BBQ Beef Ribs revisited

I've been barbecuing all summer long. I finally got these wonderful back ribs. Beautiful. Though I do miss those very tasty spare ribs. Now that was some great meat. The beef ribs are much smaller and I can serve them bone in with my Chocolate BBQ Sauce.

This morning started out as perfect, and I mean perfect, early fall weather. The sun was shining. It was warm and the sky was a beautiful blue with white fluffy clouds. And then disaster of the barbecuing kind struck. It turned cold and then started raining. What was I to do?

I decided to braise the back ribs in beef stock. I did a very quick braise, two hours. And then, this is key, I let the ribs rest in the stock for at least a half hour, more like forty-five minutes. Then, I mixed the braising liquid with my barbecue sauce, half and half. This dilutes the flavor of the sauce but it also increased the fat content.





When I put the ribs on the barbecue, I also put some braising liquid directly on the ribs. I barbecued the ribs for about 2-3 hours. I also slathered on the BBQ sauce and braising liquid combination.

You'll also notice that I used a lot of pepper on the ribs. I washed that off in the braising liquid before putting on the barbe.





Before serving, I used the undiluted version of the barbecue sauce, warmed up, naturally. Enjoy them ribs. Yummer.

The Main Event: BBQ Beef Ribs

I lived in Texas for nine years and pork ribs just don't cut it for me. Kim, my wife, loves only pork ribs so look for a pork rib recipe coming soon. In either case, I use convection and radiant heat only. No direct heat. (Note the hat.)

When you live upstate, getting beef ribs is a chore and a difficult chore it is. I order only during the summer so I can BBQ them. This year, I ordered my ribs way in advance, making sure that I would get them in time for the First Virtual Twitter Throw Down. But, the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft a-gley. And gang they did and quite aft a-gley it was. Instead of my butcher getting me the beef back ribs I normally cook, he got me the beef spare rib. And, of course, they were huge. Since I was expecting smaller, 6 inch, back ribs, I thought I'd gotten brontosaurus ribs.

So, running short on time for this Throw Down, I went with the spare ribs and fed one per customer. I didn't have the heart to cut them off the bone. I've since corrected this mistake on the part of my purveyor and have ordered the 6 inch back ribs. Perhaps I'll only get stegosaurus ribs this time. Anyone want 20 lbs of spare ribs? Or just come over and help me eat these.

I'll be posting the back ribs next week. I should be able to get the post finished by the end of Monday, the 29th, the last day of the Throw Down. And I've also ordered some pork ribs. However, the spare ribs are wonderful ribs and more than delish. Lots of beautiful meat and rich as all get out. Sooooo, in the meantime, enjoy. The cooking times don't change that much. With pork ribs or beef back ribs you can shorten the time by 3 to 2 hours respectively.

To get more of the back story on the First Annual Virtual Twitter Throw Down, see Luna Cafe's wonderful fried chicken blog post.




The most important part of making great BBQ Beef Ribs or any ribs isn't the sauce, though a bad sauce can ruin them, it is the wood you use to cook them with and how you cook them. I prefer an indirect convection style cooking and of course I use a Mesquite and oak blend of wood or charcoal. When I lived in Texas, I'd just go out and hack down some mesquite and oak and start cooking. We'd put entire tree logs in the BBQ. However, here in New York, I find the best charcoal I can and use that. I usually use Cowboy Charcoal and a good all oak or hickory charcoal and soaked wood chips.

The first box is off the to left.

I do not use direct heat. I use radiant heat and convection. I usually use two fires, one on each side of the meat. However, since these ribs were from a brontosaur, I stoked the firebox full with charcoal and kept the flames away from the meat that way.



After cooking the meat for about four hours, I started applying my BBQ Sauce. I applied it three times as it continued cooking for another two hours.



Then, I brought in the ribs to rest for 20 mins and applied more sauce.



Then I cut them and applied more sauce before serving. I also gave the diners extra sauce to apply at they saw fit. In case you missed it, this is my sauce recipe.





Usually, when doing a BBQ, I make feather bread, but in this case, I had Brian make a nice focaccia:



For sides, I wrapped fresh corn on the cob in alunimum foil, added butter, garlic, smoked sea salt and pepper and threw those in the fire box for 15 minutes. I also served roasted fingerling potatoes. For dessert, Brian made a very nice Black Forest Cake with whipped cream rather than icing. After these ribs, it was deemed very light. A perfect way to end the meal. Or course, we started with my famous apple cider vinaigrette salad. All in all, a tasty treat. And all brought to you by:



My Italian Fried Chicken recipe coming next. I do a great panfried and baked version of this wonderful Italian treat. Yum.

