Rib Night!

When you have a taste for something that you can't let go of, the only solution is to go out and get it and cook it up! That's what happened Friday. Ribs. My mouth was so ready for a nice slab of slow smoked spare ribs so we had rib night.  My personal favorite is the spare rib. Baby backs are wonderful but spares are just meatier and with the extra fat in them, they are juicy and tender as can be if cooked right.  So to start the night out right, the day before I made a couple of sauces; a sweet smoky barbecue sauce and a habanero sauce. I'm growing habaneros in my back yard and now that they're coming in, I have more than I'll ever know what to do with so I created a sauce. You take 12 peppers (seeds and ribs included) a can of peaches, some vinegar, 5 big cloves of garlic, some molasses, honey, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, orange juice, liquid smoke, paprika, cumin, coriander, ginger, allspice, salt & pepper all ground up in a food processor or blender then simmered for about a 1/2 an hour to thicken just a little. It's good without the simmering too! This sauce is the perfect combination of sweet and heat and you can use it on ANYTHING!

Habanero sauce

Red Stagg Black Cherry barbecue sauce

Rib Rub

The rib rub is brown and white sugar, cumin, paprika, garlic, and onion. Rub the ribs down on both sides a couple hours before cooking to cure the meat.

Ask your butcher if the spares are already prepped, meaning the rib tips are cut off. If not, it's a lot easier if you ask him to do it for you. I treat the tips the same as the ribs themselves. Don't ever throw them out because there's plenty of meat on them.  Pop them in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes while you get the grill ready. I set mine up for indirect heat (fire on one side, meat on the other). Soak a few handfuls of flavored wood chips for at least one hour as well. When the coals are ready, just as you're going to put the meat on, place a handful of wet wood chips directly on top of the hot coals. Using a rib rack is nice for space if you're cooking more than 1 or 2 racks.

Try to keep the temperature at a moderate 200 degrees or so by closing the vents almost all the way. Low and slow will produce the juiciest ribs and a nice smoky flavor. There are two kinds of rib fans - fans of the dry rub and fans of the mop sauce - I'm a dry rub girl but I do spray them down every 15 minutes of so with a bottle of Stagg Black Cherry Bourbon and apple cider vinegar for moister meat. It's also nice to serve a couple of different kinds of sauces on the side for dipping if you're so inclined.

When you see the meat pull back from the bones about an inch or so, they should be done!  These took about 3 hours to complete once they got over the fire. The ultimate carnivorous treat - ribs!!!!  Make some this weekend while the weather is nice.

Ribs, tips, au gratin potato balls and, of course, a hot dog

Come back and visit again sometime!

L&M