Folks, its the 4th of July and many of you will hopefully be "puttin on the que" in celebration of Independence Day!

So without further adieu, lets see what its really gonna take to get those ribs mouth watering and making your guests crown you as the king of the land where the women and or men bow down and kiss the ground you walk on!

Lets get a couple of things clear first. There is a thing called "grillin" and there is a thing called "bbq'ing", they are two different cooking methods, one uses high heat and one uses low heat, one cooks "high and fast" and the other is "low and slow".

Now, we're discussing the second one here, the low and slow method. That is not to say that you can't throw on some ribs on the grill and cook them via the "high and fast" method, meaning 1.5 - 2 hours and turn out some pretty good ribs, heck they might even be damn good!

But the truth is, to get it perfect, to make the women swoon, to make the men want to get up and clean house and do the laundry for you, its gonna have to be "low and slow"!

And that my friends presents some problems that must be overcome. In order to do this your gonna have to cook then indirectly, probably with just one burner on low for 4 hours or so.

As mentioned in some of the other posts, I have been working on perfecting getting it right on a gas grill, you see I have a mentor, the person who sponsors this website who makes the best damn ribs I've ever had and if he was not so ornery, I would consider marrying, however he's already married, although I really don't know how his wife puts up with him!

I also have the pleasure of owning a "big green egg" and have been comparing the differences and attempting to recreate that experience.

The problems associated with doing this on a gas grill are indirect heat, low temps and moisture retention, all things not important for what the grill was designed for which is "high and fast".

So how to resolve?

The first thing is to plan on cooking with just one burner, I'm assuming most of you have one of the current grills where you can use one of three or two of four burners. If not and you have an older grill with a tube type burner then you'll have to modify and use your warming rack exclusively!

I'm just going to describe my method and you can either apply it to your specific grill as needed.

I have a Jenn-Air 4 burner, and I use the two inside burners on low. I remove the center grate and cover the two burners bu setting my cast iron griddle over the top of them to deflect heat to the left and right of the two burners. Using the smoker box mod I set them on top of the burners and then set the griddle in place. I'm cooking 4 large pork spare-ribs, un-cut and un-trimmed, if you prefer to trim yours then, please visit this website for a fantastic description on cutting them down to "St Louis Style" or "Kansas City Style".

I never cook baby backs as they are much easier to mess up because of their lower fat content and are much more expensive, as with the process for cooking "boston butt" and getting the fat to render, your are after the exact same thing on ribs. Ribs are much harder because they render much quicker and if the heat is too high they will begin to fry in their own fat, this you'll notice easily by looking at the surface while they are cooking.

As most of you don't have a griddle, then use some heavy aluminum foil to accomplish the same thing, if your using a three burner then just cover the center burner and you should be fine, if you want to cook more than 4 slabs then you can use a rib rack or roll them up and skewer them and you'll find you can cook an incredible number of ribs on most gas grills!

I wash my ribs thoroughly and while wet "dust them heavily" with a good rib seasoning or your favorite dry rub and let them set for about an hour.

So covering the center, I then place one rack each on the outside to the left and right of the griddle and two racks on the warming rack!

So I have heat deflecting to the right an left and then up and into the grill to the warming rack.

Click to view attachment

The hood temp gage should read about 200 if you can get it that low, if not then just keep a close eye on the ribs as they are likely to cook a bit faster, this is mostly unavoidable without serious modification to the btu flow of the burners.

Set everything in place and close the hood and don't open it until all of the smoke is done with, I use 4-5 tennis ball sized chunks of mesquite and that's it!

Once the smoke is done, then its time to add the water!

(FYI, you don't have to smoke them, they will be fantastic without smoking! If you don't then just start with the water.)

Open the hood and remove the cover over the burner and smoke box. Replace the smoke box with a shallow water pan, you'll have to figure out what works for your grill.

(FYI, I also use a bowl of water on top with some lava rocks just for extra moisture)

Place the cover back in place and close the hood again, check the water in about an hour and check the ribs to see how they are cooking.

After hour three, start brushing them down with a thin watery version of your favorite bbq sauce!

They should be completely done at hour 4 if not a bit sooner depending on the heat, they should start drawing up a bit on the bone and should pass the tear test.

Remove them from the grill and let them rest a bit, meaning let them cool down and let the meat start drawing the moisture back into itself, 10 to 15 minutes should be good.

And that's it, hopefully perfect "4th of July Ribs" cooked on a gas grill!

Remember, the key is "low and slow"!

Great stuff blue! My procedure is pretty close to yours, except I mop 'em with an apple cider/olive oil mix every hour or so. Your method seems pretty "hands free" so I might give it a whirl, using apple juice instead of water.

