Baby Back Rib

Enjoy this alsatian specialty with some good beer. I like making this with crunchy, bright, and tart fresh sauerkraut, which my mom brings me from France. It’s also delicious with regular sauerkraut. I love how the meat juices infuse the cabbage and potatoes for a satisfying one-pot meal.

To mop or not to mop, that is the question. There seem to be two schools of thought about moppin’ ribs while they’re cookin’. Personally, I think that if the ribs look dry and thirsty you should mop ‘em. Mop sauce should never contain sugars that would burn before the ribs are cooked through. A good mop sauce is based on the spicy flavors of the rub.

Because our weather in Central New York is less than tropical, we have to figure out ways of keepin’ those warm weather flavors coming even when poundin’ rain or three-foot drifts make it hard to get to your backyard grill. So here’s a way to make ribs in your oven and bring on all the flavors of places with better weather. Our method for makin’ ribs in the oven can also be applied to the recipe for Dinosaur-Style Ribs (page 93). All you’ll be missin’ is the taste of the smoke and the smell of the outdoors, but the ribs will still be fallin’-off-the-bone tender.

Our use of ribs extends beyond a plate of ribs. We use them in gnocchi and in potato soup, and we will cut them into three, remove the bones, and make a McKiernan ribs sandwich. As lard was a staple at the turn of the century, so are ribs at Joe Beef. We provide two ways of cooking: roasting and smoking. Serve with Good Fries (page 154).

Small and lean baby-back ribs are a quick-cooking (and very tender) alternative to spare ribs. If desired, coat them with your favorite spice rub before baking. Serve the ribs with any of the potato side dishes on page 284 or steamed corn on the cob.

Barbecued ribs are a delicacy born of the ingenuity of the poorest—the slaves and servants who were tossed bones by their masters and transformed gristly, fatty “spare ribs” into a complex delicious, finger-sucking feast—the New World equivalent of the French potage. The trick to cooking ribs is keeping them moist: brining is a must. Even the most delicious housemade bacon would envy the subtle woodsy notes infused from the smoked salt used in this brine. Bacony ribs glazed with a rich and spicy sauce: it’s like Christmas in July.

Coca-Cola is to Atlanta as Guinness is to Dublin. Friends and family liked my Coca-Cola–Glazed Wings (page 24) so much that I decided to try a similar combination on pork. Pork has a natural affinity for sweet, rich caramel flavors. These “nouveau” Southern ribs are by no means traditional, but they are lip-smacking good. Scotch bonnet peppers are intensely hot, but their fire is tempered by the sweetness of the sugar and Coke. To tone down the heat, substitute jalapeños instead.

My favorite rib to cook and eat is the baby back, because I learned competitive cooking at MIM contests and that’s their rib of choice. I just developed a real love for them. They’re fun to cook and fun to eat, and they almost always earn me money. Even I can’t ask for more than that!

Back ribs are sometimes referred to as loin back ribs but are most commonly called baby back ribs. The baby back rib is cut from the upper section of the rib cage below the spine and the loin muscle of the pig. A slab of baby back ribs can have as many as 15 bones (the number of bones in a pig’s rib cage). This long thin cut of pork has many defining characteristics. The bones are no thicker than a finger and are slightly curved. Because of the small bones there is generally more meat between each bone than on spare ribs. Baby back ribs are the leanest pork rib type, with a less pronounced pork flavor and a finer and denser texture. Pineapple Sweet Ribs utilize a sweet rub and a fruity liquid seasoning, followed by a sweet glaze. The key to a multi-step rib is to layer the flavors, creating complex tastes without overpowering the pork flavor. This strategy worked at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 2004, when the judges declared this rib recipe the winner of this world championship event.

I love these ribs—they’re better than real BBQ for two reasons: (1) They ring in at one-third the calories and fat of the original, and (2) you can make them easily at home in your oven and enjoy BBQ even when it’s raining, or too hot, or too cold, or the mosquitoes are out in droves.

These ribs are rubbed with an oil and spice mixture. They cook to tender perfection in less than an hour in the convection oven.

