All Alone Ribs

Looking at the weather forecast for the upcoming week, today might be the last time for a while before I can grill again.  I wanted something a little different, and as I browsed through The Guide this morning, the section on ribs caught my attention.  I settled on one of the easier-looking (read: less involved) recipes...Everybody's Favorite "Dry" Ribs on page 163. 

On a side note, The Bride and I are planning a trip to Memphis this summer with the intention of settling a long-debated topic in the BBQ world: wet or dry ribs.  I personally enjoy both, and am really looking forward to settling this arguement for myself.

The first thing to do was to prep the ribs.  I actually had all of the ingredients except for the ribs themselves.  This was another selling feature when picking out today's recipe.

The key step in any proper rib preparation is the rub.  As a tip that I am actually comfortable giving people when it comes to cooking, one of the best $10 investments you can make for your kitchen is a dedicated spice grinder.  The following picture shows how the rub looks before and after going for a whirl.

After that, probably one of the best $1 investments is the shaker.  I've used this for many applications, whether grilling/smoking, roasting, or baking.

Before applying the rub, I drew on my prior experience with ribs.  Over the last four years I've cooked my fair share of ribs in my smoker (bestest gift ever from The Bride), and learned early the incredible value of removing the membrane under the ribs.  Many restaurants forgo this step, and it shows when you eat it.  Leaving the membrane on only allows the rub to penetrate one side of the ribs, so you only get half of the flavor.  Removing the membrane takes only seconds, and is very easy to do.

All that was left was to shake on the rub!

The hard part was creating medium indirect heat in such a small area of the grill as the two slabs took up over two-thirds of the grilling surface.  I didn't want the undersides to burn, but I had a difficult time keeping the amount of coals I needed in a small pile off to the side.  On top of that, the recipe called for soaked hickory chunks which only added to the mass under the grilling grate.  Two hours later, I had ribs!

In the latter hour of grilling I also made my own double-fried french fries, because they are glorious. 

All told, this was an awesome way to cook ribs.  The preparation is minimal, the maintenance is minimal, and yet the flavor is maximized.  No sauce is necessary!  The rub is really interesting.  I never would have imagined that putting fennel seeds in a BBQ rub would work, yet it does.  It adds a neat fragrance that melds into the overall flavor during the grill time.  The meat was moist and pulled off the bone nicely, and the texture was excellent.  There was enough smoke flavor to make it interesting, but was nowhere near my smoked ribs.  Overall, this is a great recipe to have on hand when you need ribs in less than three hours!