How much of a difference do you see between the meat thermometer and the hood thermometer?

Do you find a difference if you cook the ribs concave up vs. concave down?

With my mods, its about 25 degrees, so if the hood sits at 200 I'm at about 225, same temp on the grates also so I'm getting a pretty even heat all around.

I cook them meat side up, I don't turn them at all...

If you want a nice flavor, you seem to like apple, then try dusting them down with some apple pie spice...

Adds a nice light hint of sweetness...

bluesin, Your post could not have been more timely as i had planned on smoking some ribs last night!! I pulled off your instructions and they turnd out absolutely spectacular!! My total cooking time was only about 3 hours and I was able to hold it at around 250. We did boneless spareribs so I'm not sure if that was the reason or not (I thought meats with bone-in generally cook faster) Anyway, I rubbed them with some of the 7 flags grillinmud that Richard was kind enough to send me. Let them sit for about 2 hours and added them to the grill. I draped that carpet from Lowe's over the back and it worked great to keep the smoke and heat inside. I can't wait to add the flashing to seal it up!!! I ended up putting a pan of water in at the start and I had a great mix of smoke and steam continuous thoroughout the cooking process. They were the most tender ribs I've ever cooked!! I'm looking forward to my next smoked meal!!!

Don

Cool, glad it worked out! Pictures, we want pictures dude!

Where was the 250 at? Warming rack, hood, grates?

The 4 hour mark really only applies if you can actually get it to 220 or so, the extra 30 degrees is certainly going to decrease the cooking time, and will probably work just fine!

As an aside, I removed the flashing yesterday and am going with just the silica fabric when I need it. I've been testing with this for some time and noticed that I had significantly increased the overall smoke/grease buildup on the inside of the grill yesterday(the grillside of the fabric is a dark brown already) . It took over an hour to burn it all out of the grill with all four burners on high and it turned up a bit.

Moral there is, because of the nature of grilling and the buildup there are going to be times when having a vent to burn it all out is necessary, perhaps when you install your angle iron, make it easily removable...

I have another mod coming your way, its not quite finished yet

Yeah, I know I should have snapped some shots!!! I t was kinda hectic here with the kids running around and I spaced it. The temp was on the grates as I had it around 200 on the hood. Take my word, they looked beautiful!!! LOL. As for the heat info, thanks for the heads up. I was wondering about that as last night when I added the "smoking blanket" it seemed like it may be a hinderance to have that much heat retained depending on what I was cooking. Anyway, I think I'll attache the angle iron with wing nuts so I can pop it off if needed I can't wait to see the mod!!! Check out the one I just posted about my griddle.

I'm tryign this same method, and I'm seeing about 275 on the grates with the 2 middle burners on low heat.

I'm guessing it won't take 4 hours, but is this too hot for good ribs?

You should be fine. You could also just use one burner and I bet you will hold 200 without issue

Using 1 burner was producing inconsitant heating, probably becausee of my center divider mod.

Both center burners on low, i'm just under 200 on the hood and about 270 on the grates.

That could be the case, I'd stick with the two then and leave it at 275, you should be fine.

Do you guys remove the membrane from the underside of the ribs before you cook or do you leave it? I normally remove the membrane but leave all the fat for flavor.

Tim

I remove the membrane then pat on the dry rub on both sides.

I just want to bump this post back up. Worked perfectly every time I've done it so far!

Hi Tim,

Yes, I always remove the membrane. Years back I did some ribs where I left the membrane on one slab and off on the rest. The one with the membrane did not take the rub flavoring as well. That to me was the biggest difference.

Eric D

Wow, these sound really good. Anyone make these on a Weber Genesis B? Would I just uses the front and back burner? Placing the ribs (meat side up) down the center and on the warming rack? Also, I'm a little confused... What's up w/ the cast iron griddle, bowl and lava rocks? I believe this is justs to help circulate the air in the gas grill? and the bowl of water w/ lava rocks is to keep the heat a little more damp to prevent drying out the ribs?

So, seeing my burners run left to right would I put tin foil over the front and back burners? and could I use a smoker box? Or just chunks of wood chips on the flavor bars?

Thanks!
Bill

Hi Bill - For my Silver B, I wrap some wood chips in a tin foil packet, poke holes in the top, lift one of the grates, and drop the foil packet on the flavorizer bars directly above the back burner.

Then I start the grill, crank the back and middle, turn off the front. Once the chips are smoking good, I cut the middle completely off and turn the back to the lowest setting (3 o'clock).

