‘Barbecue’ is a bit of a national obsession in the US. From what I can gather there’s a bit of rivalry between the North and South in terms of style. I forget which, but one part of the country favours the dry, and the other the more saucy, but whatever side you meat falls on, it can be some tasty shizzle.

This recipe is a culmination of a bunch of different barbecue recipes we’ve read and tasted since we’ve been out here. A lot of the more recent ones seem to favour balsamic vinegar and going heavy on the sugar as part of the sauce, which to my taste is a bit sweet, and you end up with almost Chinese style ‘candied’ ribs. I prefer a bit more of a balance between sweet and savoury, so have used apple cider vinegar. But be careful not to go too far the other way or you’ll end up with something that will strip the enamel off your teeth.

The ribs get a double dose of flavour from a  dry rub (which you should allow to do it’s work for a good few hours; or ideally overnight) and a wet barbecue ‘mopping sauce’ that you douse the meat with whilst it cooks on the barbecue.

Right, lets get our grill on.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

1.2 – 1.5 kg rack of baby back (loin) ribs

For the dry rub

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon soft, dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

For the barbecue sauce

1/2 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

120 ml tomato ketchup

60 ml cider vinegar

60 ml water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons bourbon (whiskey)

1 tablespoon soft, dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

First up, get all the dry ingredients for the rub together, dump them in a bowl and mix until they are evenly distributed.

Then take your ribs and rub them all over with the mixture. Once you’ve got good coverage, pack the rest of the rub mixture wherever you can on to the meat, cover with foil and then refrigerate for a minimum of 5 hours, preferably over night.

The next day, an hour or so before you cook, take the ribs out of the fridge and allow them to get to room temperature. You’re going to part cook the ribs in your oven before you get them on your grill, so set your oven to 180c, put the ribs in a baking tray, and cover it tightly with foil, and then pop them in the oven for an hour.

Whilst they’re cooking, prep the barbecue sauce and get your grill fired up. For the sauce, start by frying the chopped onions in some oil with the garlic and allspice powder in an oven proof pan (this is kind of important as you want a pan that can be placed on top of your barbecue so you can mop the ribs with the sauce without running back and forth to your kitchen). Once they’ve got some good colour on them, de-glaze the pan with the bourbon and then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for around 10 minutes. You should end up with a sauce which is both sweet, savoury and deeply flavoured.

When you’re ribs are cooked, take them out of the baking tray, add the cooking juices to your barbecue sauce, and then wrap them in foil. You want to arrange the coals on your barbecue so they’re set up to provide ‘indirect heat’. This means either scraping all the coals to one side, or creating a valley by scraping them to either side. You’re going to cook your ribs on the part of the grill that isn’t directly over coal with the lid on.

When you’ve done this, bring your barbecue sauce back to simmering point, and move your operations barbecue side. Put your pan and ribs on the grill and then give the meat it’s first coating with the sauce. Cover with the lid, and repeat the process every 6 or 7 minutes. You obviously want to avoid burning the ribs, but the sauce will caremalise, giving you layer upon layer of flavour each time you brush the ribs.

After around 30 minutes, the ribs will be done. Take them off the grill, cover with foil and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes. Serve with the remaining barbeque sauce, and whatever else you fancy. We had ours with barbecued corn (cooked in their damp husks so they steam steam, and then stripped finished on the grill) and a simpler, cleaner version of this coleslaw (substitute the hummus for more yoghurt, leave out the maras biberi, and just use parley instead of the other herb combo).

Eat whilst listening to the Deliverance soundtrack, and squeal like a piggy!

Tags: Allspice, Baby Back Ribs, Barbecue, Bourbon, Brown Sugar, Cider Vinegar, Coleslaw, Corn, Cumin, Deliverance, Dry Rub, Garlic, Ketchup, Onion, Paprika, Pork, Sauce, Soy Sauce

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 17th, 2011 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.