Dry Rub Country Ribs for Man Food Mondays

Good Monday Folks,

This week’s fair is Memphis Dry rubbed Country Ribs.  When we cooked the Sauerkraut and Ribs for New Years day I had a few left over, so I decided to smoke them with just this dry rub.   In the past I have done an overnight marinade and then a rub this time is different.  They were very tasty and well worth the time it takes to cook them.

So a little info about “country ribs”, they are not ribs at all they are cut from the shoulder of the hog and could be boneless or bone-in. They are usually nothing more than long slabs of meat and fat and in order to bring out the pork goodness, need to be cooked “low and slow”.  What this means is you cannot do a fast country rib. I picked these up on sale at the local food dispensary.  They were basically ½ lb each so one was almost enough to fill you up.

Ready to start?

What you’re going to need is:

1. the ribs (duh)
2. the rub
3. a good thermometer (I use the Maverick ET732)
4. your smoker or grill setup for “offset cooking”
5. Lump charcoal and the wood of choice (this one was apple wood)

This is the dry rub.  I rubbed the country ribs, wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator overnight.

Ingredients

3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup paprika

1/4 cup Morton’s kosher salt

1/4 cup garlic powder

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

2 tablespoons ground ginger powder

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 teaspoons rosemary powder

The next morning I assembled the smoker and brought it up to temperature, this process seems to take at least 30 to 45 minutes.  You want to have the coals all fire up then settle in to the normal range for cooking.  About ¾ of the way through this process, I add whatever wood I am using.  I normally do not soak the wood in water unless I know it’s going to be a long cook, more than 8 hours.  When you add the wood there is a temperature spike so I let that settle before putting the meat on. These were done with apple wood and lump charcoal.

They were cooked 3 hours in smoke 2 hours in foil. I kept the smoker temp was kept at 235° and the meat was “done” at the internal meat temp of 180°.  When I am getting near the end of the cook cycle I let the fire start dying out and drop to about 180° smoker temperature, this helps the fat to break down and help moisten the meat again.  I normally do not open the smoker unless I have too, but if you wanted to “slather” on some BBQ sauce that would be the time.  Do it about 20 to 30 minutes before you take the meat off the smoker, BBQ sauce has a good deal of sugar in it ,so if you put it onto your meat too early in the cook it will burn and you get little chard bricks of meat.  If you do add the sauce at the end keep an eye on it and let the fire die out.

I left the country ribs in the foil and removed them from the smoker and let them rest for about 20 minutes.  I served them with the BBQ sauce on the side and man they were good!

I hope you will have the time to try these, if you cannot find “country” ribs, spare ribs will cook much the same way.  So until next week

Take care,

Steve