8 Different Styles of Ribs

For Valentine’s Day this year we had 4 couples and a few strays over for dinner. I had it all planned out. We would do 8 styles of ribs, plated real nice with a little card that explained what kind of rub and the style I was trying to create. Well, that didn’t work. We had so many ribs that I could only tell if they were beef, or pork spare ribs, St. Louis or baby backs. Plus, chipotle bacon bombs, homemade mac & cheese, Ken’s famous baked beans, a smoked a garlic skillet and grilled peaches.

I don’t know why I didn’t write down the rubs or seasoning for each one. I thought I could remember. Wrong, it got to be more than I could keep up with. At the same time Patti and I made a new Fatty we named “The South of the Border Fatty”, our famous baked beans and Patti’s Mac and Cheese. I am not going to give you the recipe for the Fatty here. Just too big and it would make this post about 20 pages long. I’ll post it by itself. And I am telling you it was good. Jam packed with over 2 lbs. of Pepper Jack Cheese, sliced jalapenos, sweet onions, 4 kinds of sausage weighing in over 6 pounds, and 4 lbs. of bacon. Taco seasoning, red pepper and a goodly amount of Country Bob’s, too. This big boy rolled up at a whopping 12 pounds.

A  Well Loaded Traeger: 8 racks of ribs and a 12 pound Fatty

Ok, back to the ribs. I trimmed them up and removed the tough membrane from the back side. Then, I seasoned each rack with a different spice rub, working it into the meat with my fingers. After that, Patti wrapped them and put them into the fridge overnight.

The rubs I used were Andy’s Own from T and H Meats (good stuff, we are definitely going to ask for more) a Cajun, chipotle garlic, pepper garlic, mustard and brown sugar, Traeger rub, and some that I had in our cabinet. You can use any rub that you enjoy and have great ribs. So use your favorite rubs and seasonings here.

One thing I did different this time is that I made a spray mixture of 50/50 Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce with apple juice in a spray bottle. The Country Bob’s adds tons of flavors and the apple juice is a natural tenderizer. I sprayed everything down real good before adding my dry rubs and worked it all in.

I put these on the Traeger for 6 hours at 225 degrees. It was fully loaded.

So, I fired up my Char Broil grill and smoked a garlic skillet along with about 4 dozen Chipotle Bacon Bombs. The recipes for these are on our site.

You can do these in the oven, too. It is all about time and temperature, low and slow.

8 Racks of Ribs in the Rib Rack

Prep Time: 1 ½ hours (this was a lot of ribs)
Cook Time: 6 hours @ 225 Degrees
Grill: Traeger

Pellets: Mix of Oak, Pecan and Garlic

Serving these up, we put out bowls of Grandville’s Sauces and let folks mix and match.  Normally I sauce my ribs up in the last ½ hour of cooking.

These guys were so good that they could stand alone. And they did ALL WEEK, which was fine for us and our dogs.

Pork Spare Ribs

Cooking Directions: Traeger

Open the lid and set the dial to “Smoke”, after about five minutes shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up. Place ribs directly onto the grill, I used a rack. But, it is OK if you don’t have one.

Let these guys swim in the smoke for about 6 hours. Your weather will have some effect here. If it’s cold it will be harder to reach your temperature and maintain it. So, your cooking times may be longer. Here, it was a beautiful day ending at 79 degrees and lots of stars out.

Give everything a spray now and then to keep things moist.

Note: I use a spray bottle when cooking on the grill, a mixture of 50/50 Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce with REAL apple juice in a spray bottle. The Country Bob’s adds tons of flavors and the apple juice is a natural tenderizer.

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like.

Baby Backs

Directions: Gas Grill
Cook Time: 6 hours
Grill: Low Indirect Heat

Preparing Grill:  Low Indirect Heat

Preheat your grill to low heat (180 - 225) and turn off one side so you will be cooking with indirect heat. Add your wet hickory chips over the fire and oil the grill. A cooking spray is easiest for this. (Note: you can add your hickory directly to the grill or you can use foil smoke packets.(Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.)

Cooking time 6 hours at 225 degrees.

Note: I use a spray bottle when cooking on the grill filled with a Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke mix that keeps things moist and adds tons of flavors. (Mix is 3 parts Worcestershire with 1 part liquid smoke)

Preparing Charcoal Smoker:

Get the smoker ready, you will want your temperature of around 180-225 degrees. Remember, you are going low and slow here. This will take all day (6 hours); make sure you have plenty of cold beer. Your cooking times and temps will be the same as above.

St. Louis Style

Cooking In the Oven:

We have been getting requests for recipe conversions for the oven. I tell folks all the time that cooking on a Traeger is just as easy as cooking in your oven. Just about anyone can do it and do it well. Think about it. You set your control knob to the temp you want, put your meat in and leave it for a set time.

It is the same thing, time and temp. is what it is all about. The Traeger is just like your oven except it uses wood pellets and has wheels.

If you were to smoke in your oven they sell oven smokers for that. I, myself, would not spend the money on one of those when you can make your own out of foil.

Foil smoke packets. (Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.) Just set it in the oven. You might want to make sure you turn on your vent fan or your house will fill up with smoke. You will give your alarms a good work out.

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Traeger, Charmglow, Char-Broil, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles will fit pellet heads, gas, and natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot. But, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. Though sometimes it does rain.

Beef Ribs

Grilled Peaches

The recipe in on our site

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Enjoy,

Ken & Patti

Hey, if you are interested in learning more about Traeger Grills or for fine meats and sausages for your grill, go see Jacob. He is a Sausage Meister and we are not kidding. If you get a chance, go and see him. It will be a fun day trip. (Take an ice chest; we always fill up a big one.) Or check him out @ www.tandhsausage.com or call him 760 471- 9192.

Al Malekovic makes a fine all purpose sauce. Patti uses it for seasoning all kinds of things, but I like it on burgers and steaks. “Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce”

Check it out, for a free bottle go to his web site or email him. If you email him, tell him that you saw it here and we used it all up and to send us more...

 www.countrybobs.com      Al@countrybobs.com

For REAL GOOD BBQ Sauce check out Grandville’s Gourmet BBQ Sauces 

Steve 360 943 2861 @ www.grandvillesbbqsauces.com

I really like Grandville’s Gourmet BBQ sauces. First thing you think is that I am paid to say this. Wrong, I have NO PAID ADS on our site at this time. But I am lucky that a few folks think well enough of our site that they have sent us samples to review. To me it is real simple, the things I don’t care for I don’t use and you don’t hear about. The Good Stuff I use a lot. If folks keep sending it, I’ll keep using it.

I have no problem with any one sending money either … LOL.