We are mostly known for salmon, halibut, teriyaki and the American Wagyu coming out of Snake River Farms. But, there’s some great BBQ happening here, too. Just that it is almost all in the backyard, not in BBQ joints with lines around the corner. And some of the BBQ happening is pork ribs in the Pacific NW.
How I Cook Ribs: A Ribs Primer
First things, first. To many BBQ type folks, especially ones that like the Kansas City style, I am a heathen. I never put sauce on my ribs while cooking. You are welcome to, of course, because BBQ is uniquely creative cooking with as many different styles, variations, and methods as there are people cooking it.
Second thing to be clear about. I cook ribs very straightforward and not complex. My goal is not to win a competition, it is to put great ribs on the plate of me, my family, and my friends. I don’t do things you may have heard of like 3-2-1 or Texas Crutch. I don’t glaze with maple syrup. I do want good bark on the ribs and great flavor, including smoke flavor.
Tips And Tricks For The Best BBQ Ribs
Dry Brining is a great way to add flavor and tenderness to your meat. See my post about dry brining. This particular trick greatly improves flavor and tenderness both. This is the number one most important thing you can do to great a great backyard bbq outcome.
Smoke flavor – two things will really make a difference to how much smoke will end up on the meat. Smoke is very fine particles of matter coming from the burning fuel mixed into an aerosol of water vapor and gases from the burning fuel. The smoke sticks to your meat and creates that smoked flavor. Smoke is captured better when the surface of the meat is rough and when it is cold and wet. The rub helps to break up the smooth surface of the meat. I always bring the meat from the fridge to the counter, wet it with water and apply my rub, and then straight to the cooker … this gets that wet, cold meat in play, also. And this helps create the smoke ring, the visual appearance of smoked food.
Smoke Ring and Fire Management – this is a beautiful pink color in your meat running from the surface inwards. The smoke ring comes from the gases in the smoke, specifically the nitric oxide. The smoke ring does not change the flavor of the meat at all, but it sure does look pretty. The other thing, though, is that you are not producing the right sorts of gases in your smoke to get a smoke ring if your fire isn’t burning around 700F. So, fire management is crucial. There’s tons of long write ups on fire management and you can learn a lot from them. I won’t do that here, just note that you want your smoke to be thin and have a bluish tint to it rather than white to grey and heavy.
Here’s some other great sources, folks that I learned from over the years
- Meathead at Amazing Ribs and his Last Meal Ribs
- Aaron Franklin – Spare Ribs Part 1 and Part 2
- Chris Lilly – Get his original cookbook: Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book …. then read it cover to cover
Method – How We Are Going To Do It
24 hours prior to cooking the ribs, dry brine them with the kosher salt. You are going to liberally salt the ribs with 1/2 tsp of kosher salt per pound. Then place on a cookie sheet and put in the fridge uncovered.
1 hour prior to cooking, get your grill, smoker, BBQ set up for smoking. Set it up for 2 zone cooking, with an indirect zone around 250F and with smoke from wood chunks, wood chips, or a wood fire depending on your cooker type. You want the cooker ready to go right on time, about 5-6 hours prior to serving.
Timing depends on the ribs you will cook. Some tips I can give you is that grocery store ribs are somewhat less meaty than Costco/Sam’s Club. Expect an hour longer for Costco and Sam’s Club. Back Ribs are going to be 3 to 4 hours (maybe even 5 if they have a lot of meat on them) and Spare Ribs are going to be 4 to 6 hours, depending on source and cut (spare rib vs St. Louis Cut).
So, when should you start? Well, here’s how to figure it out. You will need 1 hour for holding the ribs at 170F in the oven or a faux cambro (very important) and 20 minutes to prep, slice, serve. Add up the estimated cooking time, the hold time, the prep time and the time to start your grill, bbq, smoker, etc. Figure the time you want to serve dinner, and work backwards from there to when you need to start your cooker. Now add an extra 30 minutes in case those ribs are ornery. If you don’t need it, that’s okay, just hold them an extra 30 minutes.
