Memphis-Style Dry-Rub Ribs

Memphis-Style Dry-Rub Ribs
Memphis pit masters pride themselves on pork ribs with dark, crusty bark and
distinctive chew. We wanted the same bragging rights from our own backyard.
photography: carl tremblay
T
j B y A n dr e a G e ar y k
favorite. Tasters—Southern transplants
he sweet, sticky, fall-off-theand Yankees alike—raved that these ribs
bone pork sparerib is the pride
were everything they should be: smoky
of more than a few U.S. cities,
and tender, encrusted in a thick, ample
but only one—Memphis,
bark with gentle heat. As for me, I was too
Tennessee—can take credit for the
tired to eat after nearly a full day tending
dry-rub rib. Unlike the sweeter, wetter
the grill. There had to be a faster, less fussy
version, dry-rub ribs should be cooked
route to Memphis.
to the precise stage at which they are
fully tender and their fat has completely
rendered but the meat still clings lightly
Outside In
to the bone and boasts a slightly resilient
Before I began specific testing, I needed
chew. There’s no molasses-y, fingera proper barbecue setup. For a fire that
lickin’ sauce. Instead, a thin cider- or
would maintain the key amount of indirect
vinegar-based “mop” is brushed across
heat (roughly 250 to 275 degrees) long
the ribs intermittently during cooking
enough to break down the connective tisto cool down the meat and prevent the
sue in the ribs, I had two choices: banking
interior moisture from evaporating.
two piles of coals on either side of the grill
In collaboration with long, slow pit
or one pile on one side in what’s known
smoking, the rub—a mixture of salt,
as a modified two-level fire. In tests, we’ve
sugar, and spices liberally applied to the
found that piling the coals on one side
rack up to a day before cooking—forms
produces steadier, more evenly distributed
a deeply flavored “bark,” or crust, that is
heat, so I opted for that approach. To avoid
the hallmark of Memphis barbecue.
the constant dance of lifting the lid to add
The problem is, most rib joints outside
more charcoal to keep the heat stabilized, I
the River City don’t even attempt to replimounded coals I’d burned for 15 minutes
cate them—and those that have seldom do
in a chimney starter on top of unlit coals—a
them justice. To get my fix, I mail-ordered
trick that would allow me to extend the life
a few racks from beloved landmarks like Most backyard recipes for dry-rub ribs rely on a full day of tending the
of the flame without opening the grill. In
Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous and Central grill. We cut the grill time down to just 1½ hours.
addition, I stowed a pan of water underBBQ. Unfortunately, ribs that have suffered
neath the cooking grates on the cooler side
the indignity of being cooked, frozen, packaged, left me with my trusty kettle grill and a tall stack of of the grill, where it would absorb heat and work to
shipped, thawed, and warmed are hardly the truest barbecue cookbooks.
keep the temperature stable, as well as help keep the
Of the many backyard-friendly recipes I tried, meat moister.
representation of a city’s culinary pride. For a close
approximation of the real deal, I was determined to cookbook author David Rosengarten’s sweet-spicy,
This relatively hands-off technique kept the grill in
re-create Memphis barbecue on my own turf. That slow-’cued (read: seven-hour) ribs were the clear the 250-degree range for a full hour and a half—but
still nowhere near long enough for the meat to fully
tenderize. Spending the rest of the afternoon painss h o p p i n g For the Best BBQ, Meat Me in St. Louis
takingly feeding the fire with coals to keep the grill at
the proper temperature was out of the question. But
what about moving the operation indoors? We’ve
often had success combining the smoke of the grill
with the steady heat and convenience of the oven to
streamline slow-cooked barbecue recipes. The only
BABY BACK RIBS:
SPARERIBS:
ST. LOUIS–STYLE RIBS:
question was the order of operations: grill to oven
too lean
prep heavy
top choice
or oven to grill?