I wave my hand over the grates, pretending that I'm cooling it down a little (because the temp will get up to 400 or so before the chips start smoking), and close the lid. About 5 minutes later, it should be down around 200 and the smoke should be less crazy.

Put the ribs on and see what the temp is after 5 minutes. Make small increases in that back burner until you're right at 220 degrees (or whatever you're shooting for - keeping in mind the hood temp gauge may be slightly hire than the actual temp at grate level). Unless there's a big change in the sun, you should be all set for the next 4 or 12 hours!

-Ben.

12 HOURS? Your kidding right?

Hell no!

At 220, 4 hours is perfect for ribs, but if you want to do pulled pork like the pros, I start mine at midnight, a quick check and mop at 4:30, and every hour thereafter starting at 7am.

I have everything pulled and all the sides done by 1pm, 2 at the latest. Yum!

Maybe now you can understand why I was talking about sunshine affecting the temps - we're not dealing with a slight an afternoon shift...I'm talking about going from dark night to full sun!

That my friends is a dedicated BBQ'er Well done, I may have to give this a try!!

Well, I know what I'm making for Sunday dinner... Starting around 2:00 and hoping they are done by 5:00 or 6:00...

Can I just score the bottoms or should I skin off the fat? Also, I have a basic BBQ rub from the How to Grill by Steven Raichlen book... Can I just wash the ribs, score the bottom of the ribs, put on some rub, get my foil smoker bag smoking, turn down to 200ish degrees, oil up the rack, and toss the ribs on for 3-4 hours?

Should I definatly use a pan of water w/ lava rocks?

Oh, and for the last 15-30 minutes, should I just use a simple store bought bbq sauce? Or can you recomend a good sauce?

I don't know about scoring the bottom - I remove the membrane like it shows in How to Grill. Also, I just posted this link in another thread - some additional information there. Personally, I've never done the lava rock thing - I just fill one of the Weber aluminum grease drip pans w/ water or apple juice and set it on the grates. Or I don't. I don't know if I can tell a difference between using the pan of water and not.

As far as bbq sauce, I prefer Bulls Eye because of the squeeze bottle top. I'm serious. The others with an open mouth are simply inconvenient, especially when you've got your hands inches from a 400 degree fire. The Bulls Eye squirts out nice and easy - you can aim it, you can control how much comes out, and the flavor is as good, if not better, than any of the other commercial stuff.

If you get an open mouth jar, do yourself a favor and pour a bunch into a small bowl, then brush from there instead of trying to pour it onto your food directly.

well, picked up the baby-back ribs today at costco. I cleaned and dried them good, pulled off the membrane, used a simple bbq rub, apple juice in a small pan over the burner and tossed them on the grill. For the last 30 minutes I based them 3 times w/ bbq sauce.

Looked and tasted great.

Awesome!

What burner settings did you use on the B, and what temps were you able to maintain?

Well, they where suppose to be on at around 2:00 so we could eat at 6:00ish... However, they didn't get on until around 3:00... So, I left the back burner on HI for about 50% of the cooking to speed it up... Which was at about 235-240 degrees... Then I moved it to about 225...

Then, when I pulled everything off I cranked up all the burners and left it on for 10-15 minutes to burn everything to ash...

They where great...

Bill

Do you ever grill on foil? I have a foil drip pan well under the grates but I do not grill ribs directly on foil. Also, at any time during the grilling process do you ever cover/tent/wrap the ribs in foil.

Ribs are one of my favorite foods, and I have not made any killer ribs on my new Jenn-Air grill yet (2 tries - 2 duds).

I need help!

Hey guys,

Thought I would share my method of cooking ribs on my Sonoma Gas Grill. I mix my dry rub with just enough EV Olive Oil to make a paste. After removing the membrane I rub them down with the rub paste covering both sides. Leave them in the fridge overnight to let the seasoning soak into the meat. I take them out 30 minutes to an hour to let them come to room temperature. I took one of those rib racks with the prongs on the sides for a potatoe and bent the prongs backward so the rack sits about an inch up when set on a sheet pan. I place the ribs in my modified rib rack in a cheap sheet pan. Then add a one can of beer to the pan and seal the whole package with heavy duty aluminum foil. If I have done a good job of sealing the pan I won't have to add more liquid. I use my two outside burners on low to maintain as low a temperature as I can. Couple of hours later I will open the tent to check the progress. If everything looks good I remove the foil and start pouring my sauce on and letting it dribble down both sides of the ribs until they are coated. Usually another hour or so adding sauce everytime I check on them until they come apart when trying to lift them out of the rack.

My method does not rely on exact temperatures or times. In time and enough racks I might be able to write to down, until then I just keep eating.

