How Do You Cook Baby Back Ribs in the Oven?

[Robie]

The great thing about a smoker (even when the weather is nasty) is that once the temps are right, and the smoker's dialed in, it doesn't take much tending or watching, unlike a grill that cooks with direct heat and at high temperatures. Matter of fact, fanning the lid or smoke box dampers is a bad idea. If I've managed to set a smoker up right, I generally can get a run of ribs out of it without having to do much more than monitor my temp.

Not to mention that there's something wonderful about the smell of good hickory smoke on a snowy or rainy, nasty day; knowing that in a few hours you'll be sitting down to plateful of great BBQ.

Fotno, you make it actually sound like fun. Can't wait to get the borrowed smoker.

Jerk wings on the bottom and ribs on the top. The fat from the ribs fall on the wings and when it's done you go to heaven. Ice cold Beer rounds it off.

Nice looking smoker and what's in it looks even better!

 

[jocko_nc]

You could put that charcoal Weber out on full-blast. Looking at the weather in Chicago, I doubt it could get much over 225 degres anyway. When the charcoal runs out, the ribs will be flash-frozen for you.

 

[pmsummer]

Artist's rendering.

 

[fotno]

You can tell most NC boys are very serious about BBQ.

Yeah man. I love my BBQ!

Fotno, you make it actually sound like fun. Can't wait to get the borrowed smoker.

Once you get your smoker and your supplies together, then the fun really gets going. You could start smoking meats tomorrow, and won't have scratched the surface of all the different ways you can use that smoker in 10 years time. Enjoy it!

 

[HandyHamlet]

I've used a few of the above methods and always found the ribs turn out chewy and tough. What I do is fill a 6 qt pot 2/3 with water, ...

Pretty common way to do ribs here for home cooked and in restaurants. Bay leaves though. Gotta have bay leaves and maybe some pepper corns. On the grill in the summer. Oven in winter. This is one way to do brats on the grill too (hold the vinegar).

 

[N9JCQ]

Robie, at first I was going to tease you about not manning up and going out there and grilling.

However, after I thought about grilling some planked Salmon last Saturday, I don't blame you. I was at my girlfriend's house in Barrington and she has a nice Weber Genesis gas grill ( I am a charcoal guy though) and in that cold, it took 3 time's as long as it should have to grill 2 pounds of planked salmon... and man it was cold going out there to check it out.... This weekend will be even colder too... Low and slow will take days to cook those ribs outside.

Don't forget to top off those ribs with some chilled Bell's Amber ale or even a Nice Schlitz original recipe. Binneys has them both.. mmmm boy
Joe

 

[realcooltime]

This thread is making me hungry and I just ate lunch. I need to try some of these tips. Maybe this weekend.

 

[Robie]

Bogframe, My wife has tried boiling them first. Sometimes they're very good sometimes not so good, IMO. When they're good, they're very good. (BTW, my neck size is 17.5" for the noose.)

Jocko, yeah that's why I'm thinking indoor ribs "just this once".

PM, was that your Xmas card? Nice looking grill.

Fotno, Sounds pretty intimidating. I've had some smoker dishes from friends and relatives. IMO, the key is getting the smoke to supplement not dominate. Not sure how to do that though.

Handy Hamlet, Not sure from your post, but you're recommending Bay Leaves in the water too (and peppercorns)? Kind of a corned beef flavor?

N9JCQ, Thanks for backing me up on the Northern Illinois outdoor grilling experience. I've done it for years as you're only really outside a few minutes at a time. Not as cold as I thought tonight, and the next couple of days, A balmy 7 degrees F tonight.

My wife (a good cook) has taken over cooking duties and taken a fancy to the Alton Brown method (with a few variations). Good cooks aren't afraid to experiment.

 

[HandyHamlet]

Handy Hamlet, Not sure from your post, but you're recommending Bay Leaves in the water too (and peppercorns)? Kind of a corned beef flavor?

Well... not really.

And there are a million ways to parboil them. I can't remember the restaurant's recipe where I first saw this. I do have a standard recipe for this type of prep though. As I said this is one way to do brats and stuff as well.

water
beer
chopped onions
bay leaves
pepper corns
garlic bulbs

Remove when ready for grilling or storage.

 

[fotno]

Fotno, Sounds pretty intimidating. I've had some smoker dishes from friends and relatives. IMO, the key is getting the smoke to supplement not dominate. Not sure how to do that though.

