Last Meal Ribs: The Best Barbecue Ribs You've Ever Tasted!

By Meathead

Summary. This is the recipe for making the best barbecue ribs you ever tasted. They are marinated in a dry rub, then smoked low and slow, the sauce is added near the end and sizzled on. Just like the champion pitmasters and the best ribjoints do it. Recipe Type. Entree. Tags. bbq, barbecue, ribs, smoking, grilling, bbq ribs.

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"Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly." Mae West

Ribs are the holy grail. Mastering them marks the difference between the tyro, pyro, and pitmaster.

We're talking Southern ribs here, a style created by African slaves and as uniquely American as their other great contributions to our culture: Jazz and the blues.

The ribs that win championships are a melange of flavors: A complex spice rub, elegant hardwood smoke, tangy sweet sauce, all underpinned and held together by the distinct flavor of pork. They are juicy and tender and they tug cleanly off the bone but don't fall off the bone. Their scent clings to your fingers for hours. Click here for my complete definition of Amazing Ribs, what I look for when I judge barbecue competitions.

You can make it happen. With this recipe you will make ribs good enough to bring home a trophy in a cookoff. In fact, several readers have written to me that they have done exactly that with this recipe. There may be a few more steps in this process than you like, but it's not hard and we're talking restaurant grade meat here. Better. You don't need a special smoker, although it helps. You can cook killer ribs on most charcoal and gas grills once you understand the concepts.

Last Meal Ribs Recipe

This recipe needed a name when I first published it, and Doug and Trudy Calvin of Palm Springs, CA provided it. He wrote "I fixed ribs yesterday by following your recipe. My girlfriend made me promise that for her last meal on this planet I would fix the same ribs."

Yield. 2 adult servings

Preparation time. 15 minutes minimum. 10 minutes to skin 'n' trim, 5 minutes to rub, overnight dry rub marinating is optional.

Cooking time. 3 hours minimum. We will be cooking low and slow at about 225°F, so allow 5 to 6 hours for St. Louis Cut (SLC) ribs and 3 to 4 hours for baby back ribs. Thicker, meatier slabs take longer, and if you use rib holders so they are crammed close to each other, add another hour. Begin by learning how to set up your grill by reading my article on 2-Zone or Indirect cooking. That means that one side is hot and the other is not. This is the single most important technique a pitmaster must learn. Then set up your grill for a meatless trial run so you can learn how to tweak the dials and vents to get it to 225°F. If you have a gas grill, use only one burner as described in my article setup for a gas grill. Put a disposable aluminum pan with water on top of the hot burner(s). Moisture and combustion gases in a propane grill combine to create a seductive, bacon-like flavor in the meat. If it has only one burner, put the water pan between the meat and the burner. If you have a Weber kettle, put about half a chimney of unlit coals in the grill and put about half a chimney of fully lit coals on top to get to 225°F. I recommend you use a water pan. All this is described in detail in my article on the best setup for a charcoal grill. If you have an offset firebox smoker, follow my instructions for an setting up an offset smoker. If you have a bullet smoker like the Weber Smokey Mountain, read my article bullet smoker setup.

Total time. 3 hours 15 minutes minimum.

Hardware

1 grill with a cover. You can use a dedicated smoker or any charcoal grill or gas grill as long as it has a cover. A tight fitting cover with adjustable vents like those on the Weber Kettle is best.

1 (18 pound) bag of charcoal for charcoal grills or smokers. You won't use all that charcoal, but because you will need more on cold, windy, or wet days than on sunny and warm days, have a full bag on hand. Hardwood lump is best, but regular briquets will do fine. Absolutely do not use the instant igniting stuff that has solvent in it. Chimney starters (shown at right) are by far the best way to start charcoal, especially for long slow cooking where the smell of the solvent in charcoal starter fluid can ruin the taste of the meat.

1 tank of propane for gas cookers. You won't need it all, but, until you get the hang of this technique, don't risk running out by starting with a partial tank.

8 ounces by weight of hardwood chunks, chips, or pellets. It doesn't matter how many slabs you are cooking, 8 ounces should be enough. You don't have to be precise, just measure it in some fashion so you have a baseline for your next cook. Then you can add or subtract if you wish. I prefer chunks of apple, oak, or hickory for pork. Never use any kind of pine unless you want meat that tastes like turpentine. Never use construction lumber because it is often treated with poisonous chemicals to discourage rot and termites. You do not need to soak the wood because wood does not absorb much water. That's why they make boats with it.

1 pair of long handled tongs

1 sauce brush, preferably one of those newfangled silicon jobs

1 good digital oven thermometer

1 six pack of beer (for the cook, not the meat)

1 lawn chair

1 good book and plenty of tunes

Software

1 slab of fresh St. Louis Cut (SLC) ribs. That's 1/2 slab per adult. If you use baby back ribs, get a whole slab per adult. You'll probably have leftovers, but what's wrong with that? SLCs are the meatiest and most flavorful ribs. They are spareribs with the tips removed so they form a nice rectangular rack. You can use baby back ribs if you prefer. They are smaller and cook faster. Country ribs come from the shoulder and are not really ribs, so don't use them for this recipe. Get fresh, not frozen meat if possible. Fresh meat has the best pork flavor and the most moisture. Ever notice the pink liquid when you defrost meat? You can't get that back into the meat, so buy fresh meat whenever possible. Ask the butcher to remove the membrane on the back side.

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 tablespoons of Meathead's Memphis Dust or a similar spice rub

1 cup of your signature homemade barbecue sauce or a good commercial barbecue sauce

Do this

This page was revised 8/2/2010