** part 2 of my two part series** I call this part ribs are done (almost) after about 4 hours on a low and slow moist heat the ribs should be done. time does depend on the thickness though. also at this point I would like to explain when I say Moist heat youre almost steaming the ribs as they cook. this is best achieved by getting two aluminum pans large enough to accommodate the ribs. take one pan and poke a lot of small holes in the bottom of it. because both pans are the same size if you put one inside the other there will be no gap between the bottoms. so what you want to do is take some aluminum foil crumble it up and make six or eight balls roughly the same size about 1 inch in diameter. place them in the pan with no holes spacing them evenly. now add a liquid to that pan. you can use any kind of liquid you want depending on the flavor you want the ribs to have. I use water sometimes with some liquid smoke in it. while some people use beer. no matter what you use if its liquid it will work. put the ribs inside the pan with the holes in it. place that pan inside of the other one. now cover it with foil to trap the moisture in. actually if you have a third pan this would work better. use it as a lid, as you will be taking the cover off at different times during the cooking process. when placing the ribs in the pan put the bone side down. after about an hour you can apply some barbecue sauce to the top of the ribs. an hour after that its time to flip the ribs. now apply some barbecue sauce to the bone side. recover and cook the remaining time. the ribs are done when the bones pull away from the meat easily as shown in picture 1. (you will notice in this picture one rib bone is pulled up.) I lifted it away from the meat with very little pressure. The ribs are officially cooked, but not finished. let the ribs cool a little. if the ribs are too hot the bones will fall away from the meat and then you wind up with boneless ribs. ( also at this point, if you dont plan on eating all of the ribs right away you can cut them into sections and store them in the fridge or freeze them. then later on when you feel like eating more ribs take them and nuke them for a minute covered. cover them in barbecue sauce and toss them on the grill). once the ribs have cool sufficiently apply more BBQ sauce and finish cooking them on the grill just enough to make grill marks and crisp up the barbecue sauce. and there you have it. * granted I know people that have shortcuts and you can probably be eating in about an hour and a half. but in my opinion good and tender moist ribs take time. quick ribs are fine but youll be ripping your teeth out trying to get the meat from the bone.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 01:20:46 +0000