RIBS!!!

We had our Memorial Day BBQ Party (see next entry) but we cooked so much I had to split it into two blog entries! One for all the rest of the food and one for the...

RIBS!!!! Our first attempt ever! The night before, we made a barbeque rub - Kansas City-style - with 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup paprika, 1 tbls chili powder, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder - and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. We rubbed that rub all over our four sections of RIBS - two racks cut in two - and then wrapped each individual 1/2 rack very tightly in plastic wrap. The ribs slept peacefully - unsuspectingly - in the fridge overnight...

RUB IT IN:


The plan for the Ribs on the day of the party was: 1. out of the fridge for 30 minutes, 2. transfered to triple-layered alumninum foil, 3. moistened with 1/4 of a beer poured into the one, last open end, 4. and sealed off tight. Then, the packages met a very low, covered grill (about 325 was the lowest I could get it) for 2.5 hours to simmer and steam in the rub and beer.

After all that time, take them off and let them rest for about 15 minutes. Then, out of the foil packs and back onto the grill for about 8 minutes/side, basting with bbq sauce (store bought - KC Masterpiece) that entire time. Just watch them closely and finish 'em like you want 'em.

SIMMER AND STEAM:


The result? Two of the four packs (the two bigger ends of each of the two racks) came out PERFECT - and the other two were RUINED!!!!! The smaller ones were charred to an unsaveable crisp, while the two bigger ones were perfectly tender and fell right off the bone.

This is just out of the foil, BEFORE I put them back on the grill to finish them with the bbq sauce:


So, it was 50% of a whopping success! These two 1/2 racks came out so delicious - SOOOOO TENDER! - with very subtle flavor from such a seemingly POWERFUL (sweet and spicy) rub... And the SMELLS from the grill all day while it was cooking out back - sweet and delicious!

Next time I will kill the 2nd burner too and just run the one (out of three) on the lowest possible setting. I KNOW we can get these to be competition-level! It is my mission this summer...