Select And Prep The Slabs

I purchased three untrimmed slabs of pork baby back ribs in Cryovac from my local warehouse store. The weight of each slab was a little over two pounds, the smallest slabs I could find.

I prepped the ribs according to the information you'll find in the Pork Loin Back Rib Preparation article.

Prepare And Apply The Rub

Prepare 1/4 of a batch of rub according to Mike Scrutchfield's recipe. A full batch will render much more than is needed for three slabs of ribs.

Spread the brown sugar out on a cookie sheet and let it dry at room temperature for several hours, or place it is a slightly warm oven. Once dried, place brown sugar in a Ziploc bag and break up any clumps using a rolling pin or the bottom of a drinking glass.

The recipe says to apply "a good overall dusting" of rub to the ribs. Picture 2 shows how much rub I apply.

Allow the ribs to sit at room temperature for two hours before cooking. As they do, the salt in the rub draws moisture from the meat, forming a red liquid coating on the surface, as shown in Picture 3.

Select The Smoke Wood

Mike's recipe calls for 4 chunks of white oak and 2 chunks of cherry, each about the size of a tennis ball. My oak chunks were about the right size, but the cherry chunks were too small, so I used 4 small chunks to approximate 2 larger ones.

The recipe also states that the bark should be removed from the wood before use, and that the wood should not be soaked in water.

Some people believe that bark introduces an undesirable flavor to barbecue. Not everyone agrees, of course. Normally, I don't remove bark from smoke wood, but if you want to stay true to the BRITU recipe, remove the bark!

Fire-Up The Cooker

The recipe calls for 10-15 pounds of charcoal and the smoke wood to be lit using a chimney starter about an hour before cooking. All fuel is supposed to be covered with white/gray ash before cooking begins.

I deviate from the process somewhat on this point, but achieve the same end result. I fire the cooker using the Standard Method, lighting a Weber chimney full of Kingsford charcoal briquettes, dumping them into the charcoal chamber when hot, then adding another full chimney of unlit briquettes and the smoke wood chunks over the lit coals (Picture 1).

Note that a Weber chimney filled to overflowing holds about 6 pounds of Kingsford charcoal, so two Weber chimneys of Kingsford is sufficient for this recipe.

When the smoke wood is engulfed in flames, but not fully consumed (Picture 2), assemble the cooker. Put the water pan in place and fill it with cool tap water. Close all three bottom vents, but set the top vent fully open and leave it that way during the entire cooking process.

Allow the WSM to sit for about an hour before adding the ribs to the cooker. During this time, the cooker temperature will drop, and much of the smoke wood will be consumed, leaving just the right amount of smoke called for in the recipe.

Total elapsed time from lighting the chimney to putting the ribs into the cooker was two hours.

Cooking Process Described

At 11:00am, the three slabs of ribs went into the cooker (Picture 1). Instead of using rib racks, I rolled the ribs and used wooden skewers to secure them in place.

During the first three hours, adjust the bottom vents to maintain a cooker temperature of 225°F. At the three hour mark, open the cooker for the first time and turn the ribs over, but do not baste them with anything. Picture 2 shows how my ribs looked just before turning.

Replace the lid and open the bottom vents to increase the cooker temperature to 250-275°F. Start checking for doneness at the four hour mark and every 30 minutes thereafter. The ribs will be done when they have a nice, brown color and the meat passes the tear test.

Check the water pan every two hours and replenish with hot tap water, as needed.

Here's how the temperature and vent settings went for the cooking session:

Note that the vent percentages represent the way I set the vents at the time indicated.

In the table above, you can see that the WSM ran at 233°F for quite a while, close enough to 225°F in my book. At 12:00pm, the sun came over the top of the house and the cooker was in full sun, resulting in the temperature jumping to 250°F. Again, nothing to panic about. As long as I'm within about 25°F of my target temperature, I'm happy.

At 2:00pm, I opened the bottom vents partially to bump the cooker temperature up closer to 275°F. I turned the ribs and checked the water pan. The pan was still quite full, so I did not add water.

Supper Time!

At 3:30pm, the ribs had a nice brown color, the meat has pulled down on the long bones, and a little tug on the bones showed that they would pull apart easily. Picture 1 shows how the ribs looked after cooking.

Mike's recipe calls for saucing the ribs on both sides before serving with a mixture of 5 parts KC Masterpiece Original Flavor barbecue sauce to 1 part honey. While any variety of honey is acceptable, I like to use Sourwood honey, sometimes called "the caviar of honeys". Sourwood honey is difficult to find, unless you live in the Carolinas or Georgia. It can be ordered from several suppliers on the Web. Visit the All About Honey page to learn more about single-flower honeys like Sourwood. 

Brush both sides of the ribs generously with the sauce mixture and serve immediately. Picture 3 shows how the ribs looked after saucing. Picture 4 shows the ribs cut into individual bones and arranged in a serving dish.

These ribs had a beautiful mahogany color and a light smoky flavor. The meat was firm, not mushy, and pulled cleanly from the bones.

I hope you enjoy trying this great recipe. It's one of my all-time favorites and I'm sure it will become one of yours, too!