Eleventh Hour Ribs

Well, we had a freezer clear-down, and saw some Costco ribs in there, so I thought I’d give the a try. Eleventh hour, because these were a last-minute, unplanned affair, and my experience with ribs should have taught me to plan a little, but it was a nice day – and today was an experiment day. I winged it !

So out they came – just two racks…enough for a taste test…and I had some left-over Raichlen “Kansas City” Pork Rub which I applied on an undercoat of mild, yellow mustard. I have to say, that Steven Raichlen’s book, “Barbecue Sauces, Rubs and Marinades” is one of my favourites. It’s straightforward and to the point in terms of what it delivers, while being well researched and imaginative in its variety. Pick a country or taste and Raichlen has something to suggest. I’d previously made two rubs in bulk from this book – a go-to for pulled pork and ribs (i.e. this “Kansas City Rub”) and a coffee-based rub for brisket.

I chose a no-fuss style of cooking. In fact, I kept the heat going from the wings joetisserie cook I’d just finished (KJ was already at 300F). Added more lump, removed all the JT paraphernalia, put in the deflectors and dialled back the vents to try to get to 225-250 as quickly as I could… No worries. It was a blistering day, and I was alternating between this and some garden jobs. Very therapeutic.

I thought I’d minimise the mess on the racks by using a new Stainless Steel dish I’d bought from Smokeware and using skewers to shape the ribs into a more compact, standing shape.

Seemed to work nicely…

I slung them in – the vents had done their magic and got me to 250/260 (I wasn’t too fussed), and I wasn’t going to wrap or do much else, rather trusting to the moisture-retaining properties of the KJ.

Because the heat was a little higher timing was a little quicker (which worked out OK as the sweltering heat was threatening to give way to a typical, torrential Illinois downpour), and I wanted to see if the idea of “turbo-cooking” some ribs would work for me.

I also got together a rough and ready spritz – some BBQ sauce I had in the fridge watered down with the only juice in there – some Cranapple blend. Pretty thoughtless and unprepared, but it worked. I repeated the spraying a few times.

Around two and a half hours of cooking later, and I’d got a decent result. I used a knife to poke in between the ribs and do a quarter turn. The meat gave a satisfying yield and I pulled them just as the heavens opened…with just enough time to batten down the hatches and get everything and everyone under cover. Generally these things are done single-handedly with plenty of onlookers of course…

Those ribs would have been fine as they were, in my view, but as I was now inside the house I thought I’d try to manipulate them closer to perfection. Oven went on. Ribs were cut up and put in a square pan. A rushed-sauce/broth was created from the BBQ sauce in the fridge, some maple syrup and some warm water and added. Silver foil on top to keep in the moisture and another 30 minutes later, we were rewarded with some pretty tasty, sweet and spicy tender ribs. In the end, a bit of a faff, which I put down to near-Apocalyptic weather conditions aborting the process, but the results were well worth it.

That final emergency “bath in broth” is worth exploring further I think…