Babybacks in the belly!

Nature Boy

Hold on a second.........[p]Okay.........I just held up my beer and toasted Bill Miller.
We'll miss you. To all his friends and family, my most positive thoughts.[p]
Thanks everyone who helped me with the babyback question earlier. [p]Final Results:[p]They were fantastic. One thing I am not quite clear on, is when y'all talk about "fall-off-the-bone", what the hell does that mean?? Do you hold the rib up in the air, and the meat falls onto the plate??? Does it mean when you take a bite, the meat pulls cleanly away from the bone?? [p]The latter was true with these. I cooked them 2-and-a-quarter hours at 350, over beer filled drip pan, (which was on top of three spread-out pieces of firebricks broken in half). Brushed on a light sauce and cranked to 400 for the last 20 minutes (almost 3 hours total). Nice smoke ring (but fairly subtle smoke flavor), and beautiful crust. Moist and tender meat. [p]The "drizzle-mustard-on-top-and-smear-into-the-meat-after-marinating-and-placing-on-the-grill" method worked great. Nice color. Nice crust. Nice ribs.[p]Now I have a few things to try with babybacks!!
Direct-rib-rack-250 3 hours (Cat)
Indirect 200 for 5.5 hours (Gfw)[p]I love the way everybody cooks differently, but everybody produces killer food![p]
Happy Qin.
NB

Gfw

Nature Boy, you definately have the concept - it AIN'T how you you do it - it's how they TASTE when they are done. Glad to hear of your success.

SpiceCooks

Nature Boy,
Oh well, hit the enter key one time too quick..
What I wanted to say was that the best method of cooking babybacks that we have come across so far is GFW'S 5-2-1 method. He nailed that one on the head for cooking babybacks. We had 3 miserable failures using other methods and that method is the one we were searching for. They were truly "falling off of the bone tender and moist".

SpiceCooks

SpiceCooks,
Geeeeeee, i cannot even type tonight.. i mean 3-2-1 method. golleeee.

Nature Boy

SpiceCooks,
I would assume the method is on his website.[p]Gordon has amazed me! He bought his egg only five months ago, and has cooked everything imaginable. His enthusiasm, photos, and willingness to share are greatly appreciated. Q on bro.

BBQfan1

Nature Boy,[p]I was out with buddies from work tonight getting heavy into the 'neck oil', and returned to see your posting at top of forum threads. Just wanted to note that, on short time I've been on Forum, I've been impressed by your postings, their wit, openness to others' opinions, good humour (Cdn spelling there for ya!), and just general sense of comradery expressed. I'm of the opinion that a cook's 'karma' plays a role in the overall turn-out of the food cooked. If this theory holds true, all of your efforts should turn out, not just satisfactorily, but excellently. Looking forward to [p]sharing tales, food and ales with you at Eggfest!![p]

Nature Boy

BBQfan1,
You are kind! I am having such a good time learning and sharing with such a great group of people. It makes me happy to know you don't mind me hangin' round.[p]I too look forward to sharing knowledge, ales, and good times with you also! Man, this fest thang is a gonna be fun!![p]Cheers.
Nature Boy

Tim M

Nature Boy,
"One thing I am not quite clear on, is when y'all talk about "fall-off-the-bone", what the hell
does that mean?? Do you hold the rib up in the air, and the meat falls onto the plate??? Does it mean when you
take a bite, the meat pulls cleanly away from the bone?? "[p]Couldn't agree more with you. To me, fall'n off the bone means you can loose the meat from the bone at any time - like on the way to your mouth. It's my opinion that this yields the tenderest meat but at a price. Your going to get less smokey, hickory flavor when you steam anything because its in foil. I think the perfect rib is a good meaty one where you bit and it pulls clean. That's not "fall'n-off-the-bone" but its what a perfect ribs is to me. Others like the 5-2-1 method and others want a more firm meat. Thats why one recipe "doesn't" fit all.[p]I am also curious to try GFW's 5 hr @200 method. Glad yours came out so well. I did country styled ribs that I had in the freezer since October. My wife is playing in Hawaii this week so I am able to try different things on the Egg that she doesn't like. I am not a big fan of these country styled sliced pork butts though.

RDU-Hoo

What did you marinate your ribs with? Thanks.[p]

Nature Boy

RDUHoo,
I threw together marinade of rice wine, soy, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, garlic powder, a tad of lemongrass, and
pepper. I also chucked a little of this chinese black pepper sauce in for good measure. [p]I tried something else new. The marinade I used was slightly thick in consistency, so when I laid the ribs flat on the grid, (over the drip pan bone side down) I drizzled mustard all over the top, and smeared it around to mix with the marinade on top (leaving a thick coating on top). Made for a gorgeous crust and a beautiful color.[p]Made a quick finishing sauce (brushed sparingly on the meat side). This was hoisin sauce, sesame seeds, tamarind and soy sauce. Yum.[p]NB

Nature Boy

Tim M,
I agree with you on the perfect rib. Afterall, it is meat, not pudding. Tender and juicy can be easily had with "bite and pull off the bone". I wouldn't mind trying some finished wrapped in foil sometime to compare, but I can't imagine needing the meat to fall off the bone. [p]Thanks for the lesson.
NB[p]

dan

Nature Boy,
Yes do try the Cat-Back ribs. My first try was that method and turned out VERY good. Ain't it great? So many recipies, so little time...

Unknown

dan,
oops! I'll remember the underscore next time...

Nature Boy

dan,
I will try that next week. I have done her recipe 3 times now with spare ribs, and can't wait to see how the babybacks are.[p]Babybacks sure are easier to eat than spares. I think I will be heading back to Costco for more. Yaba Daba Doo!

dan c

Nature Boy,
I'm witchoo Nature Booyyy....
A he he, he he...

Gfw

<p />Tim M, one thing that I have learned is that you really have to watch the content of the package - I look for narrower cuts that still have lots of meat. The only time that I have had a bad bunch is whe I got greedy, bought some wide cuts and didn't follow NB's instructions. [p]
[ul][li]NB's Country Style Ribs[/ul]

db

Nature Boy, Take a bite of a rib. The meat should pull away from the bone ONLY where you took the bite from. If the meat pulls away from the whole side of the rib, it is over cooked. If there is some meat left on the bone where you took the bite, the ribs are under cooked. Now look at the bone where you took that bite. In a few seconds the bone will be dry. This is a rib that has had the fat rendered out of it by cooking low and slow for 5 to 7 hours. If the bone does not dry quickly, that is grease left from not rendering out all the fat. The trick is to render the fat but keep the water in the meat fibers. This needs to be done at low temps (200 to 220). Now if you like your rib meat falling off the bone, don't be offended. If you like it that way then that's great, eat 'em that way. This is just one metalhead's opinion.

Nature Boy

db,
My ribs have been good (as far as I know), but I have only been ccoking them 3-4 hours. I look forward to trying the 5 hour pkus technique, and seeing how the results compare.[p]Thanks for the great explanation.
NB