I wanted to get an idea on the type of meat and sauces used when you BBQ ribs. "Pork, slow roasted with your own BBQ sauce", for example. Let me know how you like 'em.

Pork, obviously. Baby backs are preferred.

My favorite ribs are dry ribs, but few places really do those well (and I am not so proficient myself). I also don't have the equipment or patience to slow cook ribs at home, so I usually go out for ribs. Unfortunately, there is no decent BBQ in my neck of the woods.

Hmmmm....

My current favorite topic. Dry rub, if you have to sauce, do it for the last 15 minutes to get a nice bark. 6 hours on a Big Green Egg!





The best rubs in my opinion? Dizzy Pig!

Dizzy Pig Rubs

Any, although I tend to prefer beef short wetted afterwards or dry rubbed pork with zero sauce.

I like both Baby Back and St. Louis Cut. I have both a spicy rub and marinade combo, and an apple based rub and marinade combo, alternating between the two. For the spicy rub, I'll use hickory, mesquite and pecan smoke. For the apple rub, I stick to hickory and apple smoke. I use a mop throughout, and add sauce about 30 minutes before removing from the smoker.

I have been going about 4 hours lately, ( time constraints ), interested to hear how long others smoke.

Wow! You all are making me sooo hungry for ribs... and I am on a strict diet!

I like all sorts of ribs. I'm a fan of braised beef shortribs (like a beef Burgonge) and Korean grilled beef short ribs (Kal Bi, right jaimetown?). But I don't think that is what you are referring to, and I don't think of those as "ribs"

I've never made my own ribs but I like slow hickory-smoked medium-spicy babyback ribs with a good BBQ sauce as well as both Chinese and Japanese styled baby backs.

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I like a nice dry rub as well, but usually do the 3 hour oven trick w/foil and then finish off w/a little sauce on the grill. Besides being a lot easier, I swear it tastes better. Wait! Quit screaming "HERETIC!!!" I love my grill as much as the next guy, but doing the foil wrap makes those baby backs literally fall off the bone. It's almost annoying because you have to worry about ripping the meant with the tongs...

I am with Drew 'cept I foil and use indirect heat on the grill (after searing) and periodically pull back the foil and splash some beer to make them moist and fall off the bone.

On a related note - what do you drink w/ your ribs?

I generally reach for a hoppy beer but could see a syrah or zin or mebbe CS?

Beer, or sweet tea.

There are few foods that I wouldn't want to open a bottle of wine with, but BBQ ribs is one of them.

I'd get sauce all over the stemware.

I like Turley Zins with ribs (I don't mind getting sauce on the stemware).

Yeah, the stems can be washed. Don't be afraid. However what does one drink with a spicy hot sauce? These types of sauces are typically poor matches with wine, especially red wine. Would Champagne be a good match?

Pork ribs(St. Louis cut)- slow roasted with BBQ sauce. Always drink zins with my Ribs.

Zins or some Syrahs, but usually an IPA

We can't buy wine at our CostCo, but we can buyCorky's Ribs there. Unlike their website off of $100 for three slabs, some sauce and some seasoning, we can get two full slabs for something like $16 at CostCo.

Corky's isn't my favorite BBQ, but it's pretty good. And, to answer your question: My favorite is pork, with wet sauce, slow roasted by somebody else, warmed by me on a grill. With Zin.

I will be trying my first attempt at smoking baby back ribs this weekend on the kettle grill. I decided last weekend that as the weather gets nicer out coming into fall I'd really like to spend it smoking stuff. I've been reading Chris Slesinger's book Let The Flames Begin, really good book.

Fred,

Get hooked on smoking (easy to do) and then get a Big Green Egg!

Fred,

No better day to spend the day then in the backyard smelling that smoke working on the ribs/brisket, etc... I have the Weber water smoker and have been happy. As you can see above, people swear by the egg.

So let me ask you. I don't have a "smoker" per say I'm using a 22 inch Weber Kettle will I have serious difficulty maintaining the temp or will it just be that I have to watch it closer? I also bought a wireless smoker thermometer so I can read the temp of the meat and the temp of the smoker from inside the house. It's pretty cool.

I can only speak for mine. The weber water smoker is basically a kettle smoker with an extra cylinder to keep the meat further away from the coals. I can keep at a steady 190-210 temperature pretty easily. I think having the water pan away from the coals helps keep it from steaming, and allows the pan to act as an energy sink as the temperature of the smoker approaches the phase shift at 212 degrees.

Babyback, with a dry rib over low heat for 3-4 hours with lots of smoke. Cover with good sauce and finish in foil. Yum. I use a gas grill with wood chips, but ideally would use an egg or similar grill. Gotta have wood smoke with ribs though.