Ribs baby!

Who doesn't like ribs? Nobody, that's who. Everybody loves ribs - 'cepting the cow. So, how does one make fantastic ribs? It's actually very easy. I used some monstrously large St. Louis ribs. Very meaty and beefy. Also used a dry rub for the oven cooking part and a BBQ sauce for the grilling part.

Here's what you do:

Ribs

- preheat oven to 250.

- 1st, take a couple of pieces of thick gauge foil. Place the ribs on top of the foil. On both sides, sprinkle some garlic powder, onion powder, ground mustard, cayenne pepper and brown sugar. (Or, you could just use a pre-made rub too. I use the rub from my favorite rib joint, Rendezvous Ribs in Memphis TN all the time). Gently massage the rub onto both sides. Then, crimp the foil tightly over the slab. Leave a little hole or funnel at one end. Take a look at the picture below. See the slab on the right.? That's the funnel at the side closest to you.

- Now, for each slab, pour 1/2 can of coke, 1 cup orange juice and 1 cup of pineapple juice into the funnel. Gently lift the funnel end to evenly distribute the liquid and crimp up the funnel end to close it. Place the ribs on a cookie sheet (with sides). Stick them in the oven for 1 hour.




- After the hour is up, pull the ribs out of the oven and let cool. Preheat the grill to indirect medium heat if using charcoal or 300 if using gas (use only 1 burner). Then, cut a little hole at one end of the foil and drain out the liquid. Take the ribs out to the grill and place bone side down over the indirect part. Please don't cook them over the flame or else you will burn them and dry them out too much. Cook for about 15-20 min. and then flip over so that the meat side is down.

- Now it's time to sauce up the ribs. {You can just use more of your dry rub if you want to do that instead. I make them all the time this way. Just mop the ribs with some apple cider vinegar and pat more of the rub on both sides of the slab and cook 15-20 min a side longer on indirect heat.} But we're saucing tonight! Woo-hoo! And we ain't using just any old store bought BBQ sauce. We're bringing out the big guns. Yeah, that's right, we got the gallon jug of Hayward's!




Slather that on what is now the bone side up and cook for 15 min. Then, flip the slab over so that the meat side is up and slather some more on. Cook just a few minutes more so that a nice crust develops from the caramelized sugars in the BBQ sauce. Pull the ribs off and let them cool for a few minutes.

Now these are some bad-ass ribs!