Grilling "How-To": Smoked Baby Back Ribs

My husband I both love the smoky taste barbecuing lends to foods. However, we've never tried to smoke something. We have a gas grill, and I have heard that you could do it, though I wasn't sure. I know that with charcoal grill you could, and if you had a designated smoker, it was obviously possible.

With a little help from a friend, I felt confident giving it a try. In order to smoke something, you have to use indirect heat/cooking method. With a gas grill, you have control over which burners/zones to use and how hot you want to make them, or whether you just want to keep them off.

Our grill has four burners, and I don't think it matters how many yours has, as long as you keep it even, half is designated to use as the direct heat, half designated as indirect heating.

Supplies Needed:

Wood Chips/Chunks (I used mesquite, experiment with other types of woods for different flavors)
Disposable cake or lasagna pan. Just make sure sure it fits in and on half of the grill.
Aluminum Foil
Roaster Pan
rack to fit inside roaster pan
Rack of Baby Back Ribs (recommended prep here)

Method: Soak the wood chips/chunks in water for about one hour, this is very important for a longer cooking methods like this. Once that is complete, scoop the wood out and place in disposable pan and cover disposable pan with foil. Poke generous size holes in the foil to allow all of that smoke to escape.



In the roaster pan, place an inch or two of water. Remove a good length of foil from the dispenser and ball it up, these acts as supports for the rack that fits inside roaster pan so the ribs do not sit in the cooking liquid.



Place the prepared ribs on the rack, that is sitting on the foil supports, that sit in the cooking liquid.

Move the wood chip filled pan to the grill area and preheat half of the grill to high heat, once the grill is preheated, put the wood chip filled pan on the half of the grill that is preheated over high heat and close the lid of the grill.

Allow the wood chips to start to smoke a little bit, about 5 minutes. Open the grill and place the pan with the rack of ribs on the half of the grill that is not directly heated. Close the grill cover. And leave it closed.



Once the wood chips/chunks have started to fully smoke, turn the heat down to low. You do not want the grills temperature to get too hot. This is supposed to be a longer cooking method, higher temperatures will cook the meat too fast. That will toughen the ribs, rather than leave them tender and juicy.



You can peak in there once or twice if you want, but in general, leave the grill closed. You need to keep all of the flavor inside the grill.

My cooking time was a little more than two hours on the grill. Once your ribs have finished cooking, let them rest for 10 minutes, this help to redistribute some of the juices in the meat, leaving it more juicy.

Slice the ribs, serve on a platter with homemade BBQ sauce and enjoy your feast!



**While cleaning up afterwards, make sure the wood chips/chunks are fully extinguished before moving them to the garbage. I used the chunks and a few hours later, some of them were still smoldering.

Penzeys Rubbed Ribs

I wanted to make my first blog entry to really represent summer to me. Today was a beautiful late summer day in MN and I was ready to fire the grill up again. Today for dinner I am preparing BBQ Pork Ribs, red skinned mashed potatoes. Everyone has their own interpretation as to what a decent rib rub is and their version of mashed potatoes, but I am going to show you mine.

Earlier this season I, admittedly, was scared of ribs. There are endless ways to make them-which one was the right way? did I have the right tools? did I have the right meat? Then I thought to myself and realized...it's just meat, if it doesn't turn out, it doesn't turn out! so what, maybe a little disappointing, but you'll be ok!

I went to my trusty Penzey spices and selected the BBQ 3000 and grabbed a rack of ribs and went to work. That's all I literally needed.

BBQ Ribs (A Penzeys Recipe)

serves 2-3

2-3lbs Pork back ribs

Penzeys BBQ 3000 seasoning

Red-Skinned Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes

serves 3

2 lbs red potatoes

3 Tbsp. Butter (or margarine, or lite, whichever you choose)

1/4 c. sour cream (lite, lean, fat free, whichever you choose)

2 tsp. Dried Garlic

about 1/2 cup cream or milk

salt and pepper

Directions:

First remove the membrane thing along the bone side of the ribs. It's a very thin membrane, and a good grip should let you remove it somewhat easily. I've always heard you are supposed to remove it, I think it's to let the rub get up in the underside?! But it's something you should just do.

Get your BBQ 3000 (or whatever dry rub you'd like) and rub those ribs that you have on your cutting board. Generally use 2-3 tsp per pound of ribs that you are preparing. Really rub that seasoning on, and if you can, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour or so.

Preheat the oven to about 230 degrees and place ribs meat side up on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake like this for about 4 hours. After this finish on the grill. Place ribs over indirect heat for another 45 minutes or so. If you'd like to baste your ribs with a BBQ sauce, do this towards the end so the sugars in the sauce do not burn.

Meanwhile towards the end of this process, wash the potatoes thoroughly. Leave the skin on, and cut them down to fairly even size pieces, not too small and not too big (or they'll take forever to cook.) Place potatoes in a large pot and fill with cold water so the potatoes are covered by about an inch or two. Season the water generously with salt.

Once the potatoes have come to a boil, keep the heat on for about 15 minutes and test a potato chunk. If it crushes easily with a fork, the potatoes are ready. Drain the potatoes really well and return to pot, keeping the heat on low. This will really help rid any extra water from the pan. Place butter, garlic, sour cream, and warmed milk/heavy cream in the pot also and go to town with your potato masher. Really get in there mash them up! Once that is complete-taste test. Adjust the salt and pepper to how you like them.

Now all we are missing is some corn on the cob-Enjoy!