That's just practice. Finding how your smoker works best, what woods you prefer, and how much of that smoke you want to generate, what temperature works to deliver both the flavor and tenderness you like best, what active ingredients (rubs, sauces. injections) you prefer. Half the fun is figuring all these things out!

 

[onepixel]

Another helpful hint when smoking. Let your neighbors know. I once had the fire department show up at my front door. I had to let them all (four of them) into the back yard to show them I was only smoking salmon. They just stood around and drooled. I offered them some but they politely refused.

 

[Bogframe]

In my own defense, I don't boil my ribs, the water never gets to a full simmer. Boiling makes the meat tough, but a bath is almost simmering water does help up here in the North.

 

[Robie]

Sage advice, onepixel.

In my own defense, I don't boil my ribs, the water never gets to a full simmer. Boiling makes the meat tough, but a bath is almost simmering water does help up here in the North.

Thanks for the tip Bogframe. I've had 'em turn out spectacularly that way (But don't tell the others as I like my feet firmly on the floor/ground rather than swinging a few feet above the ground under a tree.)

BTW, my take on all the different styles of ribs is that, "There are no bad ribs."

My wife's efforts (revised Alton Brown Recipe) produced some ribs with a pronounced teriyaki flavor. Not bad but not what I expected. I liked them but my wife and daughter didn't (lots of leftovers for me). She first rubbed them with some commercial restaurant supply BBQ rub, used the Alton Brown recipe's braise liquid, cooked them in the oven at 250 degrees for almost 5 hours in sealed foil packets and then broiled them naked with BBQ sauce. The recipe's length of cook time was extended per comments at the link. These same comments also identified the teriyaki flavor result.

They were fairly tender but something was clashing flavor wise between the rub, braise liquid and BBQ. Perhaps they'll be even better today!

I did like Alton's suggestion to cut the ribs into 2 bone pieces before serving. That way, no one gets stuck with an entire subpar rack.

 

[Stephen J]

You go to jail for boiling ribs here in the South. Cook them slow and they fall off the bone.
Hell you will go to jail for boiling any meat in the South, unless in a stew or soup.:yes:

As it should be. Boiling takes out all the flavor.All you taste is the sauce. :sigh:

 

[HandyHamlet]

As it should be. Boiling takes out all the flavor.All you taste is the sauce. :sigh:

Simply not true.

Parboiling is a perfectly acceptable food prep technique that has been around for ages.

As with anything it depends on how you do it. If your ribs have no flavor you did it wrong.

If there is only one way to cook something there really isn't much point in a cooking forum, restaurants, chefs, recipe books, food shows...

 

[eteller]

Here's an easy recipe for oven ribs:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F
2. Crack open oven door to heat kitchen
3. Go outside and remove snow from smoker and fill with charcoal
4. Come back inside to warm kitchen (see step 2) and drink beer till coals are ready.
5. Throw ribs on smoker and cook till done. Don't forget to turn off that oven!

Seriously though they had an episode on Food Detectives where the 'food techs' (guinea pigs) could not tell the difference from oven ribs with liquid smoke and charcoal done ribs. Personally I would think the appearance/texture would be way different though.

 

[fotno]

If the day ever comes that I can't tell the difference between liquid smoke, and hickory smoked, I'm retiring my taste buds.

 

[onepixel]

If the day ever comes that I can't tell the difference between liquid smoke, and hickory smoked, I'm retiring my taste buds.

Yeah me too... but sometimes it's just to hard to get banana leaves. Unfortunately liquid smoke is the next best thing at home. Especially in the winter when you don't want to be digging a pit.

 

[2DualsNotEnough]

I've used a few of the above methods and always found the ribs turn out chewy and tough. What I do is fill a 6 qt pot 2/3 with water, add a cup of white vinegar, a dash each of sage, rosemary, thyme and sweet paprika and heat to an almost simmer. The ribs go in for an hour. When they come out, I coat them with BBQ sauce, put them in a covered roasting pan and put that into the oven for another hour at 250F. Uncover, let them go for another half hour and they'll be fall off the bone tender.

Thats worked for me for over 25 years:thmbsp:

 

[onepixel]

Yeah me too... but sometimes it's just to hard to get banana leaves. Unfortunately liquid smoke is the next best thing at home. Especially in the winter when you don't want to be digging a pit.

I think my remark didn't make a whole lot of sense without the picture.