Since a crusty bark was one of the main goals, I
Cut from the top side of the animal,
Spareribs are the entire, untrimmed rib
This cut, the third option for ribs from
figured it made sense to start the ribs in the oven
close to the loin, baby back ribs are
section of the pig, cut from the underthe pig, refers to spareribs that have
tender but low in fat, which makes
side. While good for slow-cooking,
been trimmed of belly and skirt meat and finish them on the grill, where their exterior
them prone to ­drying out during
they contain portions of belly meat,
and excess cartilage. The minimal fuss could dry out just before serving. I applied my
rub—a slight variation on Rosengarten’s original,
prolonged exposure to the heat of
plus lots of fat and gristle that require
involved in using them makes them
containing a sweet-hot mix of powdered spices,
the grill.
trimming once you get them home.
our top choice for barbecue.
july
19 Memphis Ribs.indd 19
&
august
19
2010
5/10/10 1:21 PM
at a gla nce
Research revealed the first serious
s p e e d i n g u p m e m p h i s-style r i b s
misstep: exposing the ribs to
Traditionally, Memphis dry-rub ribs are a 24-hour-plus project: The racks
smoke after they cooked. Smoke
are rubbed with spices, left to sit overnight, and then slow-smoked for
contains both water-soluble and
the better part of a day. Here’s how we mimicked the smoky, pleasantly
fat-soluble flavor compounds. As
chewy results in less than half the time.
traditional dry-rub ribs cook, the
water-soluble compounds dissolve
in the meat’s surface moisture and
get left behind as it evaporates. Fatsoluble compounds, on the other
hand, dissolve in the rendering
fat, which then spreads through
the meat, lubricating the muscle
fibers and depositing smoke flavor
as it goes. The problem is, if the
ribs start cooking in the oven,
1. A BRIEF RUBDOWN
2. finish in the oven
much of the fat renders and drips
Because the meat layer is so
Thanks to our grill setup, we
out of the meat before it even gets
thin, an overnight rub is unnecget great smoke flavor by grillto the grill. Once on the coals, the
essary. Applying the rub (a blend smoking the ribs for 1½ hours
parcooked ribs have less fat for the
of salt, brown sugar, paprika,
before transferring them to a low
smoke compounds to dissolve in,
and other spices) just before
oven to cook 2 to 3 hours more.
resulting in a one-dimensional,
cooking infuses plenty of sweetWater added to the baking sheet
ashtraylike essence, not the full-on
spicy flavor.
helps keep the meat moist.
smokiness I was after.
Lesson learned, I reversed the
cooking order in the next batch, placing the raw, spice- two hickory chunks smoldered over the coals. After
rubbed rib racks over the cooler side of the grill while 45 ­minutes I rotated and mopped the slabs, let them
cook another 45 minutes, and finally transferred them
to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet to bring
T E C H N I Q U E Tu r n i n g Yo u r G r i ll i nto a S m o k e r
them indoors. The ribs then got a second vinegar-juice
For ribs with deep, crusty bark and satisfying chew, Memphis pit masters rely on massive smokers to cook the racks low and coat on their way into a 300-degree oven—cranking
slow. Back in Boston, we achieved similar results by converting a charcoal kettle into a makeshift smoker. For slow, steady, up the heat just a bit, I hoped, would expedite the
indirect heat, we banked all the coals to one side and piled lit coals on top of unlit coals to keep the fire going without opening cooking without compromising the meat’s texture—
the lid. Sprinkling soaked wood chips—rather than large chunks—over the coals introduced just enough smoke flavor, and where they stayed until tender and thick-crusted.
a pan of water placed under the racks helped stabilize the air temperature and moisten the meat. (To replicate this method (Depending on the size and thickness of the racks,
on a gas grill, we placed the soaked wood chips and water in disposable aluminum pie plates and set them on the burners.) this took another 1 to 2 hours, with a third and final
mopping halfway through.) I even mimicked my grill
These modifications were so successful that the ribs only needed to spend 90 minutes on the grill.
setup by pouring 1½ cups water into the rimmed
baking sheet, which continued to gently humidify
the cooking environment. But I’d overcompensated:
The texture was fine, but now my ribs were so smoky
that their flavor verged on burnt kindling. To curb
c h arc oa l
g as g ri l l
the fume flavor, I downsized from wood chunks to a
g ri l l se t up
se t up
mere ½ cup of soaked wood chips, which smoldered
just long enough (30 minutes) to give the ribs a clean,
subtly wood-smoked flavor.
Smoke Without Fire
• SOAKED
CHIPS
•
lit
coals
•
unLIT
COALS
•
WATER
PAN
•
Rubbed the Right Way
Up to this point, I’d been blindly following the advice
of many recipes, applying my salt-spice rub to the ribs a
full day before cooking them for maximum flavor. On
first inspection, the approach made sense: More time
with the rub means more penetration, which means
a more flavorful result, right? But the thinness of the
meat on the bones meant that the rub didn’t have all
that far to travel. Did I really need to keep the rub on
•
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• I N D I R E CT •
H E AT
how to make
• Memphis-Style Barbecued Spareribs on a Charcoal Grill
cook’s
19 Memphis Ribs.indd 20
illustrated
20
illustration: jay layman
brown sugar, salt, and dried thyme—the day before
cooking (standard procedure for these ribs). I then
wrapped the rubbed ribs in foil (easier than mopping
them, I figured, since they could baste in their own
juices) and threw them into a 275-degree oven. In
the meantime, I set up my grill with the same modified two-level fire.
