BBQ Spare Ribs

This recipe makes a really nice rack of ribs in about 3 1/2 hours. No par-boiling required!

Ingredients

• Dry Rub - you can use Butt Rub or Make Your Own. Put it in a shaker. This is mine.
• Garlic Olive oil or Yellow mustard (less flavor as it cooks off)
• BBQ Sauce - your chice here. Or you can make your own
• Brown Sugar
• Rack of Pork Spare Ribs - ("Lights" are preferred)
• Smoker
• Any kind of fruit-based wood chips. Apple, Cherry, Pecan or, in a pinch, Oak
• Rubber Gloves
• Aluminum Pan with steep sides to do prep work in
• Roll of Aluminum Foil

The olive oil or mustard acts as a binder to hold the dry rub. Garlic Olive oil will impart a nice flavor to the ribs whereas yellow mustard will just burn off and impart little, if any, flavor.

Your smoker should be running "low and slow" at around 225°

The Procedure

1. Remove the membrane from the ribs - you can do this by taking a paper towel to help to grab the membrane and peel it off.
2. Cut off the brisket bone - this is the thicker portion along one side of the ribs. You want the rack to be basically the same thickness to get even cooking. After you remove this section, you now have what are termed "St. Louis Style Ribs". Here are some more details about rib anatomy.
3. Coat with binder (olive oil or mustard) - wearing your rubber gloves, squirt the binder on the rib and evenly rub it all over.
4. Apply Dry Rub - using your shaker, gingerly sprinkle both sides of the rack with dry rub. Think of it as a "dusting". Do not rub the dry rub in as you will probably end up adding too much. A "dust" is fine.
5. Apply brown sugar - apply maybe a handful of brown sugar to each side. You can press this part on as it will tend to fal off.
6. Smoke for 1 1/2 hours - cook for 1 1/2 hrs, bone side down with the smoke running.
7. Smoke for another hour - cook for 1 hour, bone side up with the smoke running.
8. Wrap Ribs - after the 2 1/2 hr cook time, pull off two large sheets of aluminum foil. (wrapping the rack with two sheets keeps juices from running out). Using a squirt bottle, apply a light coating of BBQ sauce to the area of the foil where the ribs will lie. Drop the rack onto that and squirt another light layer ("drizzle") on top of the ribs. Seal it all up tight.
9. Cook for 1 Hour - cook for another hour, bone side down. No need for smoke at this point.
10. Apply BBQ Sauce - after the last hour is up, remove from smoker (now just acting as an oven), remove foil and squirt a more generous amount of BBQ sauce than in the previous step. You can smear it with the tongs if it's too hot.
11. Caramelize It! - now, with your BBQ running as hot as you can get it, put the rack back onto the grill for 1 minute per side to caramelize the sauce.
12. Rest and Enjoy - pull 'em off, let 'em rest for at least five minutes before serving.

A handy way to tell if ribs are done. Pick them up with tongs up to about the third rib. if they droop down, they are most likely done. if they stay semi-rigid, they still need more time