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sclitheroe · 06-20-2007, 10:05 PM

Temperature is the key - get two good digital thermoters, one to watch the temperature inside the BBQ, one to watch the internal temp of the meat. I slow cook them on a raised rack in the BBQ with the air temperature hovering around 200 degrees until the ribs are at 160 internally. Actual time doesn't matter - it's all about temperature. Then, crank the heat up, drop the ribs onto the grill, and add your finishing sauce, raising the internal temp to around 170-180 for 20-30 minutes (air temp of 300-400 will get you there). What you are aiming for is slow cooking the meat evenly, and the final temperature increase further breaks down (melts, I guess) the collagens in the meat without overcooking them, making them tender.

If you want to get really nuts about it, it's actually a good idea to pull the ribs out of the BBQ before the high heat finish, to let the proteins in the meat relax as they cool, as they will naturally bind up from the cooking process (think of what happens to scrambled eggs as they cook, the same thing is happening inside your meat).

If you don't want to run the BBQ for hours, and don't want to lose flavor by boiling them, get a good size crockpot, and slow cook them in that for 6-8 hours. I find it doesn't kill the flavor the way boiling does. You can also place a shallow pan of water in the BBQ, below your racked ribs, to keep the humidity inside the BBQ higher, which helps prevent the ribs from drying at the tips from the hours of slow cooking. It also helps stabilize the temperature if the wind picks up, because you have more thermal mass in the BBQ.

Find any of Alton Brown's Good Eats episodes dealing with meat, or his book, which explains a lot of why this works. It applies to roasts in the oven as well. Once you understand some of the science behind the cooking process, you can replicate every style of restaurant cooking. I can do ribs and roasts up how people like them every time now (some people don't actually like ribs that are too "fall off the bone", and most people don't want them too tough either)

-Scott

06-20-2007, 10:05 PM	#24
sclitheroe #1 Goaltender Join Date: Sep 2005 Exp:	Temperature is the key - get two good digital thermoters, one to watch the temperature inside the BBQ, one to watch the internal temp of the meat. I slow cook them on a raised rack in the BBQ with the air temperature hovering around 200 degrees until the ribs are at 160 internally. Actual time doesn't matter - it's all about temperature. Then, crank the heat up, drop the ribs onto the grill, and add your finishing sauce, raising the internal temp to around 170-180 for 20-30 minutes (air temp of 300-400 will get you there). What you are aiming for is slow cooking the meat evenly, and the final temperature increase further breaks down (melts, I guess) the collagens in the meat without overcooking them, making them tender. If you want to get really nuts about it, it's actually a good idea to pull the ribs out of the BBQ before the high heat finish, to let the proteins in the meat relax as they cool, as they will naturally bind up from the cooking process (think of what happens to scrambled eggs as they cook, the same thing is happening inside your meat). If you don't want to run the BBQ for hours, and don't want to lose flavor by boiling them, get a good size crockpot, and slow cook them in that for 6-8 hours. I find it doesn't kill the flavor the way boiling does. You can also place a shallow pan of water in the BBQ, below your racked ribs, to keep the humidity inside the BBQ higher, which helps prevent the ribs from drying at the tips from the hours of slow cooking. It also helps stabilize the temperature if the wind picks up, because you have more thermal mass in the BBQ. Find any of Alton Brown's Good Eats episodes dealing with meat, or his book, which explains a lot of why this works. It applies to roasts in the oven as well. Once you understand some of the science behind the cooking process, you can replicate every style of restaurant cooking. I can do ribs and roasts up how people like them every time now (some people don't actually like ribs that are too "fall off the bone", and most people don't want them too tough either) -Scott