Just some added history before I give you the last, but best of all, in The Rib Wars.  As I mentioned, my husband and I have engaged in the rib wars for as long as I can remember.  My husband has long argued to combine both the wet and dry rib process together and I finally gave in.  The following ribs are the ending result and I must say, they were everything a good, gooey, melt in your mouth rib should be.

Remember to prep your ribs by removing the sinew.  We then mixed our dry rub as usual.

We used the same dry ingredients as from the first ribs.  We then covered the ribs with the rub and set the ribs aside (the cold porch) for several hours.

While the ribs were resting on the back cold porch, we put together a bar-b-que sauce so that it too could rest with the ribs.  We used the following ingredients.  This sauce is different than the one we used in our wet ribs.  It will be much thicker.

Again, we have never measured, e have cooking along time (many years) and recipes for us went by the wayside a long time ago.  Some of the ingredients above are molasses, black pepper, ketchup, a bit of our homegrown horseradish, ketchup, dash of balsamic vinegar, paprika, dash of soy sauce, and honey.  We pureed the ingredients in our magic machine and presto!

After several hours we placed the ribs in the oven to cook with a wet bath.  We usually cook them at 260 degrees for 2-3 hours. 

When the ribs were done...we removed the wet bath and coated the ribs with our sauce.  We placed in the over in the middle under the broiler for the finishing touch.

Here is our finished rack of ribs and these had to be served with a roll of paper towels and a fresh Caesar salad.  Bon appetite!

The Rib Wars - Take 2

Hi everyone.  Okay, so our first attempt was dry rub...and now we are going for what we call the "wet rib".  Remember to prep your ribs.  First we start with the wet ingredients...again there is no specific measuring, simply go with the flow.

Ketchup, honey, soy sauce, and apple cider vinegar (not too much vinegar).

Next we add diced onion, red pepper, and fresh garlic to our liquid base.

Our dry ingredients are simple, black pepper, crushed red pepper (for that little kick) and brown sugar.  Mix this all together and drench the ribs in your mix.

Once again, we are going to place our ribs, which are marinating, on our winter back porch for several hours.  When we are ready to, place covered with foil, in a warm over 265 degrees.  This process takes a bit more work, every half hour be sure to spoon more marinade over your ribs.  At about the two hour mark, uncover your ribs for the last hour of cooking.  Be sure to still spoon marinade over ribs during this last hour of cooking.  And lo and behold, our finished ribs.

We use the remaining marinade as a dip with dinner.  These ribs were served with a fresh green salad, and cottage cheese on a bed of fresh tomato.  Just to remind us of summer.

Round One - Finished

Hi Everyone.  Sorry about keeping you on the edge of your seat waiting to see those final first ribs.  So, we placed in the oven at 250 degrees with a wet heat.  Wet heat is just old pan with about two inches of water preheated in the oven before you put your ribs in.

Remember to preheat your wet heat and place under your ribs in the oven.  We could our ribs for three hours on the slow-wet heat method.  Here they are...

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the ribs are done and the best way to tell is when you pick the rack up in the middle, the meat just falls from the bone.  We served this rack with homemade corn bread and potato salad.  Until the next time..as Julia would say "Bon Appetite".

 



 

The Rib Wars

For several years my husband and I have engaged in what we call the "Rib Wars".  This started out as a friendly attempt to make the perfect rib.  My husband prefers dry rubbed ribs, and I of course am a wet rib gal.  So get ready for both styles and then a really big finish!  Today we are going to be making our dry rub recipe.  First we start with a full rack of ribs (you can never have just two) and we remove as much of the connective tissue that we can from the rack. 

When using the words "connective tissue", you can see where some of this tissue has been removed already in this photo.  We then assemble our ingredients for the dry rub, as shown here.  Now, there are no particular measurements, which is what makes this interesting every time, and very dependent on the state of mind you're in (especially when it comes to the cocoa).

The ingredients shown are brown sugar, cocoa, mustard, kosher salt (not too much of this), garlic powder, black pepper, cinnamon, mesquite, onion cube, chili powder, and white sugar (not too much of this either).  The base of this is mostly the brown sugar with adding dashes of this and dashes of that.  We combine them all into our handy-dandy Cuisinart and behold, our dry rub mixture.

 

 

Next we apply the rub to the rack of ribs and cover with wrap. 

 

 



 



The ribs are ready for their long morning nap on the back porch (which is just the right temp this time of year to put them.  This is all done by 8:00 in the morning because they need a good long nap because by afternoon, they have another long journey.  So, until later.....