Video #: Smoking Ribs With The Snake Method
This video is really different from the first video for two reasons. The first is that it shows you a completely different way of arranging the charcoal. This method is called the Snake Method or the Fuse Method. The second difference is that, after the ribs get plenty of smoke for the first couple of hours, they are wrapped in aluminum foil.
He doesnt really go into why the ribs are wrapped but pitmasters do this for two reasons. First off, wrapping the ribs in foil accelerates the cooking process and get the ribs off the pit faster. Secondly, wrapping the ribs helps protect the color and prevents them from taking up too much smoke.
Whether or not you should wrap your ribs and exactly how to wrap them is a matter of preference and debate. Dont worry about that part right now and instead take a few minutes to learn how to set up a snake!
Hour Of Final Touches Including Saucing
The “1” is for an hour or less where your ribs will develop that rich mahogany color youve only seen in your BBQ dreams. You’ll get them up to the perfect temperature, and then slather with Traeger BBQ sauce at the very end of the cooking process . The sugar in BBQ sauce caramelizes and can burn the ribs if its heated for too long.
- Carefully remove the foil from the ribs. Discard the foil.
- Arrange the ribs directly on the grill grate, cover, and continue to cook until the internal temperature of the ribs hits 195 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Slather ribs with BBQ sauce and cook for 10 to 20 minutes longer. An internal temperature of 203 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal.
- Let the ribs rest for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!
How To Make Baby Back Ribs In The Oven
Grilling not an option? Its super easy to make tender ribs in the oven too. Depending on the size of your oven you may need to cut them into smaller racks. Bake them in the oven at 275° wrapped in foil for 2 hours. Then remove the foil and cook for an additional 1 to 1.5 hours until the ribs temp is 200° or you can easily pull the meat off the bone
The first time I made these in the oven someone had given me some apple wood chips, so I now add a small pan of soaked wood chips to impart some nice flavors when I make them in the oven.
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How To Boil Ribs
Boiling ribs or simmering ribs is one of the most straightforward was of precooking them for grilling. You can use any liquid to boil your ribs in and add as many seasonings as you want. Or, if you just want pure porky flavor, keep it simple with salt.
You can speed up this process by using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Remember to use the natural pressure release method to prevent shredding the meat.
How To Grill Ribs Fast
Although its preferable to cook ribs for several hours over a low fire, its possible to prepare them more quickly over a charcoal fire. It helps if you use baby back ribs, which are leaner and cook more quickly as a result. You can also speed the process along by par-cooking the ribs beforehand in boiling water or the microwave.
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How To Cook Pork Ribs On The Grill
You start by rubbing racks of pork baby back ribs with an aromatic mix of paprika, chile powder, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, pepper and brown sugar. The ribs are then wrapped in foil and cooked covered on the grill over direct medium heat for 1 hour. I personally prefer using a charcoal grill, but you could easily make these on a gas grill. The key is to maintain a temperature of 350°F 400°F within the covered grill.
The ribs are then unwrapped and finished on the grill with the addition of hickory wood chips and store bought barbecue sauce. You baste and turn the ribs a few times over 10 12 minutes, resulting in saucy, smoky, charred ribs. So. Yum.
How To Cook Ribs On The Grill
So youre ready to take the dive into the world of cooking ribs on the grill? I promise its easy and youll be obsessed with the finished product. Youll need about 15 minutes of prep time and an hour of cooking time. So, make sure you account for that when planning out your meal!
Youll want your grill preheating to low heat for about 15 minutes before youre ready to throw the ribs on. I use a propane grill, so 15 minutes is all I need. If youre using a charcoal grill, youll need more time for it to preheat, so plan accordingly.
You also dont want to put ribs on the grill that just came out of the fridge, or else the meat might get shocked. So, while your grill is heating up, let the ribs rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.
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How To Season Ribs
Seasoning is the fun part of smoking ribs by choosing or creating a rib rub, you truly are making them your own.
