Who doesn't like Ribs?

Servus!

Seriously, this is NOT a food blog!



Really!




That being said, I would like to present to you last weekends toil - spare ribs, Rattlesnake-style! In all fairness, these weren't my favorite ribs as the sauce I used was totally and completely without spices as we had guests that can't eat spicy food. I personally like that my lips and fingers sting a little bit after eating but not everyone rolls like that. As a master of the grill, I must respect the wishes of my diners.

Here we have the eight racks that I bought, rubbed with a modified version of Raichlen's Basic Barbecue Rub. I replace the hickory salt with 4 tablespoons of smoked sweet paprika and use Turbinado sugar instead of brown sugar. Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention....




Eagle-eyed readers will also note that the "rib racks" that I use are actually "Variera" pot lid holders from IKEA. They are adjustable, cheap, dishwasher-safe, and just beat the pants off any other racks that you can buy. Remember - the stupid idea that works is not stupid!

I set up an indirect grill using roughly a half of a chimney of briquets and let the ribs cook for 2 hours. Some people use the "3-2-1" method for cooking ribs - 3 hours cook uncovered, 2 hours in foil, 1 hour uncovered with sauce. I don't like this as it takes *six damned hours* and I have found that having the ribs uncovered for 2 hours and covered for 2 hours in a pan produce the same (if not better, IMHO) results. YMMV.





I use one of those cheapo steel pans from IKEA (seeing a trend here?) and pile the ribs in and cover with foil. Before I do that, I pour a bit of cola in the pan to keep things moist and sweet. The last two pictures show the ribs after the 2 hour covered phase. I sauced them with Bullseye "Sweet & Spicy" - spicy being defined in the German sense "not spicy at all" - and left them uncovered for ten minutes to allow the sauce to glaze a bit.



And here's the plate - A rack of my finest along with homemade corn muffins and slaw. Should anyone want the recipes, please leave a message in the comments and I will be happy to post them for you!

I bid you Peace,

Jake