Tony's Food 201: Epic Ribs

I love everything about ribs.

I love the tenderness of the slow cooked, marbled meat. I love the smoky-grilly flavor. I love the satisfaction felt by tearing meat from the bone with the incisors and canines we evolved for that express purpose.

So of course, I had to tackle making them myself. This particular series of experiments started in medical school, and I've repeated it four or five times since, under varying conditions and sometimes with varying out comes. I made them once at my girlfriend's father's 60th birthday cook out, on his smoker. Little did I know, the birthday boy over did it on the charcoal and the grill heated to 600 degrees, during the "slow cooking" phase of the recipe. Apparently it was better than the last time he used the smoker, as one party-goer told me, when he got it up to temperature that actually made the paint on outside of it boil.

The biggest set back in creating this recipe was moving to place where state law doesn't allow gas or electric grills on balconies. I've since successfully modified the overall technique to take advantage of ovens. They come out almost as good as on the grill. I'm proud to say I figured out this whole recipe on my own, with out looking at any references for ideas. Also posted is my recipe for barbecue sauce, which co-developed with the rib recipe. Feel free to use regular old barbecue sauce from a bottle, though. Trader Joe's makes a good Kansas City style sauce.

Tony's Epic Ribs, On the Grill

• Enough hickory or mesquite wood chunks to cover the bottom of either a charcoal or gas grill. Soak them in water for an hour or two before putting them on the grill. The chips will burn up too quickly, the chunks will last long enough to smoke your ribs.
• 3-4 bone-in beef ribs per person you want to feed. I have yet to use pork ribs, but I guess you could substitute those if you can't find beef. This recipe probably won't work with boneless ribs, by the way, although feel free to try.
• 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce per serving of ribs, plus extra to serve the ribs with after they're done cooking. My personal, homemade sauce recipe to follow.

For gas grills, arrange the soaked wood chunks along the bottom of the grill, and turn all burners on to low heat. Since this technique requires a drastic temperature change to finish the ribs, it's a little bit trickier for charcoal grills. You want to set it up so that your coals are only on one side of the grill. This will give you a "hot zone" and a "cool zone," arrange your wood chunks over the embers one one side. Place the ribs on the one the grill (over the "cool zone" on charcoal grills) and allow them to slowly smoke for over 2 hours. The longer you let this process go, the more tender your ribs will be. After they're cooked through and tender, either turn up the heat on the gas grill or transfer them to the "hot zone" of your charcoal grill. Slather them with barbecue sauce and let it bake/glaze on, about 20-30 minutes. Serve them with extra sauce and let your inner carnivore loose.

Oven Variant

This variation involves the same principle as above: slow cooking the meat to tenderness, then adding sauce and turning the heat way up. You won't have the advantage of adding extra flavor from hickory or mesquite wood though, so make sure you choose a sauce with enough smoke to make up for it. Use the same ingredients as above (minus the wood, of course). Place the ribs into a 250 degree oven for two hours. At this point, you can even take the pan out, cover it, and finish them later in the day if you're crunching on time, or traveling for a cookout. Once they're tender and cooked through, add your sauce and turn up the heat to 475. Let the sauce glaze on for 20-30 minutes. Again, you could potentially slow cook these bad boys in the oven first, then bring them to some one's house for a cookout and impress your friends after finishing them off on the grill.

The Barbecue Sauce Formula

I don't know that my barbecue sauce mimics a certain "style." There are tomato elements in there, so I guess if anything it would be a Western or Southwestern style of sauce.

• 1/2 can of chipotles in adobo (use about 1/2 of the chilies in the can and 1/2 of the adobo sauce).
• One large raw yellow or white onion, chopped.
• 1/3 cup of molasses, preferably blackstrap.
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• 3 tbs. tomato ketchup
• 2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• black pepper and salt to taste.

Blend these all together. I use my immersion blender, less cleanup. Feel free to adjust any of the individual ingredients for individual taste, or to balance the tastes in the sauce. You ultimately want a sauce that is sweetand smoky, and just a little bit tangy. The olive oil will give it a good, rich mouthfeel, but won't majorly contribute to the flavor.