I have cooked, or smoked, these a number of times – probably around 50 – and every time they turn out excellent. I have had a number of people who do not even like ribs, when asked, say they love these. Ribs are also a very affordable meal. You should be able to get a full rack of baby backs, also called pork ribs, for around $8. You can also use pork spare ribs, they turn out just as well and have more meat.
Ingredients:
- 1 – 3 racks of baby back ribs
- Dizzy Dust, All Purpose Barbecue Seasoning – available from The Dizzy Pig Barbecue Company
- Apple cider vinegar
- Apple juice – or cider
- Honey
- Yellow mustard
- BBQ sauce
After you have all your ingredients, start the following steps:
- Remove the membrane from the inside of the rib. This makes a bid difference and makes the meat much more tender. Slide a butter knife under the membrane, then carefully pull on the membrane to remove it. It helps to use a paper towel to grip the membrane and peel it off.
- Cover both sides of the ribs with yellow mustard. Don’t worry, the ribs do not taste like mustard, this all cooks off.
- Cover the ribs with Dizzy Dust. Now cover in cellophane and refrigerate for about 2 hours, or overnight. I have not noticed a difference when the ribs are left to sit for 2 or 12 hours, this is mostly a preference for ease of cooking, if you want to prep the night before.
- Setup your BGE for indirect cooking, that is make is so the flame does not have direct contact with the ribs. Note: when I first started using my BGE I made the mistake of using too much charcoal. In this picture the charcoal is just filling the bottom of the fire box. If you need to add more charcoal during cooking it is easy to do. Also, using less charcoal makes it easier to control the temperature, especially when cooking at low temperatures.
- I place a roasting pan under the rib rack, this keeps the fire from flaming. You can put some of the juice and vinegar mix in the bottom of the roasting pan to add moisture. I usually do this after the first hour.
- Get your smoker to about 250 and place a few chunks of hickory, soaked overnight, on the fire to produce smoke. Place your ribs in your BGE or smoker. Get the temperature stabilized around 220.
- After the first hour, begin to give a light spray to the ribs with a mixture of 1/2 apple juice, 1/2 apple cider vinegar and a good pinch of your rub and a pinch of sugar. Give a light spray every 30 minuets. Note: The photo below is after the ribs have cooked for 2 hours. The mustard bottle on the right is what I use to spray the juice and vinegar mixture. I found that if I used a spray bottle it would clog because of the rub, using the old mustard bottle fixed the problem.
- Every hour rearrange the ribs to ensure all portions of the ribs cook equally. After hour 3, coat lightly with honey every hour. This allows you to coat each side.
- After about 3.5 hours the ribs will begin to get close to being done. Now every 30 minuets, in addition to the spray with the juice and vinegar, drizzle some honey on the ribs. The honey gives the ribs a good glaze and make them look better, also they add to the sweat taste.
- At about 4.5 hours it will be time to take the ribs off the fire. You can check the ribs with a meat thermometer (temperature should be about 205), or just pick the rack up. If the rack folds easily, then they are done.
- Pull the ribs off and wrap in aluminum foil and allow to sit for 30 minuets. If you do not plan to eat the ribs immediately you can wrap them in foil and reheat them latter, when applying sauce. I have even frozen the ribs after smoking and reheated them on the grill later.
- If you are eating the ribs immediately, cover the ribs with a sweat BBQ sauce, on the meat side, but not on the bone side. I use Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey.
- Place the ribs back on the BGE, bone down, for about 20 minuets.
- Remove, cut either at each bone, or every other bone, and enjoy.
This recipe is the result of much trial and error, but it was also helped by a number of other recipes, here are some of them:
Here is the recipe for a great side dish: coleslaw, from Elder Ward “I Fought the Slaw and The Slaw Won.”
Ingredients
- 3 Lbs. cabbage
- 3 ribs of celery
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 bell pepper
- 3 carrots
- 2 cups of sugar, Turbinado is preferred
- Shred and mix with the sugar.
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup EVOO
- 1 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Bring to boil and pour over cabbage mix, then chill for 12 hours.
I do not like coleslaw, because it has mayonnaise. This version is great, because of the EVOO. Even if you don’t like coleslaw you will like this.
I hope you enjoy these recipes. If you have any suggestions or comments, please contribute. It is always possible to learn more about barbecuing.
yojoe (in BGE mode) out
Filed under: Barbecue, Barbecue (BBQ), Bbq, Big Green Egg, Big Green Egg Recipes, Food, How To, Smoking and Grilling | Tagged: baby back ribs, bbq, Big Green Egg, Big Green Egg Recipe, big green egg smoking, cook baby back ribs in a smoker, egg+grilling, grilling, how to get the bark on butt o green egg, porkribs, smoked baby back ribs on big green egg | 13 Comments »