Babyback Ribs #5 - 25-June-2012

The kids go to summer camp at South Broadland Presbyterian Church. For Father's Day, they made a BBQ rub for me. (For those from Kansas City, this probably sounds thoughtful and nice. For those from NYC, this probably sounds like something from Hee Haw.) So, we had friends over for dinner, and I cooked ribs.

My wife bought a package of three slabs of ribs from Costco. They were St. Louis cut ribs.

(Jack - pretend I do not know anything about St. Louis ribs. Well, St. Louis is a big city in Missouri at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. There is St. Louis MO and East St. Louis IL. East St Louis is not a happy or safe place. My car broke down in East St Louis and when I called my parents, my Mom started to cry. St. Louis ribs are spare ribs without the rib tips. I suppose some would say it is like St. Louis without East St. Louis... though I prefer the spare ribs. More on ribs.)

Dinner was at 5pm on Sunday. I pulled the ribs out on Saturday to prep them.

I put the ribs on a large cake pan.

As always, I could not find the skin on the back of the ribs. (I did find this post, which makes me thinks it was "them" and not me for change.)

I drizzled Yellow Mustard on the top of the ribs, and then covered the ribs with the BBQ rub, enough to cover the ribs, but not cake them. I rubbed the rub into the ribs and made sure I had good coverage. I flipped the ribs over and did the other side.

I covered the ribs in tin foil and put them into the refrigerator.

On Sunday at 10am, I started prepping for the BBQ.

I soaked a handful of Mesquite chips in with 4 handfuls of Adler for 30 minutes.

I got the fire started and it soared to about 350F.

I put on the wood, then the indirect element, the grill and finally the three slabs.

The temperature dropped to about 200F, so I left the vents open.

Over the next 30 minutes the temperature climbed to about 250F, so I cut the venting to half and let it go.

Over the next 4 hours, I checked the temperature about every 45-60 minutes. I adjusted the venting to get a temperature to about 260F.

At 5pm (after 4 hours), I took the temperature. The internal temperature was 185F, which was a bit hot.

Everyone thought the ribs were great, including the kids and wife. I have to add that include because our guests are very nice and good people, so their opinions about my cooking were suspect.