Beginners Guide To Spare Ribs

This is the simple procedure I use to cook Ribs. 

1.       Buy the whole rack  instead of already cut down St Louis style and cut them down yourself or you won’t have the Rib Tips .  Cutting them down to St Louis style is easy: lay the rack on cutting board meat side down with the bones laying in a straight line – find the longest bone, usually about center of rack and cut from one end of the rack to the other keeping that cut parallel to the already cut side making all your bones the same length. 

2.       Trim Fat and silver skin from the meat side and membrane from the bone side using a knife to lift membrane enough to pull it off using a paper towel to grip it with.

3.       Lightly cover both sides with BBQ Pork Rub and wrap in plastic wrap the night before cooking.

4.       When your grill / cooker is ready @ 225 place cold Ribs and Tips straight from fridge into cooker bone side down and cook 3 hrs or till a nice bark forms on the surface of the meat.

5.       Make two double thickness hd aluminum foil boats and sprinkle two tbs of brown sugar, 3 tbs apple juice, 2 tbs of honey all across the foil where the ribs will lay and sprinkle with drops of Tiger Sauce or Smoky Chipotle Tabasco to taste.  Place ribs in foil meat side down and wrap to return to oven or grill / smoker for 1 hour.

6.       After one hour check the Ribs for doneness, meat should have pulled back from end of bones about an inch and if you lift one end the rack should feel and look like it might break in the middle.  The Tips should be left to cook 1 hour longer.

7.       Let ribs rest with the foil partly opened while heating at least a cup of Williamson Bros BBQ Sauce with about 10% honey added – heat just enough to combine honey with sauce.  Pour / brush sauce over meat side of the Rack  and return to cooker or oven for 20 min to cook the sauce on the meat and repeat with second glaze.  A higher temp can be used in this step and or set your oven to broil.

8.       When the Rib Tips have finished that extra hour give them the same treatment in step 7 after cutting them in one inch squares and laying them in a disposable pan. 

This recipe will make even the biggest Rib lovers happy and the Rib Tips are to die for and in fact parts of the country prefer them over the St Lois Rack of Ribs.  I cooked these for our Traditional New Year’s Day Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens dinner.