Ribs

Pat: Our first taste of national recognition came in 1997, when our pork ribs were voted "the best ribs in Memphis" by the local media. After the votes were cast, the Today show came calling. Tony and I wound up being featured on a segment with Al Roker. Al's enthusiasm for our cooking made others take notice—it was a big moment. It's important to note that we did not become rib masters overnight. It took time to learn the appropriate techniques. Tender, slow-cooked spare ribs require a certain amount of skill and experience. We got ours, and now we are going to give you yours. Gina: All I can say about ribs is: Girl, get yourself a man that can grill and let him light it up!

Brother David is my brother David, the one whose backyard I am always borrowing. He loves to grill and we all love it when he does! Hey, the sauce is my recipe, though, so don't give him credit for that.

Beef back ribs are the same bones that you see in a standing rib roast. Some supermarkets sell them separately, but you'll probably have to order them from a butcher.

The recipe and introductory text below are reprinted with permission from Gameday Gourmet by Pableaux Johnson.

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.

You'll want to have plenty of white rice on hand to soak up the incredibly complex sweet-and-sour sauce that adorns these ribs.

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.

The coffee marinade is sweetened slightly with a little maple syrup, and the sauce gets a kick thanks to a jalapeño chile.

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.

Two whole bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon are the key to these super tender braised short ribs.

Ketchup might seem odd in this dish, but some say it's Chinese in origin (from ke-tsiap, a pickled condiment). Serve the ribs as an appetizer or as part of a dinner.

A long marinade in a mixture of Korean ingredients infuses these short ribs with spicy-sweet heat. Braising the ribs locks in the fiery, garlicky flavor and results in incredibly tender meat that pulls easily away from the bone.

Pork and beef are the usual suspects when it comes to ribs, but the rich, bold flavor of lamb is a perfect match for this tangy Tex-Mex marmalade glaze. Grits cooked with a generous amount of Cheddar and Parmigiano-Reggiano round out the meal.

Sweet and tangy, these ribs are a one-dish masterpiece that is surprisingly mild despite all the added Tabasco.

Linda Kuipers of Traverse City, Michigan, writes: "A labor of love, this compilation of barbecue recipes accommodates a little of each of my family members' taste." Smooth, salty, tangy, and sweet — this sauce and ribs are a perfect dinner duet.

Bourbon adds oaky sweetness to the honey-hoisin-chili glaze.

I once considered making more authentic smoked ribs for a tailgate party and, in the planning, realized that not only would I need to be at the parking lot hours before everyone else, but my grill was not large enough to smoke enough ribs for everyone in my party. And to try to pass off just "a taste" of barbecued ribs is like trying to arm-tackle Priest Holmes. So it was a choice between shelling out for another grill or devising another method of cooking the ribs. Baking them first in a slow oven produced moist, flavorful meat I then had only to finish on the grill.