that overwhelm the finished product (and require a quick shower between bites). For me, a pork butt or brisket offered way more pleasure for the pain.
But then I wrotea book about barbecuewith Joe Carroll, the self-taught live-fire guru behind Brooklyn’sFette SauandSt. Anselmrestaurants. Joe’s barbecue ribs changed my outlook on the cut forever. Among other things, he taught me that I don’t need a proper smoker to cook them (my grill will do), that a simple dry rub is all I need to yield tender, smoke-imbued meat veneered with a crispy, chewy bark, and that one recipe can be applied to all kinds of ribs, from classic pork to extra-juicy beef and flavorful lamb. And that sauce is not only optional, but usually unnecessary.
Today, I’m a ribs convert. And, by following these few tips, you'll become one, too.
#1: Turn your grill into a smoker.
If you own a dedicated smoker (hopefully a charcoal- or wood-fired one), use it! But if you don’t, a standard kettle grill works just as well. Start by filling achimney starterabout halfway with hardwood charcoal and light it. When the coals are ready, scatter them on one side of the lower grill grate (over the bottom air vent if your grill has one) and place a disposable aluminum tray on the other to catch drippings. Drop a few chunks of hardwood over the coals, or top them with a foil packet filled with a handful of water-soaked woodchips. Add the top grate and position your ribs over the drip pan.
Cover the grill, placing the air vents over the meat. Open both sets of vents about halfway and start smoking. Monitor the grill temperature with a thermometer (200°-225°F is your ideal range), adding a couple pieces of unlit charcoal and opening/closing the vents as needed to stay in this zone. If smoke stops billowing out of the top air vent, add more wood chunks or chips as needed.
#2: Go beyond baby backs.
并没有什么错婴儿肋骨(又名定律n back ribs), but there are better options if you prefer meat and flavor over gnawing on a bone. My preferred cut from the pig is the St. Louis-style sparerib. Spareribs are longer, meatier and fattier than baby backs, and their rectangular shape helps you get a more consistent texture than the smaller baby-back neighbors. Many barbecue spareribs recipes will ask you to remove the membrane from the underside of the ribs before cooking. I don’t see the point, unless you’re entering your ribs in a barbecue competition: it’s a pain to remove, there’s barely any meat on that side of the bone, and the membrane adds a bit of extra structure to the rack, which makes it easier to move the rack around on the grill.
Lamb and beef spareribs are also superb and can be cooked exactly the same way as their pork counterpart. But my favorite beef rib is the short rib: The same cut you’re used to braising turns into incredible barbecue when smoked, with brisket-like flavor and texture. And no one will forget the moment a jumbo-sized rack of short ribs hits the table.
No matter what rib you’re smoking, cook it to texture, not temperature. Proper barbecue rib meat shouldn’t be falling-off-the-bone tender; it should tear easily from the bone when you tug on it but still retain some chew (think steak, not pot roast). When it doubt, tear off a piece of meat and eat it; your mouth will tell you when your ribs are done.
#3: Use the same rub for everything.
At Fette Sau, Joe uses one dry rub for everything that goes into the smoker. And it’s a simple rub at that: salt, pepper, brown sugar, a few spices, and one secret ingredient: ground espresso beans. They give a bitter roasted flavor that complements the malty sweetness of the sugar (“like milk and sugar are to coffee,” he likes to say).
You can follow Fette Sau’s dry rub recipe to the letter—one batch should last you all summer—but I encourage you to develop your own. Adding your favorite spices or tweaking the ratio of salt and sugar is the easiest way to create a signature barbecue flavor.
#4: Use sauce sparingly (or not at all).
Unfortunately, sauce is the very definition of barbecue for many people, who think that coating any piece of meat with shiny, sweet-spicy condiment magically turns it into ‘cue. And too much great smoked meat is ruined by a smothering of sauce before the first bite can be taken. This is a matter of personal preference, but I rarely need sauce with my ribs these days. If dry-rubbed and properly smoked, the meat speaks for itself.
However, should you desire sauce with your ribs, save it for the plate. The beauty of dry barbecue—that is, dry-rubbed meat that’s cooked without any basting—is the resulting layer of “bark” that forms on the surface. This dark, chewy, intensely flavored crust is the reason I love barbecue. If sauce is a must, then choose one that won’t overpower the meat, such as the vinegar sauce below, which has enough acidity to add brightness to pork ribs and enough depth to stand up to beef or lamb. Don’t want to make your own? Enhance a bottled sauce by tweaking the acidity and heat levels with vinegar and hot sauce, or add some savory depth with Worcestershire sauce or drippings left over from the those beautiful ribs.
