Baby Back Ribs

I will never forget the first rack of ribs I smoked.  My best friend's brother was in town for Halloween and so we decided to smoke some ribs.  I had no clue what I was doing and I didn't bother reading anything about how other folks cooked ribs.  I mixed up a "rib rub" that I thought would be good, fired up the offset smoker box on my new horizontal cooker (I had just brought Mr. Draper's Grill back from Gulfport a month before), and we got to cooking.  We coated the ribs with our homemade rib rub and put them on the grill.  I remember adding a TON of hickory chunks to the fire so we would "get a good smoke."  I don't remember ever checking the temperature, or how long they cooked.  All I know is they cooked for a while, we added more hickory chunks so we would continue to "get a good smoke" and then we left to take my three daughters trick-or-treating.  When we got back, we took the ribs off and brought them in the house.  Now, you have to understand, my memory of that first rib cooking experience is a little fuzzy.  It was almost ten years ago, I didn't take any notes, and I really had no idea what I was doing.  But that first bite of rib has been permanently infused in my memory.  As I tried to sink my teeth into the leathery, smoky meat, I remember thinking to myself, "Ugh, I thought ribs should fall off the bone."  As I continued to pull and tear the meat from the bone, the heat hit me.  With tears streaming down my cheek, it occurred to me that I might have gone a little overboard with the red cayenne pepper in my "rib rub."  As I looked around, the faces of my buddy and his brother told the exact same story.  Fighting through the heat induced tears and sniffles, we gnawed and tore our way through two full racks of our first baby back ribs.  In the days that followed, I spent hours scouring the internet for tips and tricks on rubs, cooking technique, and sauces.  This was the beginning of my journey into the world of cooking ribs.

After almost ten years of tinkering with baby back ribs, both on a horizontal cooker and now on a kamado cooker, I think I'm pretty close to getting them dialed in.  My wife and children love them and I've never had any complaints from friends either.  For me, it all starts with the rub.  Like most of the rubs and seasonings I've created, I began by looking at a bunch of different recipes, some very complicated and some very simple, and then used the basics from those recipes as a place to start.  From there I experimented with different spices until I found a combination that I liked that also worked well with my sauce of choice, Williamson Brothers Barbecue Sauce.  My rib rub has a light brown sugar base and also includes dry mustard powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper, cumin, dried basil leaves, ground cloves and chipotle pepper.  After scoring the underside of the ribs with a knife, I give the ribs a good coating of rub, top and bottom.  I then head out to the grill and get the fire started.  I add a couple of chunks of hickory to the pile of lump charcoal, get my diffuser stones in place, and bring the temp up to between 250 and 275 degrees.  I try to stay closer to 275 but I'm perfectly happy anywhere in between.  

As I was doing my rib research years ago after our epic failure, I kept seeing folks refer to the 3-2-1 method for cooking ribs.  Basically it's three hours on the grill, two hours on the grill wrapped in foil, and then one more hour back on the grill without the foil.  Usually folks add liquid like beer or vinegar to the foil pouch during the middle two hours and then brush with sauce during the last hour.  For me, this was a great place to start.  As I experimented with different cook time combinations, there were instances where I undercooked them and the bone did not pull clean.  There were also times when I overcooked them and the meat had a mushy texture.  I have now tweaked it so that when they are done and have rested there is a clean rib bone but still a nice texture to the meat.  

For the first part of the cook, I let the ribs stay on about two-and-a-half hours.  I then wrap them in a foil pouch, add a little apple cider vinegar, and put them back on for about an hour.  I then unwrap them, brush them with Williamson Brothers Original, and put them back on for about another forty-five minutes.  I then take them off and let them rest for fifteen or twenty minutes in a cool oven.  

After brushing the ribs with your favorite sauce, putting them back on the grill for a little while will tighten them up and give them that beautiful mahogany color.  The smaller rack in the back is ready to come off but the larger rack needs a few more minutes to finish.