Craig promises that if you follow this recipe, you can make dizzyingly delicious Chinatown char siu ribs at home in the oven or on the grill. That makes them a great choice for the winter, when you've got a hankering for ribs and the smoker is snowed in. Many Chinese restaurants use spareribs that are chopped into 3- to 4-inch riblets. If you want, your butcher can make you riblets with a band saw. Craig likes baby backs for this recipe because they are a bit meatier. You can also substitute 4 pounds of pork loin for the ribs if you wish. The booze is important for the marinade because it helps penetrate the meat, and even if you're a teetotaler, don't worry—there isn't any measurable alcohol in the ribs. If you must skip it, use apple juice or water. You can buy char siu sauce at Chinese specialty stores, and it makes a fine glaze, but it doesn't make ribs that taste like Chinese restaurant ribs. That's because you need to marinate the meat in a thin sauce first.

The success of these ribs lies in a straightforward three-part process. Long marinating in a sweet, garlicky rub ensures the ribs soak up loads of flavor. Next, a leisurely roast in the oven makes them tender. Finally, a mop of balsamic-brown-sugar glaze and a few minutes on the grill gives the ribs a whiff of smokiness and caramelizes their edges.

Ribs are among the constants on the world's barbecue trail, but just how they’re prepared reflects a strong regional and cultural bias. The vast ranch lands and forests of the New World, for example, led to American-style barbecue, with its large slabs of spareribs slow-roasted on a smoker for the better part of a day. Asians adopted a different strategy: cooking small cuts or single ribs on tiny grills engineered for fuel efficiency. The flavor would come not from wood smoke (Asians don't have wood to burn by the cord), but from the explosively flavored seasoning indigenous to the region, like lemongrass, ginger, and fish sauce. Case in point: These Cambodian-style ribs, from Sarun Pich, a chef at the Amansara resort in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Like the classic steak preparation for which they are named, these crisp panko-crusted ribs cook fast, but they're surprisingly tender on the inside.

This festive main offers something for everyone—baby back ribs, chicken breasts, and smoked sausages. Be sure to start the dish a few hours ahead. The ribs are slow-cooked for an hour and a half, then are finished on the grill with the chicken and the sausages.

Editor's note: The recipe below is adapted from Elizabeth Karmel's Web site, girlsatthegrill.com .

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Barbecue! Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, by Steven Raichlen. To read more about Raichlen and barbecue, go to our feature The Best Barbecue in the U.S.A. It never fails to amaze me how one simple idea can give birth to so many great regional variations. Consider ribs. The pork rib is one of the most perfect morsels ever to occupy a grill. The meat is generously marbled, which keeps it moist during prolonged cooking. As the fat melts, it crisps the meat fibers and bastes the meat naturally. The bones impart a rich meaty flavor (meat next to the bone always tastes best), while literally providing a physical support—a gnawable rack on which to cook the meat. Yet depending on whether you eat ribs in Birmingham or Kansas City, or Bangkok or Paris for that matter, you'll get a completely different preparation. I've always been partial to Memphis-style ribs. Memphians don't mess around with a lot of sugary sauces. Instead, they favor dry rubs—full-flavored mixtures of paprika, black pepper, and cayenne, with just a touch of brown sugar for sweetness. The rub is massaged into the meat the night before grilling, and additional rub is sprinkled on the ribs at the end of cooking. This double application of spices creates incredible character and depth of flavor, while at the same time preserving the natural taste of the pork. Sometimes a vinegar and mustard based sauce—aptly called a mop sauce—is swabbed over the ribs (with said mop) during cooking; I've included one here, for you to use if you like. You can choose any type of rib for this recipe: baby back ribs, long ends, short ends, rib tips—you name it. Cooking times are approximate. The ribs are done when the ends of the bones protrude and the meat is tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. I like my ribs served dry, in the style of Memphis's legendary barbecue haunt, the Rendezvous. If you want to serve them with a sauce, you'll find a number to choose from in this chapter.

It may sound like the kind of bogus claim made on late-night infomercials, but trust us when we say it's true: You really can have juicy ribs ready in an hour! Finishing the ribs under the broiler is the secret to getting a perfectly crisp-moist texture.