Ribs are among the most beloved of barbecued meats, and the most diverse. They can be wet (slathered with sauce) or dry (packed with dry rub); they can be pork or beef (the latter huge, caveman-style) or even mutton; they might be slow-cooked in a classic barbecue pit or more quickly done over charcoal. Here are basic definitions of pork ribs:
Spare ribs on the grill at Curtis’s Barbecue in Putney, Vermont.
BABY BACK RIBS
Also known as loin back ribs, baby backs are the easiest kind of rib to eat with the largest percentage of meat to bone. Slightly curved and fairly small—about three inches long—they are quite wieldy and hence a favorite in more polite restaurants, where big, sloppy bones would be uncouth. Baby backs come about a dozen to a rack.
RIBLESS RIBS
For those who are dentally challenged or simply don’t want to expend the effort required to pull meat from bones, some restaurants offer pork steak, which is rib meat only. Jigg’s Smoke House in Clinton, Oklahoma, offers a rib meat sandwich known as a triple pigsickle.
SPARE RIBS
Flatter and longer than baby back ribs, spare ribs have more bone than meat and what meat they do have is striated with more fat. That means that they are intrinsically more flavorful, especially when cooked low and slow enough for the fat to insinuate itself into the fibers of the meat.
ST. LOUIS RIBS
St. Louis ribs are spare ribs from which the tips have been cut away, yielding a rectangular slab that is flat and very easy to disassemble and eat, rib by rib.
TIPS
Tips are the least expensive item on barbecue restaurant menus, and compared to full ribs that offer long strips of meat, they demand significant worrying with teeth and tongue to retrieve all the good stuff. The work is rewarded by intense flavor and great textural variety.
Memphis Dry Ribs
One of the best-known ribberies in Memphis is the raucous, subterranean dining room named Charlie Vergo’s Rendezvous. Vergos serves what are known as dry ribs—sauceless. You won’t miss the sauce, because the ribs are encrusted with the flavor of a powerhouse dry rub. Used in abundance, the rub not only seasons the meat; it helps keep the juices in. Warning: Have plenty of ice tea and/or beer on hand to accompany dry rubbed ribs!
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
1½ teaspoons ground white pepper
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 3-pound racks of St. Louis–style spare ribs
1. Combine all seasonings and rub them vigorously into the ribs. Wrap well or seal in a tight container several hours or overnight.
2. Set your smoker to 250°F and cook ribs about 6 hours.
3. If you do not have a smoker, start your outdoor charcoal grill. Place the charcoal grate at its lowest setting and the food rack at the highest setting. When the coals are white-hot, move them all to one side. Place the ribs on the cold side. If desired, add dampened hickory chips to the fire and close the lid, aligning the vent holes in its top to get maximum smoke flow across the meat. Add chips every hour or so and charcoal as needed to keep the fire smoldering.
4. You know the ribs are done when only moderate pressure begins to slide meat off the bone. If desired, use a cleaver to hack the racks into manageable lengths of 3–4 bones.
Memphis Wet Ribs
Sticky, sweet, peppery, porky, and finger-sucking delicious, wet ribs—glazed with sauce—are the star of barbecue pit. Be sure to serve them with rolls of paper towels and plenty of moist towelettes. Ordinary napkins, whether paper or linen, are useless.
½ cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ cup chili powder
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
2 3-pound slabs St. Louis–style ribs
Glaze:
1 cup light brown sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar
½ cup barbecue sauce (your favorite)
1. Mix together all the seasonings. Pat spices evenly all over the ribs.
2. Start your smoker (set to 250°F) or fire up the backyard charcoal grill with the charcoal as low in the kettle as it will go and the meat rack as high as it will go.
3. When the coals are white-hot, push them all to one side of the grill and place the rib racks on the other side. Close the lid and adjust the vent holes so the coals just barely smolder. If they flame up, moisten them with a spray of water. If the fire is dying, add white-hot charcoals to keep it cooking for 6 hours. If desired, you can periodically add damp hickory chips to the charcoals for flavor.
4. If using a smoker, the time will be about the same, up to 6 hours.
5. While the ribs smoke, mix together the glaze ingredients. Apply glaze to ribs during the last 15–20 minutes of cooking. (Earlier than that and the glaze will singe.) The ribs are done when the meat will slide fairly easily off the bone.