All I wanted out of Sunday was baby back ribs and a nap. That’s not asking for much, is it? I had a relatively uneventful day in front of me, and I sure wanted to keep it that way. I didn’t want to do a whole lot of prep work and I really didn’t even want to mess around with much actual cooking, but I did have a serious hankering for some ribs.
So to that end, I did almost nothing to prepare the ribs for the Big Green Egg – just removed the membrane on the bone side of the ribs and rubbed in a generous coating of Dizzy Pig’s Dizzy Dust into both sides of them about an hour before they went on the smoker.
I set up my Big Green Egg for an indirect cook at 225 to 250°F. I filled the firebox with lump charcoal and used an inverted plate setter to diffuse the heat and a drip pan with a little water in it to catch the fat.
I lit the charcoal just in the center, and once the temperature hit 250°F in the dome, I added a couple of chunks of smoking wood (guava, this time) and arranged the ribs bone side down on the grate.
Then I closed the lid, walked away, and settled in for a nap – it was lovely. When I woke up 45 minutes later, I stuck my head out and checked to make sure the dome temp was still at 250°F. Yep, perfect. I went back inside and proceeded to ignore the ribs for another 2 hours – I read the paper, had another cup of coffee, hung some curtain rods for my dear wife… typical Sunday afternoon.
When the ribs had been on for 3 hours total, I took a peek at them – looking good. I flipped them meat side down. I let them cook for another hour, and flipped them back meat side up.
After the ribs had been on 4 1/2 hours total, I started checking for doneness. Ribs are generally done when a full slab will almost fold in half and start to crack when you pick up one end with a pair of tongs. These weren’t quite there yet.
I gave them another 30 minutes and checked again. The meat had started to pull back from the end of the bones and a gentle tug on a couple of adjacent bones showed that they would come apart easily.
I brushed them with a thick coat of Sticky Pig Barbecue Sauce and let them cook for another 15 minutes. I sauced them lightly again, cooked them for another 15 minutes, then removed them from the smoker and let them sit 10 minutes before serving.
To be honest, these are not the best ribs I’ve ever made. But they were tasty, the nap was great, and it was nice, relaxed day. It’s hard to beat that combination.
Heh, too much work. I just used Kosher salt, checked in for 3 hours. Then took a 2 hour nap. My boy woke me up wondering about the damed ribs. We went out to the smoker and it’d gone down to 114, the spares, babybacks and teriyaki chicken were absolutely perfect! Smoke meat, then eat. Juicy, pull off the bone with just a tug of the teeth, bone is clean. That’s how I operate.
xo, Biggles
Yeah, it’s easy to over-think barbecue sometimes. I’m learning that it’s best to just let the smoker do what it’s good at.
Yeah, and do what I’m good at, napping.