| Last weekend I was trying to come up with something to cook on the UDS, so I decided to do a couple of slabs of St. Louis cut Spare Ribs.
My wife came up with the idea of a little challenge. She prefers dry ribs any day over the typical competition style, sweet and sticky ribs that I normally cook. So, I decided to do one slab her way and one using my competition technique.
The ribs were trimmed when I purchased them, so all I had to do was remove the membrane and trim a little excess fat off each slab. Normally I freeze the rib tips that come with the St. Louis cut ribs for later use, but today I decided to cook them as well.
After a quick rinse, I slathered on a little mustard and dusted the ribs with The BBQ RUB. I like to let the ribs sit for several hours in the fridge before smoking, just to let the flavors from the rub penetrate the meat and start pulling in some of the seasonings from the rub.
After 4 hours or so, I fired up the UDS with a little hickory and cherry wood and placed the ribs on the cooking grate.
While they were smoking, I mixed up a quick baste of
- Garlic Red Wine Vinegar
- Apple Juice
- Soy Sauce
- The Bbq Rub.
At the 45 minute mark, I mopped each slab with the baste and continued cooking. I basted again at the 1 ½ hour mark and everything was rolling along just fine.
The UDS holds great temperature just don't leave the lid off for too long or the fire can get out of control. I ran my bbq guru at 235 the entire cook and it never checked up.
Once the ribs had the right color it was time to wrap. I only planned to wrap one slab, the dry rack was going to stay on the smoker the entire cook. I wanted to see if I the ribs would turn out just as tender by skipping the wrapping step.
I wrapped the comp style slab with a little baste, dusted with The BBQ Rub., hit it with a little magic blue bottle, honey drizzle, and a light coating of brown sugar. I also wrapped the rib tips in one package and gave them the same treatment. They went back on the smoker to render.
For the dry slab, I continued to baste them every 45 minutes. I was a little worried that they would turn to dark but by keeping them moist it was not a problem as all.
After 1 ½ hours wrapped, I checked the rib tips to see if they were ready. I felt a little more resistance than I wanted, so I returned them back to the smoker for another half hour.
At the two hour wrapped mark, I pulled both foil wrapped packs off the grate and took them inside. I unwrapped the slab first and the bones where giving just as I anticipated. I knew the rib tips were ready too. After venting for 5 minutes, I poured the juices off the ribs and folded the foil pack into a boat. This makes it easier to transfer the slab back to the grate for final glazing.
For the glaze I heated up a mixture of Blues Hog Original & Tennessee Red thinned down with a little pineapple juice. This went on both sides of the comp ribs and the tips.
The glaze needs to cook on for 30 minutes or so. The dry ribs were looking good at this point but they weren't as tender as I wanted. Hopefully after the glaze set on the comp ribs, they'd be ready to go.
After 30 minutes of glazing the competition style ribs were ready to come off the UDS. The dry slab needed another 30 minutes to finish, so I hit them with one more basting and a final dusting of rub. Another pull test told me that they were done, so I took them inside as well.
It was time to compare the finished products.
I cut one bone sections from both slabs and took bites from each.
On first impression the Comp style rib was perfectly tender, moist throughout and the bite came off the bone clean.
The Dry style had a little more integrity; it was tender but the meat texture was noticeably different. The meat wasn't dry , but it doesn't have the juice that the wrapped rib does.
Wrapping just flat out gives you a more tender rib because as the fat is rendered out, the moisture stays right there, and you don't loose anything.
I did like the flavor the dry rubs had. The spices in the rub shined through more than the comp style. The sweet, stickiness of the glaze covered up the bite of the dry rub just a little. That's one reason why I prefer to eat my ribs dry. I like to have a sauce on the side, and I want the rub to bring out the flavors of the pork.
For a contest quality rib, I would always turn in a glazed rib, but you can't go wrong with a dry rib when it comes down to eating a slab.
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