I just realized that as much as I talk about grilling and ribs, I haven't posted a single thing on how to properly make them. Time to correct that oversight. :) When it comes to doing ribs, I am a big fan of the beef country style ribs, however, I am not totally against pork baby back ribs. For the sake of arguement, I will be talking about doing pork baby back ribs, but everything does transfer over to other types of ribs.
First thing you wanna do, after picking out the best quality ribs you can find, is to parboil them. Basically, cut them into sections and put them into the biggest sauce pan you have. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Leave them in there for about 15-20 mins. What this does is A) starts the cooking process so they will be cooked all the way thru on your grill and B) helps take out the excess salt that is naturally in pork. That way, anyone in your dinner party who has a major aversion to sodium can partake and not swell up like a balloon! Once that is done, pull them out and place a nice dry rub on them. The lexington dry rub works great for this. Place them on the grill, either charcoal or gas. If using charcoal, make sure that the coals are all ashen and the flesh should start to sizzle when you put them on. If using a gas grill, keep the temperature at a nice 300 degrees. Slather them with your BBQ sauce, close the lid, and let them cook for about 15-20 mins. Flip them over, slather more sauce and then cook for about 15-20 mins again. after this time period is up, flip them, slather on more sauce, close the lid and let them cook for another 10 mins. Flip, slather, close lid and cook the other side for another 10 mins. After this, pull 'em off and serve 'em up.
Now, if you're lucky enough to have a large grill, you can do the slow and low method of grilling. All you need to do is instead of placing the ribs directly on top of the flame, place the racks of ribs around the edges. This is called indirect grilling. This will allow the ribs to cook slowly and take in more flavour. When you place the ribs on top of the flame, that is called direct grilling. It works just as well, but you can run the risk of having tough ribs once they are done.
