In your opinion: What's the perfect rib?


 
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Eric Simon

TVWBB Fan
IMPORTANT: Please read and reply to this post ***WITHOUT READING ANY OF THE OTHER REPLIES***.

I received a really good piece of advice lately about how to improve my competition BBQ: ask a bunch of interested people what they are looking for in good BBQ, then look for the commonalities in the replies. I figure that this forum is a good cross-section of the type of people who might judge BBQ at KCBS contests. I would thus love a large sample of individual answers, unbiased by what others have said (hence the request not to read ahead before replying).

For competition, I cook racks of pork spare ribs, trimmed St. Louis style.

*Please describe what you think is the perfect rib*. How does it taste? What is it's texture?

Thank you!
 
A flavorful rub (I loathe salt-and-pepper-only or barely there rubs, rubs that are paprika-based, rubs with too much sugar); good bark with good texture.

Moist; tender.

Pulls of the bone but not falls off the bone.

Absolutely positively not sauced during cooking. A good sauce served on the side.
 
A perfect rib is tender,pulled away from the bone,(NOT fall off the bone). Moist and flavorful. Just a hint of smoke. Light on the sauce,a glazed but not burnt. NO SWEET SAUCE! Tangy is good.
 
Ribs that have a good rub on them not cooked an then covered with salt and pepper. I don't think this is the right word but firm ribs. Not over cooked obviously want them nice and juicy but I don't want to take one bite and the entire thing falls appart. If I want that I'll eat some pulled pork. Firm enough that it pulls from the bone. NO SAUCE!
 
I like when the meat pulls apart along the natural lines of the fibers (think: interlaced fingers pulling apart).

It needs to have a spicy bark and a sweet, fruitwood smoke. Forward flavors of chile, backed up by complimentary flavors like cumin and celery seed.

sauce on the side for alternate bites of sauced and unsauced.

good luck translating this nonsense into comp success
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I like tender juicy rib that is almost falling off the bone but when I bite it it leaves a little half circle where I bit it. I like sweet smoky flavor without bitterness of smoke. I like a little heat (cayenne) in my ribs and not sweet and sticky. I am ok with glaze but not heavy sauce. I like to taste some flavor there beyond paprika and cumin (boring).
 
I like nice bark, not over powering rub, no sauce its a meat contest not a sauce contest, sauce is just to cover up mistakes do not care what anyone says, gd smoke ring but not over powering smoke flavor, where u can cut the rib without it shreading a clean cut, tender with texture but not falling apart, and has to be moist
 
I like a little sweet, spicy, good acid balance, not too herby, perfect bite mark on my first bite with a little bit of bark texture, pull from the bone, with flavorful juicy meat, having a light neutral smoky favor. A light glaze with some more sauce on the side is nice. It should be difficult NOT to eat a full rack of great ribs. Not too salty or rich. In competition, you only get one rib... So the full rack test won't help...but that is my main criteria. I want ribs that I can't stop eating... The kind where you keep saying "one more won't hurt". The kind you get lost in. Where you never take a break to wipe your mouth or fingers. When you finally snap out of it, you look around and see a complete disaster area of bones and hand prints on things you don't even remember touching. You look in the mirror and even have sauce on your forehead and ears.
 
Not to mutch rub(like i always did in the begining)You should taste the meat.
Tender and moist but not fall appart tender.

Not a big fan of to hot or spicy ribs
 
For me the perfect rib is crisp on the outside, very tender and pulls clean from the bone. It should be juicy. I do not want meat that "falls" of the bone, there has to be some pull. There must be enough smoke to taste, and a good ring. I like a small amount of glaze on mine. As for flavor, it should have a bit of salt, and some heat.

A picture is worth 1000 words, so this it what I want...

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I like St. Louis spares, but I really like the juiciness and flavor of full spares, so if you can keep them juicy and still get tender enough to pull clean, that's a winner in my book. Even though foil is gonna help in this regard, I absolutely HATE mushy ribs with the flavor washed out from being in foil for too long and/or too much liquid...and speaking of texture, I think bark on the rib is highly overrated. Bark is for butts and briskets, and if there's bark on a rib, that's just a little more meat that could've been juicy. I cooked some ribs lownslow a while back and they had no bark, and I commented on it at the table. My son said he didn't care about bark on ribs, anyway, and after thinking about it, I agree.