Three hours later, I pulled the ribs from the
oven and unwrapped them. They were undeniably
tender, but we all agreed they looked a bit sweaty
and steamy, too. Hoping the fire would correct this,
I transferred them to the cooler side of my kettle,
placed some soaked hickory chunks on the live coals
to generate smoke, and replaced the lid, opening and
closing vents as necessary to maintain the 250-degree
temperature and occasionally mopping the ribs with
a mixture of apple juice and cider vinegar. An hour
later, the ribs showed no sign of a bark. In desperation, I dragged the racks to the hot side of the grill
to finish, hoping that the extra heat would crisp up
their exterior.
My tasters were not fooled. These overly wet,
soft-textured ribs screamed “braise” rather than
“barbecue” and still had no bark to speak of. A good
bit of the rub had also washed away during their
oven time, leaving only a hint of its spicy promise.
Even worse, tasters panned their smoke flavor as
“acrid” and “superficial.” Where had I gone wrong?
2010
5/5/10 4:47 PM
the ribs for such a long time? I set up a time check: I
rubbed the spice mixture onto one batch of ribs and
let them sit overnight before cooking. I then applied
rub on a second batch and threw these ribs on the
grill as soon as I had the fire ready, about 30 minutes
later. A few hours after that, the results were in—and
they were heretical. I found that applying the rub
right before cooking gave me all the flavor I needed.
The last puzzle piece was figuring out when
the ribs were done. Wet ribs are pretty forgiving;
in fact, they’re nearly impossible to overcook. But
dry-rub ribs are more exacting and have a very small
window during which they are perfectly cooked.
The foolproof solution? A thermometer. As long as
I pulled my ribs out of the oven when the thickest
section reached 195 degrees, the meat turned out
consistently tender with a good bit of satisfying
chew. Next time I’m craving smoky, porky, complex
barbecue, I’ll leave the bottles of sweet sauce—and
the mail-order forms—on the shelf.
Memphis-Style Barbecued Spareribs
on a Charcoal Grill
Serves 4 to 6
note: Don’t remove the membrane that runs along
the bone side of the ribs; it prevents some of the fat
from rendering out, leading to more tender results.
Pouring lit briquettes over unlit briquettes provides
the low, steady heat necessary for effective smoking.
To maintain a constant temperature, manipulate
the upper and lower vents of your grill and do not
remove the lid any more often than necessary. For
less spiciness, reduce the cayenne to 1/2 teaspoon.
Rub
2
2
1
2
1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ ½
tablespoons sweet paprika
tablespoons light brown sugar
tablespoon table salt
teaspoons chili powder
teaspoons ground black pepper
teaspoons garlic powder
teaspoons onion powder
teaspoons cayenne pepper (see note)
teaspoon dried thyme
Ribs
illustration: jay layman
2 racks St. Louis–style spareribs, 2½ to 3
pounds each (see note)
½ cup apple juice
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Large disposable aluminum roasting pan
½ cup wood chips, soaked
1. Combine rub ingredients in small bowl. Place
racks on rimmed baking sheet; sprinkle rub on both
sides of each rack, rubbing and pressing to adhere.
Set racks aside while preparing grill.
2. Combine apple juice and vinegar in small bowl;
set aside. Open top and bottom grill vents halfway and
arrange 15 unlit charcoal briquettes evenly on 1 side
of grill. Place disposable pan filled with 1 inch water
on other side of grill. Light large chimney starter filled
one-third with charcoal (about 33 briquettes) and
allow to burn until coals are half coated with thin layer
of ash, about 15 minutes. Empty coals into grill on
top of unlit briquettes to cover half of grill. Sprinkle
soaked wood chips over coals. Position cooking grate
over coals, cover grill, and heat grate until hot, about
5 minutes; scrape grate clean with grill brush.