Whether you use a dry rub or wet rub method you’ll need to choose a rib rub first.
- cumin
- cinnamon
… but it’s your call. The only word of caution: Don’t overdo it with any of these ingredients, or you could overpower the rest of the flavors.
Putting The Ribs On The Grill
With the grill set up for smoking, we can add the ribs. At most, you will probably be able to fit two racks of baby back ribs or one rack of spareribs. Alternatively, you can buy a rib holder that props up the ribs so they stand on end so that you can fit more ribs at a time. Of course, this really depends on the size and type of charcoal grill you are using. What is important is that the ribs are not set on top of each other. It is important to expose as much of the surface of the rack to heat and smoke as possible.
At this temperature, it is going to take about 3 to 4 hours to cook the ribs completely. We are looking for a final temperature of around 180 F to 185 F/80 C to 85 C. This is the point of maximum tenderness before the meat starts falling off the bone. Remember that great ribs have bones in them and don’t fall into a pile of meat when cooked. That whole “falling off the bone” thing was created by bad restaurants that boil ribs.
Place the rack of ribs on the cooking grate of the grill, rib side down, next to the water pan. No part of the ribs should be directly over the fire. We will turn the ribs in a little while to provide for even cooking.
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How To Choose The Best Ribs For Grilling
The best ribs for grilling really depend on your tastes and needs. In most parts of the United States, pork ribs are preferred, and they are the most common types of ribs. However, beef ribs, which are larger and have a deeper flavor, are also popular in places where BBQ beef is king, like Kansas City and many parts of Texas. Both of these take well to American-style barbecue sauces. Lamb ribs are also a great alternative, but theyre not as commonly eaten in North America as pork and beef ribs. Lamb has a gamier flavor that requires different seasonings that pork and beef ribs. There are many mouthwateringly delicious lamb rib recipes in Middle Eastern and East Asian cuisines that feature cumin, coriander and a lot of garlic.
Among pork ribs, there are several common varieties to choose from:
The Best Beef Ribs On A Charcoal Grill
If youre a fan of beef ribs, youll love the sweet, smoky flavor of the ones well help you prepare on your very own charcoal grill. Even if youve never attempted to prepare them this wayor never experienced the joys of a charcoal grill at allour step-by-step guide will turn you into a pro in no time. Which is fortunate, because once youve tried them this way, you may find yourself making them over and over againparticularly if you invite friends and family over.
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How To Smoke Ribs
There are many ways to smoke ribs, but usually it comes down to two types of people: those who wrap and those who dont. The term wrap means that at some point in the cook process, you wrap the ribs in tinfoil.
I have smoked ribs both wrapped and unwrapped many times, and have determined the best way to smoke ribs is to wrap them. They just come out juicier and more tender.
There are three phases in the cook process when you wrap ribs:
Grilled Ribs On The Bbq
There is no fancy recipe here, were simply making grilled ribs on your barbecue and have them come out tender, juicy, and just about ready to fall off the bone. A little tug and the bone is stripped clean!
If youd like some of my funky and delicious BBQ sauce recipes, head on down to the bottom of the page and find a list of goodies just before the recipe card.
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How To Slow Cook Ribs On A Weber Charcoal Grill
Almost everybody loves to eat slow smoked ribs and it turns out that they are pretty easy to make once you know how. I am going to walk you through a few different videos that show you exactly how to slow cook ribs on a Weber charcoal grill.
Here are four videos showing you how to cook ribs on a kettle. The general steps are:
- Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs.
- Season the ribs on both sides
- Set up the grill to cook at 225-250F with indirect heat
- Cook the ribs for 3-6 hours
While the steps above sound simple there are a few tricks that you have to figure out along the way! The biggest trick is that the temperature displayed on the lid thermometer does not represent the temperature at the grate where the ribs are cooking. The lid thermometer will always be higher than the grate temperature by at least 75 degrees!