I do not spritz or mop or any of those things. I do keep the cooker humid and moist with a water pan in the cooker. Best option is right under the ribs. If you are using something like a Weber Smokey Mountain then you are all set since it uses a water pan. On a Weber Kettle, or similar, put the water pan under the ribs, with the charcoal piled on the other side to give you direct/indirect zones. On a gas grill, you can put the water pan on the grill above the burners that are turned on.
Now we cook the ribs. Once your cooker is ready, get the ribs on, close the lid, and leave it alone! Until we need to start looking to see if the ribs are done. We are going to start doing that about 1 hour before we predict they will be done in case we have a set of ribs that just get done early.
How do you know if they are done? There are multiple approaches to done. I like to use two of them: the bend test and the probe test. The bend test is pretty easy, you pick up the slab of ribs with your tongs about 1/3 of the way down the slab and let them “bend”. If they bend well and get a crack in the bark they are done. The probe test uses a thin probe such as a toothpick or the probe of your handheld digital thermometer (like a thermapen). You probe into the meat between the bones and when your probe goes in as easily as a knife into warm butter, the ribs are done.
When the ribs are “done” on the smoker, you need to wrap them tightly in aluminum foil and keep them in the oven at 170F or in a faux cambro. A faux cambro is easy to create. Take your beer cooler, fill it with hot water and close the lid. When you are ready to hold the ribs, get them wrapped. Then dump the water out, line the bottom of the cooler with towels, add the ribs on a cookie sheet or similar, then add more towels and close the lid. It will hold the ribs, above 170, for 2-3 hours.
Now prep all your sides … I like corn on the cob, coleslaw, and maybe beans. When that’s all ready, pull the ribs out and slice into individual bones with a sharp knife. Slice the ribs into individual bones, serve and enjoy!
Pork Ribs In The Pacific NW
Course: American, Main Dishes, Pacific NW, Smoked2
servings15
minutes5
Hours30
MinutesIngredients
1 slab of ribs – back ribs, spare ribs, or St. Louis Cut spare ribs
1/2 tsp Morton’s kosher salt per lb of ribs
1 tbsp of rub per lb of ribs – Eric’s Rib Rub
Method
- 1 hour to as much as 24 hours before cooking, liberally cover the ribs with kosher salt, 1/2 tsp per pound. Put ribs on cookie sheet in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, and up to 24 hours. The longer, the better.
- Based upon when meal is to be served, and calculating cooking time for: 1 hour to prepare grill/smoker, 1 hour to hold at 170F post cook, 15 minutes to slice into individual bones, and 3-6 hours to cook depending on type of ribs and amount of meat on them, get your grill started. Assuming standard cooking time of 5 hours for spare ribs, you would start your grill 7 hours before you want to be cutting the ribs up.
- Set up your grill for 2 zone cooking. You want the indirect zone to be about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to have wood chips, chunks, or splits on the fire and producing thin, blue smoke when the grill is ready.
- Put ribs on the grill in the indirect zone, close the cover and leave the ribs alone. Let them cook. Don’t peek or fiddle with them.
- About 1 hour before you think they are going to be done, start checking. You want to see a good bark/crust on the ribs, and dark color. And then you want to start checking for them being done. See above for the done test. You can use the bend test or the probe test. Both work.
- When the ribs are “done” per the bend or probe test, pull off the grill and wrap tightly in aluminum foil.
- Put the ribs in an oven set to 170 F degrees or in a faux cambro. Hold for at least 30 minutes, but not too much over an hour if you can help it. A long hold will result in “falling off the bone” ribs. Some folks really like this, others do not.
- When ready to serve, unwrap the ribs. Cut into individual bones and serve with traditional BBQ sides. I like coleslaw, macaroni salad, beans, personally.
