We had BBQ spare ribs tonight and, if I do say so myself, they were pretty darn tasty. The key was soaking them in a brine overnight. Well, that and the 6 hours at low heat.
The brine was just salt and molasses. I used about a cup of pickling salt and about a half-cup of molasses in 5 quarts of water that I put in a roasting pan, since that’s all I had big enough to set the rack of ribs in for soaking purposes. The soak lasted about 12 hours.
We don’t have a dedicated smoker, but we do have a Weber Kettle grill, which has to be the most versatile grill going. I got about a dozen or so charcoal briquettes going and then divide them up on opposite sides of the grill. Finally, I got a tinfoil cooking sheet and set that down on the grill so the dripping from the ribs wouldn’t get all over the place.
The grilling is the hard part, because the idea is to maintain a temp of about 225 for as long as it takes to cook the meat until it’s falling off the bone. In order to do that, I have to keep adding briquettes to the grill, about every hour or so. I use a digital thermometer to keep an eye on the temp, I just dangle the probe down through the exhaust port in the grill top.
One of these days I’ll get a Big Green Egg to make this a lot easier. But in the meantime, no one was complaining about the results. Even the kids had a couple of helpings. Although they felt the need to inform me that they liked baby back ribs better. There’s no pleasing some people.