Super Awesome Rib Cooking Method

I've shared my experience with smoking ribs on this blog before, and it's been mixed results.  I was planning to try again today, but then David's baseball team won their first round tournament game, which meant they would be playing baseball today.  But, I had already put the rub on the ribs, so I knew I had to get the ribs made this weekend.  I decided to try cooking them faster than normal and see if I could get them tender that way...as I said, mixed results with low and slow.

So, I fired the smoker up to 250 degrees (that's about as hot as I can get my smoker), and put the ribs on the smoke for 2 hours.  I used St. Louis Style Spare Ribs.  After two hours, I brought them inside and wrapped them in foil.  Usually when I do the foil wrapping, I put a little cider vinegar and BBQ sauce on the ribs.  Frankly, I didn't think this helped at all.   After watching several episodes of BBQ Pit masters, I decided to try something I saw Johnny Trigg (the rib king) do.  I put honey, brown sugar and butter on the ribs, then sealed up the foil and put them on the grill at 400 degrees.  I let them go 1 hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees...then tested them for tenderness.  To test for tenderness, you pick the ribs up with tongs, and the ribs should bend about 90 degrees but not tear apart.  The tenderness seemed about right, so I glazed the ribs with my sauce for 15 minutes and served them.

I have to say, these were the best ribs I've made, by far.  The smoke flavor came through, with a nice smoke ring.  The ribs were tender, but you could still leave a clear bite mark.  The addition of the brown sugar, butter and honey in the foil wrap added a little extra sweetness that came through nicely.  I'm really happy with the way these ribs turned out.  I forgot to take a picture and now they are gone.  Can't wait to make them again! 

As an aside, I served the ribs with both my traditional sauce and a new spicy sauce that David requested.  To make the spicy sauce, I simply made my traditional sauce, but I doubled the black pepper, then added 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp of Frank's red hot and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.  The result was a sauce that hit you with sweet, then followed up with a pretty good burn.  David loved it, and I thought it was pretty good too.