Baby Back Ribs

Baby Back Ribs

1 - Remove the "silver skin"/membrane skin from the bone side of the ribs.  This can make your ribs tougher to bite through.  No matter how much you cook them, that part never breaks down. 

Here is a picture with the skin being pulled off the ribs.  Picture courtesy of: http://www.grillingcompanion.com

 

To remove this skin you will need a skinning knife or similar to get under the membrane to pry up enough of the skin to grab with a paper towel.  Then just pull off.  A few of these actions maybe required to remove all of the skin.  

2 -  I like to rinse off the ribs and pat dry with a paper towel.  

3 - A tip I learned when reading "what the pros do when cooking ribs(and Boston butt)" is to rub the ribs/meat with yellow mustard first.  In the end the mustard taste will not be there.  If you do not feel comfortable with yellow mustard, just use some canola oil.  

I just use some cheap yellow mustard to rub.  This enables maximum adhering of the rub.  

Here are the ribs all rubbed down with Jim's Own rub.  

4 - After rubbing the ribs with mustard, coat the ribs with your favorite rub.  In my case my rub of the day (and for a while) is Jim's Own rub straight out of Chapel Hill, NC!  Keeping it local is what I like to do and the rub is fabulous!  Give them a try at http://jimsownsauce.com/ 

This rub was AWESOME on these ribs.  I wished I would have used it on the Boston Butt too!  

5 - To cook the ribs, cook indirect around 250°-300° for around 3 hours.  Indirect cooking refers to not cooking directly under the heat source.  You want the meat to be away from the flame/heat source.  So if you have a charcoal grill, only have hot coals on one side of the grill.  Place your meat on the opposite side.  Same on a gas grill.  Light the left burners and place meat on the right side. 

These are ribs set up for indirect cooking on a Big Green Egg.  You can use any grill for indirect cooking!  

6 - Remove from grill (or oven).  Make tin foil packs for the ribs to go into.  Take butter butter (couple tablespoons per rib) and lay over the ribs.  Then sprinkle the ribs with brown sugar.  

7 - Wrap completely in foil and place back on the grill for another 45min to 1 hour.  

8 - This is optional.  The ribs should be done after the amount of time in point 7.  You can place back on the grill if you like.  I did not as they were perfectly tender, juicy, and succulent.  However, if you want to firm them up some and get a nice crust place back on the grill for another 30min - 1 hour still indirect at around 250°.  

The finished product.  Tender and juicy.  You can see the juice from the rib.