Over the years, I've had many bad, bad barbecued baby back ribs on the grill, some of which came out of our own kitchen when we were following recipes passed down from friends.
Yuck.
There is little I like less than tough barbecued ribs, where you are struggling to get the meat off the bone. Friends have recommended boiling them, baking them and slowcooking them before grilling, but nothing has come out right, until now.
We just went ahead and asked the butcher how we should prepare them, and he said bake them with a can of beer and some onions for an hour and a half at 350, covered in foil.
Wait a second, it's that simple?
Well, since I can't follow a recipe to save my life, we didn't do exactly that, but the basic advice was the premise for getting us started. I'll tell you both what we did this time, and what I plan to do next weekend, which I expect to be even better.
I took two 3-lb. racks of baby back ribs and rubbed them liberally with Galena Street Rib Rub from The Spice House, 1031 N. Old World 3rd St. In a large roasting pan, I put one bottle of beer and two large rough chopped yellow onions and placed the ribs over the top and let them sit out, covered in foil, for about 20 minutes to come to room temperature.
Then I put them into the cold oven and turned it to 350 degrees. I left them in for 90 minutes, then I turned the heat down to 200 and let them sit in the oven for about another 20 minutes until they were tender to the touch.
We used hardwood charcoal briquettes and when the grill was hot, I just brushed a very small amount of bottled barbecue sauce over the ribs and we threw them on the grill and covered them with the onions from the pan, keeping them on just long enough to get grill marks on both sides. When we went to take them off the grill, they were already so tender, they started falling apart. We got them in the house and they nearly vanished by the time they hit Scott's and the boys' plates.
So, a few tips for next time: I'm going to cut the racks in half so they are easier to put on and take off the grill, I'm going to make a dry paste with brown mustard and the Galena Street Rib Rub and put that on the ribs to start -- I've read in several places now that the best ribs start with a mustard glaze / rub. I'm also going to put two large rough chopped granny smith apples in with the yellow onions to add a little acidity and sweetness to the ribs in addition to the smokiness that comes from the hardwood charcoal.
Lastly, I may also make homemade barbecue sauce using the aforementioned Galena Street Rib Rub and tomato paste as per the directions on the jar -- although the bottled version we used, which was nothing special (five for $5 one day at our local grocery store) was actually quite excellent.
So, that's it. I think this time we've found a fail safe recipe for grilled barbecue ribs, whether you try my original or the diced up version I plan to pilot next week. Let me know how it goes ...
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