3. Place ribs, meat side down, on grate over water
pan. Cover grill, positioning top vent over ribs to
draw smoke through grill. Cook ribs 45 minutes,
adjusting vents to keep temperature inside grill
around 250 to 275 degrees. Flip ribs meat side up,
turn 180 degrees, and switch their positions so that
rack that was nearer fire is on outside. Brush each
rack with 2 tablespoons apple juice mixture; cover
grill and cook another 45 minutes. About 30 minutes before removing ribs from grill, adjust oven rack
to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.
4. Transfer ribs, meat side up, to wire rack set in
rimmed baking sheet. Brush top of each rib with
2 tablespoons apple juice mixture. Pour 1½ cups
water into bottom of baking sheet; roast 1 hour.
Brush ribs with remaining apple juice mixture and
continue to roast until meat is tender but not falling
off bone (internal temperature should be 195 to
200 degrees), 1 to 2 hours. Transfer ribs to cutting
board, tent loosely with foil, and let rest 15 minutes.
Cut ribs between bones to separate and serve.
equipment testing
july
19 Memphis Ribs.indd 21
Smokers
Though plenty of rib and brisket enthusiasts convert
their grills into makeshift smokers, proper lowertemperature smoking is best achieved with a designated
outdoor appliance. (We’ve tested indoor stovetop and
oven models with mixed success.) Unlike rigged kettle
grills, smokers typically offer larger fuel capacity (for a
longer-burning fire), a water reservoir (to absorb and
retain heat and produce moister results), and more
vents (to control the air flow and temperature within
a more precise range). The vents keep the ambient
temperature in the necessary 225- to 275-degree range
for up to 24 hours without much fire-tending.
We shopped for relatively affordable (well under
$1,000) options and came back to the test kitchen with
a trio of “bullet” models: kettle grill–size vessels that
feature a large cooking surface atop a charcoal pan.
During a 12-hour temperature test, we smoked turkey
breasts, ribs, brisket, and pork shoulder. The Brinkmann
Smoke’N Grill ($59.95) had neither air vents to control
temperature nor an ash grate for its charcoal pan,
meaning that burnt charcoal bits continually smothered
the fire. Meanwhile, both the Big Green Egg ($750)
and the Weber Smokey Mountain ($298.95) hovered
comfortably (and almost untended) in the 250-degree
range from start to finish, the latter edging out its
much-acclaimed ceramic rival both for its cost and the
inclusion of a water pan. For complete testing results,
go to ­www.cooksillustrated.com/aug10.
–Marcus Walser and Meredith Butcher
&
august
21
Memphis-Style Barbecued Spareribs
on a Gas Grill
note: If using a small 2-burner gas grill, it may be
necessary to cut each rack of ribs in half crosswise
between the bones and use a foil shield to protect
the ribs from the direct heat of the primary burner.
To make a shield, place a 24-inch length of heavyduty aluminum foil down the center of the grill.
Place the halved racks over the cool side of the
grill, perpendicular to the cooking grates, so that
they cover about half of the foil. Lift up the foil to
shield the ribs.
Follow instructions for Memphis-Style Barbecued
Spareribs on a Charcoal Grill through step 1, increasing amount of wood chips to ¾ cup. Place soaked
chips in 9-inch disposable aluminum pie plate with
¼ cup water and set on primary burner of gas grill.
Instead of large disposable aluminum roasting pan,
place 9-inch disposable aluminum pie plate filled
with 1 inch water on other burner(s). Position cooking grates over burners. Turn all burners to high
and heat grill with lid down until very hot, about 15
minutes. Turn primary burner to medium-high and
turn off other burner(s). Scrape grate clean with grill
brush. Proceed with recipe from step 3, maintaining
grill temperature of about 250 to 275 degrees by
adjusting heat of primary burner.
TO P O ’ T H E H E A P
Weber Smokey Mountain
Cooker–18.5 inch
Price: $298.95
Comments: Plenty of cooking space,
a water pan, and multiple vents that
allowed for precise temperature control
added up to meat that came off the fire
moist and smoky with little tending.
G O O D C O N T RO L
Big Green Egg Price: $750
Comments: This second-place smoker’s excellent temperature control and
ability to double as a grill and brick oven
couldn’t make up for its cramped cooking surface and lack of a water pan,
which yielded markedly drier meats.
U P I N S M O K E
Brinkmann Smoke’N Grill
Charcoal Smoker & Grill
Price: $59.95
Comments: A litany of design flaws—
including an awkwardly placed charcoal
pan and no ash grate or air vents to help
control temperature—sank this cheap
smoker to the bottom rung.
2010
5/5/10 4:29 PM