Many years ago, I had a friend who used to host what he and his brothers called “Porkapaloosa!” He had a twin brother and two other brothers who would get up at 4:00 am and start smoking and barbecuing pork ribs, pork belly, pork chops, etc. and then throw a big party in the afternoon. I remember walking into one of the parties and having him usher me to the kitchen where he gave me a taste of the baby back ribs they had been smoking all day–tender, juicy, succulent meat that was falling off the bone–so good! I’m still trying to achieve that level of goodness, but this recipe is a pretty good one.
It’s based on the 3-2-1 method of smoking baby back ribs: 3 hours of indirect smoke at a low temperature on the grill; two hours at a slightly higher temperature, wrapped in foil with flavorings like more dry rub, brown sugar, honey and, critically: fluid, such as apple cider; and finally, one more hour of smoke (without the aluminum foil wrap), but this time with bbq sauce slathered on it.
There are some basic things to look for when making this recipe: make sure the slab of ribs you get is thick and meaty. For my first couple of cooks, the butcher just pulled off a slab of ribs from the top and it wasn’t that they were bad, they were just a little scrawny and came out dry. This was more inexperience and pilot error than anything else–I didn’t realize that I would need to adjust for a scrawny set of ribs and just cooked. For the cook pictured, I chose the slab I wanted–thick, meaty, hefty ribs, which stood up to the long cook time much better. I also kept a better handle on the temperature. What I didn’t do was season them enough. Baby back ribs can take A LOT of seasoning–kind of more than you think.
Also, I didn’t pay much attention to the temperature. When a cook time is six hours, you know the meat is going to get done–what’s more important is keeping the meat moist enough, and that means you gotta have enough fat in the meat to begin with, and you gotta add liquids to the meat to steam it and keep those juices basting the meat–that happens in the second step when you make a little steamer oven pouch out of aluminum foil and add apple cider to directly into the pouch, keeping the meat the meat juices in contact with the meat. It’s easy, it’s tidy and it works!
And finally, you smoke the meat at the higher temperature for about an hour, but you’ll want to adjust this time depending on how done the ribs are when you take them out of the foil. For the final step, you’re going to slather the ribs with BBQ sauce just to give them that extra punch of flavor and juiciness.
Baby Back Pork Ribs
Ingredients
Instructions
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Preheat your smoker to about 200* on indirect heat. I used a combination of large lump charcoal, mesquite and hickory lumps. This gave a really nice flavor to my ribs. I saw recipes that recommended as low as 180* and all the way up to 235* for the first three-hour smoke, so I split the difference and it came out really nice. Take the meat out of the fridge about a half an hour before you want to smoke to get the chill off it. Liberally season with your favorite rib dry rub. The ribs need a lot of seasoning, so be generous. I let my ribs sit for about 15 minutes before putting them in the smoker, just to let the rub soak in a little.
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The first three-hours of the cook is to really get the ribs bathed in smoke flavor, so low and slow in a smoker with the lid closed is the way to go. You are going to start your ribs BONE SIDE DOWN. I use a Big Green Egg and I can keep the temperature pretty constant, which is the key. Get it to that temperature and check occasionally, or if you have a Thermoworks smoking probe set, that works really well. Remember: if you're looking, you're not cooking, so the less you open your smoker up the better.
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Once the three-hour smoke bath is finished, it's time for two hours of steam-cooking the ribs. Set the temperature for between 235* and 250* for this phase. Pull a long sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil (if you don't have heavy-duty, use a double layer of regular foil)--one that will be big enough to seal the ribs up in a pouch. Pull the ribs out and place them on the foil. Season all surfaces with BBQ rub, salt (if needed) and brown sugar [feel free to experiment and season with anything you like--I was skeptical that the brown sugar would taste good, but it really did--my ribs needed more salt, though--just use your own judgement, but be aware that the ribs can take a lot of seasoning]. Place the ribs MEAT-SIDE down on the foil and seal the package by folding the edge securely on the top of the package (your goal here is to make a liquid-proof seal). Before sealing the last edge, pour a little apple cider into the package--I didn't measure, but it was probably about 1/2-3/4 cup total--don't try to overfill--your goal here is to have enough liquid to combine with the natural juices of the meat and create a steam bath--and then seal the package securely. Place the package with the MEAT-SIDE down and the sealed edges of the foil packet facing up back into the smoker, close the lid, and cook for about two hours at 235-250*.
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After two hours of a steam bath, the ribs will be ready to remove from the foil pouch. You're going to want to do this over a cookie sheet or something to catch the juices and do the final step. The clean-up here is really pretty easy--the foil pouch should have kept the juices contained and you need only to carefully remove the ribs--and I mean carefully because they are going to be pretty fragile at this point in the cook--tender and juicy and starting to fall off the bone. Discard the foil pouch and brush the ribs liberally with your favorite BBQ sauce (either one you've made yourself or prepared) on both sides of the ribs. Now carefully return the ribs, this time BONE-SIDE down again, to the smoker, close the smoker lid and smoke for another 30 minutes or so at 235-250* before checking them for doneness.
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Take the ribs out of the smoker and let rest, untented, for 10 minutes or so before cutting the slab into individual ribs.
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Enjoy with a nice Zinfandel, which will hold up nicely to the spiciness of the meat. We are particularly enjoying the Ridge 2020 Pagani Ranch right now--it's got enough fruit and acid to cut through some of the fatty/spiciness of the ribs. Or you could just have a beer because...duh.
