Ribs for Fathers Day

On Sunday we invited a few friends over for a BBQ. We had the rare opportunity to plan in advance so Husband and I decided to attempt making ribs. We have been wanting to do so forever but usually our grilling is decided day of so it's not possible. Sadly, I did not think to take any pics of the process.

We went to our go-to grilling manual, Steven Raichlen's How to Grill. Husband cannot stand Steven's PBS show (BBQ University, although I understand he has a new one now called Primal Grill) but cannot deny the man knows what he is doing- and how to explain it to others. The Barbeque Bible (also by Raichlen), has a ton of amazing recipes but if it's technique you're after- in step-by-step glorious color photographs- How to Grill is where to start.

Per Raichlen, spare ribs are the tastiest, so of course that's what we got! Saturday afternoon we bought 2 big slabs (about 6 lbs) at the Paulina Meat Market. Unfortunately they were frozen (on their way to thawing) but we left them on the counter till we were ready to go to bed and they had mainly thawed. We marinated them overnight in cider and lemon juice. On Sunday, about 2 hours before we started the coals Miss D and I put a rub on them. There was a minor snaffu when I realized the rub we bought* was spicy, but she and I quickly tossed together a non-spicy one from scratch and did them half-and-half. Miss D had a blast patting the rub into the meat. Then it was back into the fridge for a while. Around 2pm Husband started the coals and by 2:30 the ribs were positioned in the rib rack (Father's Day gift!) with two sacks of wood chips smoking on either side. Every 30 mins or so we sprayed them down with cider and 20 mins prior to taking them off Husband coated them in BBQ sauce.

DEEEEEeeeelicious! Everyone loved them. We were so excited to take our grilling to the next level. I ate 3 myself which is pretty amazing considering I don't eat pork generally unless it's been cured beyond recognition. Can't wait to try it again!

* it's true, I did not make my own rub or BBQ sauce. I was making so much other stuff I just thought it would be too much. Plus, as this was our first time i wanted to make sure we were concentrating on what we were doing. Now that we are confident in our abilities I'll be more adventurous with the flavoring next time!