I love making baby back ribs that are slowly cooked over indirect heat. No matter how you do yours, I have been given a trick that makes the meat fall off the bone like nothing I've ever seen. The following technique was shown to me buy a guy who BBQs for large groups of people. You can actually do this with chicken or whatever else you'd like and it makes it incredibly juicy. The only real trick is you can sometimes get things too juicy, believe it or not. Here's the method: 1) Do your ribs however you usually like them. Use whatever rubs you like just like normal. Put them on the grill and slowly cook them indirectly. Whether you usually go the 2,4, or 6 hour route, it doesn't really matter, but the 2 hour time/heat ratio works just fine. 2) Cook the ribs until they are almost finished. You want them to be in that beautiful looking stage where the sugars in the rub are caramelizing and the meat is just beginning to detach from the bone. Almost done, but just a tad short. 3) Here's where things get different. Take each rack off the grill. If you are using sauce, put your favorite one all over the ribs. Smother it on really good. Next take each rack and and set it on a big piece of aluminum foil. Wrap the ribs up in the foil so each rack is individually wrapped from the other ones. 4) At this point you should have all you racks wrapped up tight. Next take a big roasting pan of some sort. I usually use those big disposable aluminum pans from HEB that people use for turkeys and the like. Put water inside the pan so there is about 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch in the bottom. 5) Place your wrapped ribs in the pan and then cover the entire thing with a big piece of foil. Make sure there isn't too much water in the pan as you don't want the ribs submerged. 6) Put the pan as far away from the fire as you can. If you are using a gas grill (which does work when doing this) turn it about as low as it will go. 7) Do nothing else. Go drink beer, watch football, or whatever else take up your time. Leave the ribs on for probably at least and hour or two, but you can leave them there for a long time while you cook other foods or whatever. I usually make these during b-day parties, football parties or whatever because the ribs can stay on there for a long time without really "coking" too much more but they can sit there and tenderize and be pulled off whenever it's time to eat. The longer they stay on, the more tender the ribs become. The only trick is that the meat could fall off the bone too much for some people's liking. I prefer to still be able to pick the rib up and eat it off the bone. 8) When I'm ready to eat I usually pull the ribs back out of the foil, slap a little more sauce on, and then finish them off over direct heat for just a couple of minutes to get that nice finished look and texture. If this is done correctly, I promise you you'll have ribs that separate from the bone like never before. You are still controlling the taste of the ribs by using whatever sauces, rubs, wood, and cooking techniques you have already developed, this just adds one more step that will blow you away. I hope this makes sense as I am still fuzzy from last nights Christmas party. For those that succeed with this, your welcome!
I do something similar - three hours in a smoker at 225 with hickory, 2 hours in the oven wrapped in foil at around 200 (makes them really tender) and then another hour on the smoker at 225 to finish them off.
I noticed a post by hornian that does that method too. It sounds great and the principle is the same. I do a lot of grilling at the river where ovens aren't available so this method has worked pretty well for me. The guy that I learned this from does this with all kinds of meats and he makes some of the best BBQ I've ever had.
longhorndan - i do the same thing3-2-1 for spares...2-2-1 for back backs)...but i just keep it on the smoker the whole time...
Thats similar to the method I use. I throw my ribs on for 3 hours then pull them off. I lay down a large piece of foil, crimp up the sides, put slab in meat side down, and put in about a half a cup of apple juice. I then fold the top to make a tent so I can check later to make sure there's still juice. If you like sweet ribs, you can put down some honey and brown sugar on the foil before you wrap them up. I then put them back on the smoker for 90 minutes before removing the ribs from the foil and back on the grid. I then increase the heat to 350 and sauce for 20-30 minutes. Perfection.
The foil step definitely makes them tender, I don't even use any extra water, just their own juices will do the trick. But like I said in my other post, I don't actually like the meat to slip right off the bone, so I smoke them for about another hour after I foil them to "firm up." Just a personal preference.
Foiling works for sure, but in my experience, 3-2-1 is too long. Turned out way too tender. I liked 3-1-1 or 3-1.5-1.
