Best Ribs Ever For Me

Spring Chicken · August 2015

Yes, the best tasting ribs I've ever cooked. Here's the story.

We were out with Neighbors Pam and Tom for lunch a couple of days ago and decided to do a quick shop in Sprouts Farmers Market. It's actually a chain store that specializes in natural products. The place is spotless and has some of the freshest everything in it, along with a very nice meat section. It's a real pleasure to shop there, realizing of course, that it's a little more expensive on some things. We'll be shopping there more often.

Anyway, I spotted a half rack of ribs and bought them. I have been wanting to cook some ribs but I wanted to brine them first. I've never done anything with brine so I was curious to see for myself if it is as good as a lot of folks say.

I made my brine with about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of kosher salt, and about two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into about 4 cups of water. I stirred it well and let it set for a few minutes while I removed the membrane from the ribs.

Then into the brine they went for an expected 2 to 3 hours while we went shopping again and had lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant. It turned into 4 hours.

I fired up Lily Large, and let her get comfortable at 240° raised, indirect, water/wet drip pan and 4 chunks of hickory smoking wood while I was rinsing, towel-drying and then rubbing generously with some It's My RubAll Purpose. Then I put the ribs on the Egg.

After a couple of hours I started misting the ribs with plain water about every 15 minutes until they had been on for about 4 hours.

Then I foiled them and left them on the Egg for another 40 or so minutes. I wish I had let them stay another 45 minutes to an hour but it was time to eat. They were done but could have been a bit doner.

I heated up some KC Masterpiece Regular BBQ sauce and brushed it on lightly while they were sitting on the counter, not while still on the Egg like I sometimes do.

Wow! The flavor really popped. I couldn't believe how good they were. Spring Hen never eats more than one rib, but this time she had two. I ate the rest and could have eaten two more.

The smoke was just right, not too much or too little, the flavor was perfect, the moistness was right on, the 'tug' was there but gently pulled away clean from the bone, and I was one happy Egghead.

Here's some pictures.

2015-08-17 09.11.26 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

2015-08-17 09.11.40 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

2015-08-17 09.11.45 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

DSC03941 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

DSC03942 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

DSC03943 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

DSC03944 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

DSC03945 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

DSC03946 by Leroy McMillin, on Flickr

I really like buying the half rack of ribs. Perfect for the two of us. We'll be doing it again for sure. Plus, it was fun using the brine, although I'm not sure how much it affected the flavor. Whatever, it worked.

Spring "Some Days Just Turn Out Right" Chicken
Spring Texas USA