I have two racks of baby backs waiting in the fridge now for tomorrow's race. Maybe I can remember to take some pictures.

bazzz

Hi Bazz!

Your technique of cooking ribs is interesting. By enclosing the way you are doing I expect that this really is controlling the temperature the ribs see. I would expect the temperature to stay about 200 to 215 degs F with the beer in the tray. As long as the liquid is in the enclosure the temp will stay in this range, somewhat the same process as a water smoker. Speaking of smoke, that's the only thing I see lacking for my taste palate and ribs. I have a water smoker that works much the same as your technique but allows me to add an hour or so of smoke flavor. This is what really adds that special final zing to the flavor. Some folks don’t care for the smoke flavor, in that group your process would be super.

Bazz, glad you found us here, at the BBQ Source Forums. Thanks for sharing your special way to making great ribs. I look forward to seeing the photos.

Regards,

Eric D

Hi bazzz and let me add my welcome as well. Looking forward to the pictures of your ribs. I tend to lean toward the smokier flavors myself like Eric but there's not a bad way to do them as long as it's slow. BTW what's in your dry rub if you care to share?

Billb

I thought I'd weigh in with my two cents on this topic. I like the flavor of smoke on ribs, but there are those among my family and friends who don't, so I came up with the following method.

Remove silver skin from ribs, sprinkle liberally with dry rub (I use Stubb's). Place each slab separately in heavy duty foil, folding top and ends. Refrigerate overnight. The next day, open each foil pack and add 2 tbsp water and 2 tbsp apple juice; reseal the foil.

Bake in 275 degree oven for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until tender - the time will largely depend on how many of the foil packs you have. Remove ribs from foil and grill 20-30 min on low, turning once and basting frequently with your favorite sauce. Remove from grill, let stand 10 minutes and cut into 1 or 2 rib portions. I use a sauce I make based on Dr Pepper syrup.

Click to view attachment

WOW, you just made me hungry! What's your recipe for the BBQ sauce? It appears we both have the same exact Jenn Air Grill!

Thanks.

I posted that Dr Pepper BBQ Sauce recipe here.

Neil A,

Thanks for the wonderful photo! Jenn Air should use it in one of their sales brochures. You are making me really want to get grilling again, until I look outside and see freezing rain, high winds. I have to keep telling myself February only has a few more days left and then we just have to get through March, and a little of April, and then I can really start grilling!

Thanks,

Eric D

Fellow BBQers:

In all my years, I have never attempted ribs on a gas grill. I've always had a fear of failure ... don't know why, just have.

Well, this thread gave me the confidence to finally attempt Ribs.

Bought 2 racks of ribs and dry rubbed them last night, put them in the fridge overnight.

Set up my Jenn-Air for indirect heat … put aluminum foil over the 2 middle flame tamers and placed two small disposable aluminum pans [filled with beer] on the foil covered flame tamers for moisture. Between the two “beer pansâ€� I put a small foil packet filled with hickory chips. Click to view attachment

Cooked the ribs on the warming rack for 4.5 hours. Click to view attachment

With the two center burners set at low, I was able to keep the temperature around the warming rack @ ~200-225 degrees. Used my electronic meat thermometer to monitor the temp. Click to view attachment

Last 30 minutes, I brushed on the BBQ sauce.

The ribs turned out GREAT! Served them with macaroni salad and steamed summer squash. Click to view attachment

Billy Goat in WV

My biggest problem is that I was going with the temperature on the hood, which was way higher than the actualy cooking temp, and my ribs, the first time, were way way undercooked!

I found out the hard way that I needed a thermometer to accurately gauge the temp where the ribs were sitting!

DrSteve ...

The posts on this site sensitized me to the need to accurately monitor the temperature of my grill at the location of the ribs. I fixed the metal probe in-place with a paperclip … worked great. I also set the alarm on the thermometer to sound at <200 F and >250 F.

I covered the back vents with foil ... the >250 F alarm sounded about 20 min to cooking ... removed the foil from one set of 3 slots, and the grill maintained the temperature within the range for the next 4 hours.

Like I said previously, I never would have attempted ribs without the help of this Board!

Billy Goat in WV

This past weekend I decided to try my skill at cooking some baby back pork ribs. Saturday morning I prepared them by taking off the back membranes and patted them down with apple cider vinegar. An hour later I rubbed them with a commercial pork rub mixture. The next day I put the ribs in a basket attached to my rotisserie spit and cook them in my new Kenmore all-infrared grill with just one of the burners lit and using a woodchip smoke box and propping the hood open a bit with a frying pan to maintain a 250° temperature, I cooked the ribs for 3 1/2 hours. For the last 15 minutes of cooking, I brushed on some barbecue sauce. Not only were they the best tasting ribs I've ever made, they were the best tasting ribs I've ever had anywhere. I think cooking the ribs by having them tumbling around in the basket so they self-basted was the secret of my success.