Please see the following people who are participating in the ThrowDown:

LifeByChocolate
Mark LaPolla, New York
http://www.lifebychocolates.blogspot.com
http://www.lifebychocolates.com
Twitter ID: @LifeByChocolate

LunaCafe
SMS Bradley, Pacific Northwest
http://thelunacafe.com
Twitter ID: @LunaCafe


Gluten Free Sanctuary
Leslie McLinden, Arkansas
http://glutenfreesanctuary.blogspot.com
Twitter ID: @lesliemac59

Fresh Eyes
Jan Richards, California
http://www.jgrichardsresultsblog.com
Twitter ID: @MrsRoadshow

Twitter: @LicoriceShrine

Grandma’s Gluten-Free Baking N Cooking
Joyce Paige, Kansas
http://grandmasgfbakingncooking.ning.com/
Twitter: @SilknPearls or @GFGrandmaBNC


The Sensitive Pantry
Nancy Kohler, New Jersey
http://www.thesensitivepantry.com
Twitter ID: @SensitivePantry

Chocolate BBQ Sauce that's to die for

This is my wonderful BBQ Sauce for my BBQ Beef Ribs. It is heavenly with a tough of Natural Cocoa Powder to give it depth and round out the kick you get from the urfa. This is simple to make. First we take stew for 30 mins the following:

25 Romas
2 red peppers

Don't forget to clean the Romas and the peppers and take out the seeds on the peppers and the stems on both. Next we blend. I used an immersion blender.



Then I added

4 T garlic
1 T smoked sea salt
1/2 cup molasis
1/4 apple cider vinegar

2-3 T urfa
white pepper
green pepper
1 T green tabasco
1/8 cup worster sauce
1/2 cup honey mustard
1/4 cup natural cocoa powder

And simmered for about 3 hours or until about a third of the liquid has been lost. I blended again to make it smoother. I actually did this in two stages. I simmered for 1 hour and then let it rest for a couple of days while my ribs were coming in. Then I simmered again until it reduced about a third.



I apply my sauce to the BBQ as I finish cooking. I usually apply about three times over the last two hours of BBQing. Then I apply again before serving and I give the diners some extra so that they can add sauce as they will, in the grand Texas tradition.

Virtual Throw Down: A twitter and blog extravaganza

Recycled Photo. (Do Not Bend.)

This is the first annual Virtual blog and Twitter Fried Chicken &/Or BBQ Ribs Throw Down. Here are the rules. (All rules are subject to change if we feel like it but since I took the initiative, I'm going to assume that all of you ratify this without any problems. If you do have a problem, speak NOW or forever hold your peace.)

1. To be part of the throw down, the post containing your entree has to be posted no later than June 29th and no sooner than Jun 26th. Each contestant will tweet about the post on June 29th, all day long, at least twice, then, and include the link to their post. Smak@Replies are encouraged during this tweet-o-rama. Retweeting by contestants will be highly encouraged. So, if you're in on this, you have to be following the other contestants. Comprendrez vous? Ce n'est pas?

2. There are two main courses that a contestant may chose to do: Fried Chicken or BBQ Ribs. Pick one per blog post. No extra points for doing both but you'll look macho? (Or is that maco?)

3. To qualify, at least one of the dishes, the recipes for one of these dishes, pictures of the making of one of these dishes and pictures of the finished dish, must be attempted. One dish per post. That is to say, Fried Chicken would be one post, BBQ Ribs another. Sides, bread, desserts are not required but will be very favorably looked on. Don't put both of these entrees in one post, please. That'll just confuse the secret committee. (See below.)

3. All Posts must also cross reference the other contestants entries, that is, blogs. Not necessarily the posts themselves but at least the blog links must be included in the posts. It is up to the individual contestants to have those posts at the top of the blogs. If possible, the individual posts should be linked to. Humor and smack allowed.

4. Really try hard not to recycle an old recipe even if it has been published in Rachael Ray's Magazine or in Food and Wine or some other high profile magazine. All photos should be fresh and interesting and cool. Or at least in focus. That's why I'm giving everyone almost a month to do this in.

5. All judging will be done by secret committee using arbitrary guidelines and much subjectivity. (That is, if the contestants can ever agree on who should be on the secret committee or even if there should be one.) Recipe completeness, easy of making, picture quality and overall structure of the post will all count for something. Say, 1 point. The winner will get the Famous NoPrize of Marvel Comic Book Fame. This is not being donated by No One. Any corporate sponsors? @Oprah? @dominosugar? @Anyone?

6. We're leaving Mr. Flay out of this. Please, no one tell him. OK? That's the last thing we need. Sorry, Bobby. But I don't want you showing up with your virtual van with your virtual assistants and virtual cameras making us all virtually famous. No one would want that.

7. There is no rule seven. This rule left intentionally blank.

To register to participate in this madness, please comment on this post and put the URL for your blog, the blog name and also your Twitter ID/Name. If you want participants to link to your post, please put that URL in. And then, on the 26th, come back to this entry and see all the participants that you need to link to. Thank you for your cooperation.

And this, see photo below that I cribbed from another post, will be what YOUR entry will look like after I'm done with it. Oh, yeah. Scored with that one. Oh, yeah. It is SO on.