Also, even though I love spicy rubs on everything else, for some reason I despise it on ribs. I like less rub as well, and speaking of the rub, I'd hope it didn't make the slab turn too dark if cooking at a higher temp.
 
*Sticking with your conditions and ignoring other posts until after I post*

Tenderness/texture: I like my ribs competition-style. That is I want the typical tender enough that I bite through with almost no resistance, but I don't want all the meat coming away with that bite either. If I was talking steak, I'd use "fork tender" as a descriptor. Texture is a bit more difficult - I guess I'd say that I want the fibrous quality of the meat to be present. By that I mean, like with pulled pork, I don't want the meat to become mush when eaten.

Taste: A good smoky flavor, a balanced spice. I'm not terribly particular about what "style" you decide to go with, but if I taste too much of one spice, I'm immediately turned off. Cumin is an overused spice, IMO. I think it's an important spice for rubs, but a little goes a very long way.

Appearance: Less important to my sensibilities in a backyard or restaurant setting, but I do like the way a good rack of St. Louis spares looks. When the effort has been made to make the ribs look cleanly cut and prepared it makes the meat more appealing to me. I also prefer a dry rib, but saucing doesn't bother me. Consistency in appearance is important to me, but neatness, especially in a compeition setting, is the number one factor to me in appearance.

All that said, I've had some fall-off-the-bone ribs that have had me slobberin' for more. So, there are guidelines but a good rib's a good rib.

UPDATED to add: OK, after looking at a couple of the other posts, I didn't include "moist." I guess I thought I was implying it. But certainly juicy is important.
 
Bark, but not hard, so that it breaks unevenly when I bite it, not chewy so much as al dente.
Nice smoke ring, but nothing insane necessary.
Rub should be very mildly sweet and tangy, with the focus more on savory, but just enough to compliment the meat, not to take over.
Meat should be moist. I want it tender, and ready to come off the bone, almost, not to the point where one bite denudes the entire bone.
NO,NO,NO sauce, put it on the side. Show me what you can do with the rib, let the sauce come in later.
 
To me, the bark is SO important. It should have a touch of sweetness, little bit of heat and rich full bodied multi-layered flavors. The rub must compliment the meat and not take away the natural pork taste. It should only enhance.

I don't like fall of the bone ribs at all. No mush for Bubba. I love the light smoke that fruit and nut woods impart to the rib. I also like to flame kiss my ribs. I think it gives it a nice finishing profile.

Ribs should stand on their own merit with sauce on the side.
 
It's all about BALANCE!

Balanced Meat:
Gotta' start with the meat:
Needs fat to stay juicy
But needs enough meat, so that when it's done, you have nice, meaty, moist ribs.

Balanced Flavor / Taste:
You should taste a bit of the sauce
You should taste a bit of the rub
BUT, the taste of the meat has to come-through

Balanced Smokiness:
They should taste a bit smoky,
but not "hammy" (go easy on the Hickory, but you probably need a little)

Balanced Doneness / Tenderness =
Still needs to be juicy
yet needs to be thoroughly cooked
Should be tender and relatively soft,
but still needs to hold together when you eat it with your fingers

Appearance:
Caramelized / slightly sticky on the outside
I like the ends of the bones bordering on burnt
(may be a no-no in comp, though?)
 
Perfect rib for me one that is tender and moist, but firm. I don't like it when the meat is stringy and 'falls off the bone'. I do like a bit of sweet smoke. I use stubbs' bag of wood chips, which is combo of oak, hickory and apple woods. I like a sauce that is sweet and has some pepper/spice in it, and it clings to the ribs so that I don't need to add any more sauce to the ribs.

Not sure if that describes the ribs or the experience, but thats what I remember.
 
It should come off the bone but not fall off the bone. Sweet/spicy, I like a glaze NOT a sauce. I prefer fruit woods (apple) over nut woods (hickory/pecan). A good chew, moist and pink.
 
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