Never done ribs on the grill well, adequate at best...

KDinTexas

KDinTexas

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What are y'all's tips for pork ribs on the grill. Is 250° for 6 hours best? What about brining? When I make pork chops, depending on the thickness, I brine them in salt and brown sugar in different amounts. They are always juicy. I do brisket real good...not so with beef or pork ribs. I'm having a cookout soon. All tips are welcome.
 
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KDinTexas said:
What are y'all's tips for pork ribs on the grill. Is 250° for 6 hours best? What about brining? When I make pork chops, depending on the thickness, I brine them in salt and brown sugar. They are always juicy. I do brisket real good...not so with beef or pork ribs. I'm having a cookout soon. All tips are welcome.
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Parboiling helps. It also depends on what kind of ribs--babyback or country style?
 
Country style, but German bred and fattened. No par boiling ribs in Texas. No offense, but if I served my guests pre-parboiled ribs here, I'd never have another guest, because no one would show. In Texas, the prevailing rule is: If parboiling ribs is not illegal, it should be! We can go to Chili's for those without the hassle and time consumption.
 
Baby backs or spares? What kind of set up do you have?

Hubs smokes ribs at 225 after he removes membrane and uses a rub, usually day before, on a BGE or his Horizon offset. He judges time by the type and feel of the ribs since the racks can vary in thickness. Spares take longer than baby backs. He wraps in foil when he feels they have enough smoke on them. He adds a bit of apple juice mixed with some of his rub to the foil packets, HD foil, double wrapped. They end up pretty much fall off the bone, definitely not a competition rib once they are done.

We don't do beef ribs on the grill, just in the oven.
 
KDinTexas said:
Country style, but German bred and fattened. No par boiling ribs in Texas. No offense, but if I served my guests pre-parboiled ribs here, I'd never have another guest, because no one would show. In Texas, the prevailing rule is: If parboiling ribs is not illegal, it should be! We can go to Chili's for those without the hassle and time consumption.
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My father and mother were both from Texas. My last remaining aunt, my cousins, one of my brothers and one of my sisters still live there. Yes, they all parboil ribs. That's where I learned it.

But I don't like country style spare ribs much. I do baby backs, and I start in the oven and finish on the grill. I'm too old and tired to deal with grilling for that length of time.
 
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Low n slow first followed by a quick blast to get those lovely charred bits. I oven first, usually with a bit of stock so they steam tightly wrapped in foil then add a final glaze at the end of the cook on the BBQ to avoid the burnt sugar taste.
I have done 9 hours in the slow cooker as the precook but they were too soft for my tastes, kinda soggy, blurgh.

I mostly leave them marinating overnight because I prefer Asian flavours to the ubiquitous and far too sweet for my palate bbq ones and I like it when I can see the pinky red marinade has penetrated the meat.
 
I like ribs cave (wo)man style.
Tearing of the meat with your teeth.
I do not care at all for those soft ones, lathered in sweet sauce ;)
So mine are cooked unwrapped.
Generally brined or marinated SE Asian style.
But I think that's not what you are after :)
 
badjak said:
I like ribs cave (wo)man style.
Tearing of the meat with your teeth.
I do not care at all for those soft ones, lathered in sweet sauce ;)
So mine are cooked unwrapped.
Generally brined or marinated SE Asian style.
But I think that's not what you are after :)
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Copy that!
 
ribs - and so so so many other "dishes" - fall under the bane of "authentic"

a dish can be as "authentic" as can possibly be established . . . and people hate it.
but modified , , , it magically becomes a "keeper"

like ribs.
I no longer even think about beef ribs. no matter how prepared, they just do not float my boat.
pork ribs only - my/our preference is
strip the membrane
salt&pepper
wrap in foil
bake low&slow in oven
finish on grill - actually come to think on it,,,, about the only "reverse sear" I like.....

sauce
omg. business trip at the invite of . . . in Memphis (at the time the one and only hub for Fedex)
was 'treated' to some famous rib joint on some famous street, , , that did only dry ribs served with vinegar.
for me, a gag session.
not a pure sugar sauce fan either - needs a balance.

my take: "authentic" must be modified to "how you like it"
but, then again, I was never voted "Most Popular Class Geek" either . . .
 
There are many ways to do ribs. I've done them on the BBQ grill, in the oven, the pressure cooker, the stovetop smoker, the slow cooker & the Ninja Foodi. They came out fine, no matter which way that I did it. I like to do it in the Ninja Foodi. which allows you to pressure them first, then bake them with super-heated air, then put some BBQ sauce on them.

Ninja Foodi.jpg
 
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We are not allowed to cook outside, so we have to do it in the kitchen, as long as we don't use propane, gas or things that are considetred dangerous to use. :ninja:
 
I used to BBQ ribs. But I haven't put anything on the WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain) smoker in a looong time. Too lazy.
So grilling on the gasser is the way I cook them now.

Never parboiled (though I know people who do. They also parboil chicken that is going on the grill)
Always indirect heat.
And you can only go so low with a gas grill, so a long cook it out. We're looking at 1-2 hours depending.
And if you want to add a little smoke, some chips in a foil packet folded over a lit burner will give them some smoke flavor. Don't look for a smoke ring though.

Here's some recent "babyback" ribs I grilled. Along with corn "ribs"
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Not falling off the bone (I don't like those either), but the bones pulled clean.
Rubbed, cooked indirect, then sauced towards the end to caramelize.

Action shot
1760401021509.jpeg


When the bones start to show, and holding them in your tongs rib side up causes them to droop down, they are done.
Then I might move them over the burner briefly to speed up that dark caramelization of the sauce that I like. Otherwise if you cook them too long waiting for them to darken they'll dry out and become tough.

Hope y'all don't mind me replying to an older thread :)
 
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