Mothers' Day Ribs

[Keith Jenkins]

I got a request from my wife and daughter-in-law for ribs for Mothers' day, so this past weekend, I made up a double batch of St-Louis cut pork spare ribs using a recipe I first made in my first smoker, a "Mr Meat Smoker", called "Chinese Smokey Ribs".

The recipe was listed in the little instruction booklet that came with that smoker, and it was one of the few recipes that didn't require "Mr Meat Smoker
Seasoning", so I gave it a try back then (1985).

I recall a few months after I first made those ribs, my wife asked me "where did we eat those good ribs?" thinking that we had gotten them at a restaurant, except that we hadn't eaten ribs anywhere except our apartment. I knew I had found a good recipe, at least for us.

This recipe is our go-to any time we prepare ribs.

 

[Keith Jenkins]

I saw in another thread where someone suggested that food pictures shouldn't be posted without recipes...I never thought you'd never ask,

Below is the recipe transcribed from that old "Mr Meat Smoker" recipe book, with my comments in italics.

CHINESE SMOKEY RIBS

6 lbs spareribs

RUB:
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp MSG [these days, we leave out the MSG, but we don't notice it's absence]
3/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp dry mustard

SAUCE:
3/4 cup catsup
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp liquid smoke [we used to use hickory liquid smoke, but have come to prefer mesquite liquid smoke for this sauce.]
2 cloves garlic, minced [you can use fresh minced garlic if you've got it, but we just use the jarred stuff.]

Rub the ribs with the rub and let stand 1-2 hours [I often apply the rub the night before and refrigerate until I'm ready to cook in the
morning.]

Smoke cook 4-6 hours with full pan of charcoal and 4-6 wood chunks [I usually use hickory and sometimes cherry]. Brush with sauce last few minutes of cooking. [We usually serve the sauce on the side, rather than brushing on during cooking, mostly because I'm lazy.]

Sauce preparation: Mix catsup sugar, soy sauce, ginger, liquid smoke, and garlic. Heat in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved, and the sauce
is bubbly. [We often make this sauce the evening before, refrigerate it, and re-heat it for serving.]

 

[Tim Campbell]

Thanks for the write-up, Keith. The ribs and recipe look amazing.

 

[Keith Jenkins]

Thanks for the write-up, Keith. The ribs and recipe look amazing.

Thanks Tim, I'm still getting used to posting - I've lurked as non-member a long time before actually signing up and trying to participate.

I did forget a few things in that recipe posting. For this recipe, I run my WSM at around 250F, and use a full water pan, cooking for about 6 hours. I shoot for an internal temperature of the ribs of around 165F, with the meat pulling back on the bone.

For that old smoker, the lid thermometer only had three wide zones "cool", "ideal", and "hot" if I recall (no actual temperatures). Hence the vague instruction from the original recipe "Smoke cook 4-6 hours with full pan of charcoal." I cooked by time back then.

Also, back then (1980's), you just soaked some of the briquettes with lighter fluid , lit them, waited until they ashed over & hoped that the lighter fluid had burned off. Then you put some water-soaked wood chunks on top of the coals, added water to the water pan, put in the ribs, closed it all up, and hoped for the best .

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Have not done any ribs in a long while, I’m going to remedy that tomorrow! 6 racks! Beans, potato salad, bacon wrapped polish sausage, some sort of sweet potatoes and bourbon for John Wayne’s birthday! Not doing the big party of last year, just family this year. I’ve got too many irons in the fire!