Outback
 

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A smoker will help with good ribs, but is not necessary. The two best ingredients for ribs are LOW (temp) and SLOW (time).

You could let them go in a moderate oven for 3-4 hours, then slap them up with sauce and put them on a hot gas grill that is smouldering some smoke chips, and turn out a VERY similar product to what might be served in some "restaurant", mate. :p

Thanks Mike. You really don't need anything extravagant for smoking, the best advice I can give there is that I've had better luck with the units that have a temp gauge on the lid, a separate fire box, and good dampers to control the fire. Those are the features you want to look for.

I'm sure Jake has some good recipes but here's one that works good for us and is easy.

Cut your ribs into 3-4 rib pieces. Cover them up with your favorite bbq sauce, we like Sweet Baby Ray's honey-garlic. Wrap them in aluminum foil and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours at least. We get them ready in the morning and leave them in the fridge better part of the day. Place them in the oven at low temp, 200-225 for a couple hours. Then throw them on the grill to brown them up a little, add a little more sauce if you like. Careful when grilling because they will fall off the bone.

You can make them just as good as any restaurant with very little work.

Hank's right. I've done it kind of like that a bunch of times. They're pretty good like that when you cover them with onions and apples, too. You need to spice the daylights out of them when you do that.

Hank, I use Sweet Baby Ray's too, it is some good sauce.;)

We use to use Diane's Honey Garlic sauce. Lynda's cousin would bring us some when she came to visit from Toronto. We even made a few trips to Windsor to buy it and a few other things you can't find here in the States, like pickled pork and pea-meal bacon. We haven't done that since we moved farther west, it's a long trip across the border and back. We found Sweet Baby Rays and it's pretty good.

Go for the Big Green Egg. A friend has one and another friend owns a whole BBQ store, and that is what both recommend hands down. They both compete on pro BBQ teams, so they know their ribs as well.

http://www.biggreenegg.com/

Definitely not cheap, but it is tough to get results like they do without going to a professional bbq pit

This is my friends store: http://www.bbqspitsnspits.com/home.nxg

Jeff

Try par boiling them in apple juice prior to putting them on the grill, then use whatever BBQ you like. I spice mine up with a creole mix for added zest (true cajuns will hate me for this but I use the store bought generic type). Just be careful not to over-do it as they will fall from the bone quite easily. Also, use natural charcoal if possible.

Good luck,
Durand

We use to par-boil them then we found the method I mentioned before. If you haven't tried it you need to, we won't ever par-boil them again. Of course everybody has different tastes.

David and I have talked about getting a smoker, but we just don't have the room. I love to BBQ, all year long, my neighbors must think that I am nuts cause I do it all winter long too

I plan on being outback this weekend,have a porch there too.:DWaving

I'll vouch for this too, at least the part about simmering them in liquid for the purposes of tenderization. I can see how apple juice may infuse some flavor while it is loosening up the tissue. It isn't really a par-boil though, they are getting completely cooked. In the past, I've done both beef and pork ribs this way, and will use water or stock, onion, garlic, peppercorns, etc.

The last ribs I made at the house got a rub of dijon mustard, cider vinegar, and dark brown sugar. Oooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!:D

At the casino, where it was common to go through 600# on a saturday night, all of the ribs were "boiled", then grilled/sauced. The court bouillon was chicken stock, with zatarain's liquid crab boil , and steen's cane syrup

That was a nice touch.


Mike, this really depends on what you're looking for. Are you talking for ribs, or slow cooking? You can get short ribs or back ribs. The former are best braised, and the latter are best off the grill.

That's me, too. When I lived up north, my brother and I used to set outside with our insulated bibs on and cook brats, steaks, ribs, chicken, turkeys, heck you name it...any time of year. :p

I like to slow cook beef and pork in water with a little bit of liquid smoke til they are tender, then grill them. I also found that if you are having a large gathering you could slow cook them the day before, cover them in your BBQ sauce and refrigerate them til you are ready to BBQ them. I think that it depends on how you like your meat. If you like it "saucy" then the day of works well. If you like more of the "char" then the day before works really well.

Maybe I am crazy doing them this way, but they are really good. I will try the apple juice though, cause I like 'em sweet.

My grill is going at least 4 nights a week, all year long. I use the grill to make dinner far more often than the wife uses the stove. I really like to grill out and am progressively getting much better at it.

Jeff

Oh, you're making hungry. Haven't cooked ribs in a while. Did grill a couple of burgers a couple days ago, simple food is nice now and then. Grilled some rib steaks last night, they were good. We cover them in Italian dressing and let them sit for a few hours. The vinegar in the dressing helps tenderize the meat and the seasoning is great too. Then sprinkle a little Molson Canadian over them while on the grill when the flames start up doesn't hurt either.

Made these over the weekend...huge packs buy 1 get 1 free. Pork "country style" ribs...with the bones.

Seasoned heavily with all-purpose seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper, then they got about 6 hours at 250 degrees. I slapped them with a quick apple-brown sugar bbq sauce, and under the broiler for a few minutes to candy them up...

Tasted better than the pic looks...

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/Image008.jpg

Gotta be careful ordering ribs "out" because some places just open a cryovac pack (with bbq sauce in it) and just mark them on the char-broiler, then serve.

Ribs are one of the items that I won't pay (and risk being disappointed) someone else to make for me.

I hear you, I seldom order a steak, or ribs out, I can cook those. I won't order spaghetti out either, I like the way Lynda makes it. I try things we can't or don't cook at home. Of course for you that would leave out just about everything. :D

We did go out to dinner Saturday. My great aunt took us out after I replaced her kitchen faucet. Had lake perch, very good, frog legs, also very good, shrimp, that was pretty good too. Wish we had a good seafood restaurant like that near us.

Cut some ribs up around 9 this morning. Put the seasoning and Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce on them. They've been sitting in the fridge since then. Time for a shower, awful muggy here today, then pop them in the oven for a few hours then to the grill.

Going to the east side tomorrow. My great aunt's 98th birthday, my uncle's birthday, Lynda's birthday and my birthday are all in June. Hope we're going back to the place I mentioned with the lake perch, frog legs and shrimp.

Lake Perch...

The only perch I have caught are a light greenish color with dark green stripes down their sides from the top, and orange-ish pectoral fins. We called the bigger ones Jack Perch. I have caught them in lakes and rivers, though. :D

Is that what you're talking about? They are so sweet and delicious.

That's the ones. Same family as walleye and pickerel. All very mild, even cooked with the skin on they don't have a strong fish taste. Being from MI I've been eating them my whole life. There are good ocean fish, halibut is one of my favorites, but I really prefer lake fish.

Same here. I par-boiled ribs for years and thought they were tender until I tried slow cooking in the oven. The meat shakes off the bones.

For sauce I mix up Oyster sauce, Lemon juice, garlic and oregano. It's deadly on baby back pork ribs.