This is going to seem long and involved, but it’s a labor of love and only seems complicated due to the nature of written instructions. If anything seems like too much work, you can probably skip that step. Good eatin’, everyone!
Big update on this post right here!
<The missing pictures are here!>
If you’ve never had true, wood smoke cooked pork ribs, you just don’t know what you’re missing. Those chain restaurants that sell ribs? Bah!!! Baking ribs, pressure cooking ribs, boiling ribs then finishing them on the grill, that is simply not BBQ’d ribs. BBQ ribs are cooked in wood smoke, build up a ‘bark’, develop a complex savoriness, and end up moist and tender to the tooth, with just the slightest tug needed to leave a clean bone behind.
You’re not going to get that from a Weber propane grill (WPG) or any other propane grill, for that matter. But I am going to show you how to make an honest BBQ’d rib with decent texture and flavor without investing in specialized equipment. You can get a cheap smoker for $200, a better one for $500, and a professional grade machine for $1000. But then you have an extra piece of equipment in the backyard, and you already have a WPG.
Here’s the finished product, the four of us ended up finishing off one 4+lb slab of spareribs. The other slab will be awesome leftovers.
This is a three step process. First, we will prepare the grill to simulate a smoker. Second, we will prepare the ribs for BBQing. And finally, we will BBQ the meat. You’ll want to start this about 7 hours before you intend to serve.
I recommend that you start with a clean WPG, no point to picking up leftover grilled salmon orders on our ribs. Remove the cooking grates and place a couple chip burners, and an aluminum pan for water (dyed red in the picture) as so. Load the chip burners with chips, replace the grates and warming rack and you are ready to go.
Time to get the ribs prepped for BBQing. I choose Costco plain old shrink wrapped spareribs, usually in 8-9lb packages consisting of two racks of ribs. Baby backs are OK but cost more and there’s less meat per bone. But if that’s what you favor, simply reduce the cooking time I’ll be recommending by 45 minutes or so.
I do not believe in St Louis style highly trimmed and shaped ribs. They are all the rage for competition, but I hold that the whole movement has gone too far. Working on a saran wrap covered counter, I start by removing the membrane on the rib side, if it’s not too much work. Some racks of ribs just about refuse to give up the membrane. I trim lose surface fat or chunks of meat hanging on, just to smooth up the rack. Since there’s a ‘thick’ end and ‘thin’ end, I do a tricky little thing to even out the cooking time. I trim off the last five ribs (comes off in a triangle shape) and stick them bone-side together to form slab about the thickness of the ‘thick’ end.
Now, we’re going to be working on a WPG where smoke will be a premium, so I cheat a bit with the rub. When you start putting the rub on, light the front burner only of your WPG, on high heat. The mustard wash I use is French’s yellow, plus a good shot of liquid hickory smoke and some red wine vinegar. Brush that on, just a light coat will do, this is to help draw the dry rub flavor into the meat. The dry rub is your choice, I use: paprika, smoked paprika, garlic pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, and salt. Coat the meat, no need to overdo it, and I wrap in saran wrap, pressing the rub onto the surface of the meat.
By the time you’re done, there should be smoke coming from your WPG and it should be up around 275. Put the ribs on, meat side up, way to the back of the cooking grates and one slab on the warming rack. Set a timer for 90 minutes and adjust the heat to hold around 225. You may periodically have to go to ‘high’ on the front burner and feed some more wood chips down through the grate to the burner boxes. This is why I find BBQing on the WPG to be fun, it’s not a ‘set and forget’ operation like on a high end smoker, you are working it from time to time to keep things right.
While the ribs are on their first 90 minutes, take the leftover mustard wash and dry rub, combine with some canola oil, red wine vinegar, and water to make a mopping sauce. After 90 minutes smoking at around 225, open the grill, stack the meat on one side, empty and replenish the wood chips on the other side. Move the meat to the other side and do the same for the other chip burner box. You’ll probably have to add water to the tray. Now…
Rearrange the ribs, ‘musical chairs’ style, and put them back to smoking for another 90 minutes at 225-250 degrees.
Tricky part coming, close your eyes, plug your ears, and hold your nose, but all the pros do this. The ribs have been smoking for 3 hours now and have built up a real nice smoke flavor and bark. We’re going to finish cooking the ribs in a wrap for another 90 minutes. From this point on, there will be no more wood smoke, just hot moist goodness. Prep a baking sheet and rack by lining with aluminum foil like so. Add fruit juice (I’m using an apple, pineapple, orange blend). Stack the ribs, cover with foil and seal. . Time to get them back on the heat, middle burner this time to 275 degrees for 90 minutes.
Now, the end game! (sigh … finally). Get your cooler ready, line it with a a big towel, then aluminum foil inside that to hold your ribs at temperature. Open the foil packet on the grill and move the the ribs to the towel & foil lines cooler, and close that up. Tip: the ribs will hold just fine for a couple of hours like that. Pour the juice in the roast pan into a skillet, add some maple syrup and hot sauce, and bring to a vigorous boil to reduce until it thickens up.
We’re ready to finish this thing, so get the folks ready to dig in. With your WPG ready for grilling, put the ribs on the grill, baste with the finishing glaze, and let them get bubbly and caramelized on both sides. I’ll put them on my GrillGrates because I think they do a better job of finishing off the ribs than the bare Weber grates. But either way works, you’re just interested in getting a sweet/sour & tangy glaze on them.
There you have it, legitimate BBQd ribs from your WPG. Disclaimer: before you make this for the most important event of your life, consider a practice run, just for family and other people who have to love you ‘no matter what’. Every rack of ribs and every grill is different, a practice run will let you calibrate before the results are super-important.
Tags: bark, bbq ribs, perfect bbq ribs, ribs, smoke, smoke ring, smoker, spareribs, weber perfected, weber propane grill
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