Grill Maestro

I love beef ribs. I love pork ribs. And in my years of making ribs, I always made the big ribs… never the baby back ribs. Sometimes I boiled them, basted them in sauce, and then threw them in the oven or put them on the grill. They were usually good but not great. Actually, I thought they were pretty good but now I know better.

A few nights ago I was watching Good Eats, a show hosted by Alton Brown, and the episode was titled “Who Loves Ya Baby-Back?” I usually don’t watch too many cooking shows but when I saw he was making ribs I had to stop and watch.

The show made the recipe look so easy to make (don’t they all?) so I gave it a try last night. You can read the recipe, I’ll just list the mistakes I made.

1. First off, make sure you have three hours until you want to eat. After you put on the rub, you’ll want to refrigerate it for an hour. After that, it needs to sit in the over for two and a half hours. I compressed that all into an hour and a half (cutting out the rub infusement portion and speeding up the cooking) with little side-effect. I bet my ribs aren’t as moist and “fall off the bone” as they could’ve been but I couldn’t really tell.
2. I don’t know how you’re supposed to put half the braising liquid in and still have enough to reduce and cover two full racks of baby-back ribs. I made the mistake of spooning some of the juices from the tin foil into the braising liquid which made it way too salty. That was my mistake. I also added an extra spoonful of sugar but I don’t think that had much of a negative side effect. My recommendation is to make more braising liquid with the recipe.
3. Don’t make it when you’re hungry… you’ll be impatient like me.

I wish I thought to take a picture… next time I will. Enjoy the recipe!