Monday, May 3, 2010

I Got Your Back...Baby!

Have you ever made Baby Back Ribs and they don't have that "fall-off-the-bone" finish that you want? That typically happens if you simply cook your ribs on the grill. Usually a grill cooks at a higher temperature than something like an oven. You'll end up with great flavor but more chewy ribs. Baby Backs have a lot of connective tissue that needs breaking down. So the "low-n-slow" method is absolutely the best. You can do this on the grill using indirect heat but its a little tricky. I cook my ribs in the oven at 250 degrees wrapped in foil using a slight amount of braising liquid. I also put a rub on my ribs preferably the night before. I let them cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours in the oven and finish them on the grill for about 20-30 min. and I sauce them on the grill. Most store bought BBQ sauces have a lot of sugar in them and if you sauce them at the beginning (especially on the grill) the sauce burns. Saucing towards the end allows the sauce to caramelize and get good and sticky without burning.

That's certainly more information than you wanted to know, but I say all that to say that I made ribs the other night. They weren't all that good. They had good flavor but didn't turn out like I wanted. It was the fist time that cooked them in our oven here and I didn't have a grill to finish them on. (It was raining and all I have here is an outdoor electric grill - not so good in the rain). So I tried to finish them under the broiler. It worked but the ribs weren't very tender.

I had a lot left over but I wasn't excited about eating them again. So what should I do? Well, here's a good technique to fixing broken ribs. The Crock Pot. I put a little of the (fresh) braising liquid in the bottom. Just an inch or two. (The liquid I use is a combo of apple juice, cider vinegar, bbq rub, worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke) Next put the ribs in, drizzle a little more BBQ sauce on top, set your pot to cook for about 2 hours, come back later and enjoy fall-off-the-bone ribs.

I know some people cook ribs from the beginning in the Crock Pot. I guess it works, but I still like the other method. However, I will always turn to this when they don't turn out. It worked great. Especially when served with potato pancakes (mom's recipe).

This was a long post about ribs. So?

1 comments:

Meggan said...

My Mom cooks ribs in the oven in stoneware at 350 for 2-3 hours (or something like that) with a little water in the bottom and the sauce at the end too. She doesn't usually grill them. Jeramy and I put ribs in the crock pot from the beginning with only a little bit of water in the bottom and cook for 4 hours then he puts them on the grill for about 10 minutes to sauce them and give them more of that charboiled/flame taste. The crock pot is awesome at tenderizing the toughest meat. Maybe next time we'll use some of your flavoring ideas. :-)

Post a Comment