You will want to use a digital thermometer located at grate level know your cooking temperature.
The second trick is learning how to control the temperature. The two things you do to control the temperature of the grill are using a small fire and controlling the air flow.
The general technique for maintaining a small fire for 3-6 hours is to start with a lot of charcoal but let it burn slowly from one side to the other. The videos below will show you two ways of setting up your charcoal for extended Low and Slow cooking.
How To Make Tender Ribs On The Grill
- The first tip when cooking ribs is to always remove the silver skin membrane. Take a sharp knife and lift up the membrane at one end on the backside of the baby backs. If you use a paper towel once you start to pull it up it will come up super easily. You can check out this video from Barbecue Tricks to see the exact way to do it.
- Rub the dry spice rub onto both sides of the ribs to add flavor to every bite.
- Grilling on indirect heat at a low temp for a longer time also adds to the tenderness the ribs breakdown, but doesnt dry out and get burned by being on high heat.
- Grill the pork back ribs on indirect heat. Turn on the burners to low temperature heat. If you have a large grill, turn on the two outer burners and then set the ribs on the section where there are no flames. If you have a smaller grill, heat one side and leave the other side of the grill off.
- You may want to cut a full rack of ribs to smaller racks to fit on a smaller grill so they are completely off of any flame while slow cooking.
- If you want you can create a drip pan by making a foil pan with aluminum foil underneath them. Since its indirect heat you can lay the tray just below the ribs underneath the cooking grate where there is no flames to catch the drippings.
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Instructions For Foil Wrapped Ribs:
1. Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat .
2. In a small bowl mix the rub ingredients.
3. Remove the membrane from the back of each rack of ribs. Cut each rack crosswise in the middle to create two smaller racks.
4. Season each half rack evenly with the rub. Using eight 18-by-24-inch sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil, double wrap each half rack in its own packet.
5. Brush the cooking grates clean. Place the ribs on the grill over direct medium heat and cook for 1 hour, with the lid closed, occasionally turning the packets over for even cooking, making sure not to pierce the foil.
6. Remove the packets of ribs from the grill and let rest for about 10 minutes. Carefully open the foil packets, remove the ribs, and discard the rendered fat and foil.
7. Drain and add the wood chips directly onto burning coals or to the smoker box of a gas grill, following manufacturers instructions. When the wood begins to smoke, return the ribs to the grill, bone side down. Grill over direct medium heat, with the lid closed as much as possible, until they are sizzling and lightly charred, 10 to 12 minutes, turning and basting once or twice with the sauce. Remove from the grill and let rest for about 5 minutes. Cut into individual ribs and serve warm with any remaining sauce.
©2011 Weber-Stephen Products LLC. Recipe from Webers Time To Grill by Jamie Purviance. Used with permission
What If You’re Camping And Want To Enjoy Grilled Ribs That’s Easy Too
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How To Braise Ribs
Braising ribs is similar to boiling ribs except you are using a smaller quantity of more flavorful liquid. This is a preferred way to infuse your ribs with more flavor because the liquid in which they cook is usually a lot more concentrated than the liquid you use to boil ribs. Again, the skys the limit as far as what you can add to your braise for flavor, but many people simply slow-cook their ribs in barbecue sauce.
You can braise your ribs on the stovetop by bringing the barbecue sauce to a simmer over medium heat, adding the ribs, covering them, reducing the heat to low and cooking for a few hours. Check every hour or so for tenderness. This is an excellent opportunity to use a slow cooker, too.
Alternatively, you can braise them in the oven. The advantage of this is that in an oven, the heat is cooking the ribs from all sides, making for much more even cooking. As well, you can cook more ribs in the oven than you can on a stove top simply because you have more space. You also have the option of precooking a whole slab of ribs rather than cutting the rack down into smaller pieces, which can be necessary for stovetop cooking
You can either use a large roasting pan or even buy a disposable aluminum roasting pan to cook enough ribs for a crowd. Heres how:
