This installment of Lazy Barbecue is all about beef ribs. Now, I love a good rack of baby back ribs, and it’s no secret that I love me some beef short ribs (see here, here, here, here, and here). I’ve even written about making Cook’s Illustrated’s Texas-Style BBQ Beef Ribs, but this version is a little easier.

I did these ribs two different ways. One batch was kept in slab form and cooked for around six hours. The end result was fall-off-the-bone ribs, which tasted great, but I wanted ribs with a firmer texture. The ribs were so tender that it was actually a challenge to keep the slab intact for this picture.

When you’re at the store looking for ribs, you want to find beef back ribs that look like this:

Picture from Nimanranch.com.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether you want to do the slab or the individual ribs, but I like cutting up the slabs because you can get a nice crust on all sides of each rib.

INGREDIENTS
Your favorite barbecue spice rub
Your favorite barbecue sauce
1 slab beef back ribs

1. Sprinkle rub on ribs and refrigerator uncovered overnight
2. 1 hour before cooking, remove ribs from fridge and wrap in foil. You can also put the ribs on a cooling rack set over a foil-lined cookie sheet.
3. Preheat oven to 225F.
4. Cook ribs for at least three hours for firmer ribs and more than five hours for fall-off-the-bone ribs.
5. 30 minutes before removing from oven, open up foil and baste ribs in your favorite BBQ sauce. Finish cooking uncovered.

NOTES

• You can buy Texas Best Barbecue Sauce and Rub direct from their Web site.
• For a smokier flavor, try rubbing the ribs with a little liquid smoke before applying the rub.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Tocino Sliders with Atsarang Mangga
• Homemade Pork Tocino
• Know Your Ribeye, a.k.a. New Year’s Eve at Ad Hoc
• Cook the Book: Ad Hoc at Home – Blowtorch Prime Rib
• Chicharrones (Fried Pork Rinds)

Okay, so I made up this name, but it definitely fits this dish. As evidenced by my previous post on Prime Rib Garlic Fried Rice, we’ll make fried rice out of any leftover meat. This time, we had three very different meats—homemade Ad Hoc fried chicken, oven-smoked baby back ribs, and Pollo Oregano from Mi Lindo Peru—and the combination was great!

My wife took all the meats, chopped them finely and then fried them in a little vegetable oil to heat through. In addition to the plain white rice that was in the fridge for a couple days, some leftover rice from the Mi Lindo Peru leftovers helped gave the fried rice another subtle flavor. She added the rice to the wok, with some salt and pepper and some chopped green onion. The ribs had some Stubb’s Original Barbecue sauce on them, which added another dimension to the fried rice. Here’s the final product:

I added some more Stubb’s to the fried rice and mixed it around, and it was perfect. The bits of crispy fried chicken with the smoky ribs was an awesome combination. It’s one of the best versions of fried rice my wife has ever made.

Viva Arroz con Tres Carnes!

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• Cook the Book: Momofuku – Roasted Rice Cakes

Is it possible to make smokey, flavorful baby back ribs in your oven? You bet!

Use lapsang souchong tea to impart a smokey flavor to the ribs. Steven Raichlen’s basic barbecue rub recipe and Stubb’s Original Barbecue Sauce helped finish these ribs. We served these ribs with Ad Hoc Fried Chicken for our friend’s daughter’s birthday dinner.

INGREDIENTS
1 slab of baby back ribs
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup finely ground lapsang souchong tea

Steven Raichlen’s Basic Barbecue Rub
3 tablespoons sweet paprika
3 tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ground pepper
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon onion salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Place all ingredients in a bowl and use a whisk to mix them together. Use your fingers to break up any lumps in the rub. You can store this rub in an airtight jar for at least 6 months.

DIRECTIONS

1. Coat both sides of the ribs liberally with the Raichlen’s rub, then wrap ribs in plastic and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
2. Adjust one oven rack to lowest position and second rack to upper-middle position (at least 5 inches below broiler). Place pizza stone on lower rack.
3. When you’re ready to cook the ribs, preheat oven to 500 degrees and place a pizza stone on the lower rack of the oven. then transfer ribs from refrigerator to freezer for 45 minutes.
4. Line a rimmed baking sheet with at least two layers of aluminum foil
5. Use a spice grinder to grind the lapsang souchong tea. Spread the ground tea evenly on the bottom of the baking sheet.
6. Place a wire rack or roasting rack above the ground tea so that ribs are elevated above baking sheet
7. Remove ribs from freezer and place on wire rack meat side up.
8. Cover ribs with foil so that they are completely sealed. See smoker setup diagram at right.
9. Place ribs in oven directly on the rack or a pre-heated pizza stone.
   (Image from Cook’s Illustrated).
10. Cook ribs for 30 minutes at 500 degrees.
11. Reduce heat to 250 degrees. Leave oven open for a minute to cool it down. While oven is open, carefully open one corner of foil and pour apple juice into bottom of baking sheet and reseal foil.
12. Cook ribs for about 90 minutes (check them after an hour). When the meat is done, it will have shrunk, exposing about 1/2 to 1 inch of bone.
13. Remove foil and carefully flip racks bone side up; place baking sheet on upper-middle oven rack. Turn on broiler; cook ribs until well browned and crispy in spots, 5 to 10 minutes. Flip ribs meat side up and cook until well browned and crispy, 5 to 7 minutes more.
14. Glaze meat with barbecue sauce and return to oven for a 2-3 more minutes.
15. Cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into individual ribs. Serve with barbecue sauce, if desired.