I never tried to prepare ribs with my rotisserie spit, although I have on on my Jenn Air. Anyone else tried ribs like this?

I've never tried it before, but I'm sure going to now! Sounds great! Mike

Tried this yesterday with bad results. After reading this thread I think the temp was too low. I kept the hood temp at almost exactly 200 for 4 hours using just one burner. After 4 hours the ribs were basically raw. Anyway, i ran out of time so i just craked up all the burners to finish them off very fast. Had to go somewehre so still haven't even eaten them yet.

For future reference...What temp does the hood need to be? What temp do the grates need to be? How do I get an accurate reading of the grates? My Wife does have one of those electric thermometers Billy Goat showed in his pics. Sorry for the stupid questions, but I'm a clueless newb.

Chill:

Sorry to hear your ribs did not working out. I usually don't rely on the hood temp. It can read low or high depending on whether you are using direct or indirect heat ... it really only tells you the temp at that point on the hood ... and that's not where your meat is. I agree that the hood temp can be useful for relative information, but the data needs to be put in to context.

I put my digital thermometer in the “heating zoneâ€� of the meat. I want to measure the temperature the meat is being exposed to … I've used paperclips, aluminum foil, and wooden dowels to get the probe in the “heating zone.â€� Foil seems to work well.

I try to maintain my grate temperature [which is usually my warming rack] between 225-275 F.

Hope this helps,

Billy Goat in WV

Thanks, I'll definitely try it again soon, so I'll try to get the grate temp around 255 to 275 like you say.

Chill,

Sorry the ribs didn’t come out all that well for you. I have had many failures over the years. I have found it to be very useful to keep notes of what works and what doesn’t. I believe this has helped with getting past my mistakes.

Bill Goat has given you some good advice and the trick really has a lot to do with getting the temps right.

For ribs I use my smoker. Normally I have at least three temp probes going. There are two for the smoking chamber near the top and the other about midway. I also add a probe with a wire ran to the outside of the smoker that is stuck into the meat that is being smoked. This allows me to keep an eye on the meat temp with out opening the smoker and it allows me to remove it at just the right temp.

Keep up the effort and before long it will pay off,

Eric D

I take delivery of this grill mid week.

Id like to know how you positioned the smoke box. Did you lean it up against the one lit infrared burner? And did you keep that burner on High for the entire cooking?

Thanks.

Shelly

Finally got to eat the ribs I cooked last night, and even with all the issues they were good. Good advice on keeping notes Eric. I am looking forward to my next attempt using everyone's advice.

What model AcuRite thermo are you using that has high/low alarms? Be nice to have such for monitoring grill temp while slow cookin.

Just did some ribs slow cooked for the first time. added oil and rub to raw ribs, microed for 10 minutes.

then grilled for 1hr 45 minutes at around 300. kept them moist with a mop every 30 mins. ended up with some very good stuff.

Nova5,

Sounds good, how about some pictures next time? Love to see some shots of your ribs!

Nuking for ten minutes - haven't tried that! I suppose it cuts down a lot on the total time, but did they dry out a bit?

What's your mop, come on, out with the secrets!

Mike

Dry out? not any noticeable amount due to application of the mop the moment they exited the micro and then onto the grill.in a glass pyrex cassarole dish with a wax paper for a cover in the micro, helped keep some moisture in during that time.

A good grillmaster never reveals his secret books'n'recipes Pics.. maybe nexttime. family woulda thought me crazy.

as it is i found i did the indirect wrong. use the left 2 burners of a 5 burner and put the meats on the right side. should have used the outer burner on each side and meat to the middle. Didnt cause any problems, just minorly uneven heat.

Looks like i found the thermo im lookin for. monitor meat temp and a hi/lo for grill temp.

http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-ET-73-Smoke...0970&sr=8-1

Nova5,

Did you read the three reviews on it? One of the three had a very dismal experience with his. Hmmmmmmmm.

Does anyone on this board use this model, and if so, what review status would you give for it?

Mike

He's in the minority of reviews. I saw reviews in other places giving good marks for it. Quite possible he just got a defective unit. Or HE is the defective unit. I had to deal with defective people for a very long time in IT.. sometimes people just don't understand how to use something quite right or just use it entirely wrong. POssible he got the prongs wet on the inside where the wire enters and corroded the pickup.

Ya have to take the minority reports with a grain of salt.