Lite Ribs ?

[John Vale]

Most of the family likes their BB ribs with a crisp and firm bark. So, I use rubs that include lots of brown sugar, then foil with honey and more brown surgar and finish by glazing with some sauce with honey added.

However, I would like to make a "lite" rib with a thinner bark. How do I do that? The sweet heavy bark masks the taste of the pork, so I would like something lighter.

John

 

[K Kruger]

I'm with you, John!

Try this: Cut the sugar in the rub to about 10-20% of volume. Foil still if you wish (you can add a little juice to the foil, if desired, but skip the honey and brown sugar) and forgo the thick sauce/honey glaze. (If you wish, mix 1 T sauce with 1 t honey and 1 t unsalted butter; paint on the ribs thinly the last few minutes of cooking--or do this on half of your portion so you can make comparisons.)

From there you can determine if you want a sweeterrub, or just a bit more applied, a different rub, any sort of glaze, etc.

 

[John Vale]

Thanks Kevin. I knew there had to be someone out there that knows how to make a lighter rib.

 

[K Kruger]

Are you making your own from scratch or cutting a commercial down to size?

Most of mine posted here run 10-20% (plus salt so the sugar level is actually lower) but any can be made that way. Be careful if the rub contains lots of bitter-ish ingredients or ones that can become that way over long cooking. Either go more towards 20% or replace some of the ingredients with others.

 

[John Vale]

I am making the rubs from recipes that I find in books or on-line. I don't have enough experience at producing consistent ribs to start making up my own rub formulations.

 

[Guest]

Just did 3 racks of baby backs today and tried a variation of the BRITU rub with half the salt called for in the recipe.

No saucing, no foiling, no glazing, no nothin' but rub for the entire cook. We had some rain so cooking temp was lower than normal, around 225 at the lid. Went 5 1/2 hours.

Bark was exceptional. A little dipping in a sweet sauce like KC Masterpiece if you want, but not needed. Sometimes the rub-only cook leaves the bark a little too salty for my taste, but this was very nice. You could taste just a hint of brown sugar. I'll do this again.

Happy 4th.

Jeff

 

[Brian L.]

The way I see it sugar isn't really necesarry for a rub. You could just take some chili powder, a little garlic salt,and black pepper and rub with that.

 

[Paul H]

Kevin, could you list some of the ingredients that may turn bitter when cooked???<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
Are you making your own from scratch or cutting a commercial down to size?

Most of mine posted here run 10-20% (plus salt so the sugar level is actually lower) but any can be made that way. Be careful if the rub contains lots of bitter-ish ingredients or ones that can become that way over long cooking. Either go more towards 20% or replace some of the ingredients with others. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>