**SMOKED MEATS** CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE - CHECK BACK SOON
These are so simple to cook. All you have to do is toss some smoking wood and tend the fire and make sure it doesnt get too hot (or too cold). Cook as many as you can get on your smoker.
1 - pack of baby back pork ribs. These typically come packaged either single or three racks to a pack. A three pack should weigh about 10 lbs. A single rack is usually 13 to 14 bones and weighs approx. 3 to 4 pounds
Tip: try to get 3 lb and under if you can find them. I've had great luck buying ribs at Sam's Club or Costco. The quality is excellent and the avg. weight is approx. 3 to 3 ½ pounds per rack.
The ribs are done when you can take your hands and twist the ribs at the bone (you will see the bone sticking out of one end of the rack) and the meat tears away from the bone with just a slight twist. Take them off the grill and let them rest for approx. 45 minutes. Then stand the ribs on their edge, meaty side facing you, with the exposed bones on top and let your knife follow down the area between the bones. Don't try to push it through, just let the knife follow the shape of the rib.
One rack will feed approx. 3 to 4 people. But BEWARE these are going to go like hotcakes. I always figure 3 people to a rack.
You can have BBQ sauce close by, but you will not need it. These ribs should be moist, juicy, and full of flavor.
Baby back ribs
¼ cup of Worcestershire sauce*
1 to 2 cups of Texas BBQ RUB or your favorite for 3 slabs
Take the ribs out of the refrigerator and let them start to get down to room temperature or close to it, approx. 70 degrees is room temperature. Start your fire and get it to a cooking temperature of 225 to 250 degrees. I use a meat probe with cable to keep an eye on the temperature. You can cook ribs a little hotter than other meats if that is all you are cooking. Add your favorite wood to the fire for that smoke flavor. Now get the rack of ribs. You will notice that the ribs are bowed shape. One side has a white membrane covering it and you can see the rib bones through the membrane. The other side is more meaty and you can't see the bones through the meat. Turn the rack so the bone side (the side you can see the bones and membrane) is up. Take worcestershire sauce and rub all over this side of the ribs. Take a hand full of Texas BBQ RUB and rub all over the outside of the ribs over the worcestershire sauce. Cover with a good coat of rub but not thick at all. Just enough to cover the ribs. Flip the ribs over and repeat the worcestershire and rub act again. A little more rub on this side because this is the side we want to cook up on the cooker. You should see the rub and worcestershire forming a paste on the outside of the ribs. It is ready for the grill. Place on the grill with the meaty side up. It should be bowed down on the sides. Place the thickest part of the rib rack toward your heat source and of course you will use the indirect method to cook with.
TIP: I do not remove the membrane from the ribs I cook. The membrane actually helps keep the juices in the meat of the ribs. This is of some controversy. If you want to take it off go ahead.
That is it. You don't need to touch them again until they are ready. Approx. cooking times are as follows:
200 degrees internal temperature – 5 to 5 1/2 hours. I use a probe and cook up to 200 deg F. You can go further but the ribs can dry out quickly above 200F.
*alternatively you can use Gochujang (Korean Chili Paste) instead of Worcestershire. I find this makes the bark a little more crusty.
Urban Cowgill 2011
Updated 2023