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The next stop on our second anniversary dinner tour was an impromptu booking at Ad Hoc in Yountville. We were just in Yountville two days before eating at Bouchon, but our actual anniversary was on Monday, Sept. 17, and we hadn’t made formal plans for that evening yet. I told my wife that if the Ad Hoc menu was compelling enough, then I would get us a reservation, and we would drive back up to Yountville for our “real” anniversary dinner.

Now, we’ve been to Ad Hoc a lot the last three months (five including our anniversary visit), and well, it’s starting to look like an obsession isn’t it? But I wonder…how many times in three months do you go to your favorite restaurant? Would it make a difference if it was 75 miles away?

I called Ad Hoc a little after midnight the night before so I could hear the menu, and it was compelling, to say the least. Let’s just say the word “Wagyu” jumped out at me.

Salad is almost a throwaway course in a prix fixe setting, but at Ad Hoc, sometimes the salad can upstage the main course, especially when bacon lardons are involved. The bean salad was great despite the lack of lardons, but I will say that Ad Hoc is the one place where I actually love to eat my vegetables.

Even though everything’s family style and the menu is prix fixe, there’s still usually a bit of a wait between courses, and I actually enjoy and usually need these gaps. It not only helps my body process the previous course so that it’s ready to accept more food, it allows you time to have a conversation, maybe drink a little wine or beer, and most of all relax. This concept can be confounding if you’re used to eating at restaurants where turning over tables is a priority and the food is served as fast as possible, but I’ve never felt rushed eating at Ad Hoc, and the slower pace is nice because it prevents you from gorging yourself.

The main course was a trifecta of amazing meats—Wagyu beef brisket, spare ribs, andouille sausage—served with creamed corn and baked russet potatoes (bacon makes its lone appearance here as super salty and crunchy bacon bits). The brisket, from Snake River Farms, was cold smoked for 14 hours and finished with a nice, peppery crust, and well…they had me at first bite. The extra marbling of the Wagyu beef helps give this brisket a little more fatty flavor to enhance its inherent beefiness and set this apart from any other brisket I’ve tried. I really need to go to Texas for some traditional barbecued beef brisket to have a proper reference point so I can compare it to Ad Hoc’s ridiculously good version of it.

The spare ribs were prepared sous vide in duck fat for 20 hours or so and then lightly glazed and finished on the grill. Now, I’m not fan of spare ribs because most of the time, they’re not trimmed properly and I find them difficult to eat. These spare ribs were awesome. The meat had a nice bite but was still easily removed from the bone, and the rich flavor was a mystery until I found out about the duck fat. The andouille sausage was good, too, but since the focal point for me was the brisket, it was sort of relegated to stepchild status. The meal was served with a nice house barbecue sauce that was sort of sweet with a subtle kick to it. It was really nice because it complemented the meat without overpowering any other flavors, but I didn’t really use much because the meat was so good that it didn’t need it.

The cheese course was my least favorite of all the cheese courses I’ve had at Ad Hoc. (The best included some charcuterie and cryovacked cantaloupe). I didn’t mind though as I was still coming down from the meat high I got from the brisket and started looking forward to dessert.

The Chocolate Ice Cream S’mores were a refined take on an American campground classic. A housemade graham cracker serves as a foundation for a delicious marshmallow “brulee” with chocolate ice cream taking the place of the traditional Hershey’s squares. The staff at Ad Hoc was nice enough to put candles in our desserts and wish us a Happy Anniversary. If you go to any restaurant enough, they’re going to remember you, especially if you give them glowing reviews at places like Yelp.com. Ad Hoc is no exception; they’re really good at taking care of their customers and remembering the ones that return.

Thanks, Ad Hoc, for a wonderful anniversary dinner, and I’ll see you again on another Monday in October for my birthday and fried chicken night!

INFORMATION
Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St.
Yountville, CA 94599 map
707.944.2487

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This is an easy, no-hassle way to make great baby back ribs at home.

INGREDIENTS
1 rack of baby back ribs
your favorite spice rub
your favorite BBQ sauce (for glazing the ribs)

DIRECTIONS

1. Sprinkle rack of ribs with your favorite spice rub.
2. Place meat on a rack with meat facing outward and fatty end of the rib at the top. You’ll probably have to “curl” the meat so it fits in the pot, or if you have an oval slow cooker, you can cut the slab in half and stand them up like a teepee with the fatter end of the ribs at the top.
3. You don’t really need any liquid for this recipe, but if you want you could add a few drops of liquid smoke to the pot.
4. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. It’s done when the rib meat shrinks from the bottom of the rib about 1/4 inch or you can pull on the rib bone and it loosens from the meat.
5. Before you take out the ribs, baste it with your favorite sauce and cook for 10 more minutes.
6. After 10 minutes, take out the ribs and eat them!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Tocino Sliders with Atsarang Mangga
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• Cook the Book: Ad Hoc at Home – Blowtorch Prime Rib
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• Cook the Book: Momofuku – Roasted Rice Cakes

UPDATE 7/31/08
As much as I love this recipe, I always found it time consuming. Check out my post on Lazy Barbecue — Oven Beef Ribs for an easier barbecue beef rib recipe.

You can make good, tender, BBQ beef ribs, even if you don’t have a smoker. I use a Tea Smoking Mixture and a liquid smoke/oil mixture to ensure that the meat has that smokey flavor we all want and crave.

I was experimenting with BBQ Beef Ribs this summer with mixed results. My first attempt came out dry but tasty, and the second was a lot better because I used a different recipe but not exactly what I was looking for. (Image from kosherblog.net.)

I decided on “tea smoking” the meat, a Chinese technique that I found interesting since I’m not allowed to grill where I live and have to use the oven. I was a little concerned about the ribs having a “tea” flavor to them since I had never done this before, so I basted the ribs with a mixture of liquid smoke and olive oil before cooking to ensure a smoked hickory flavor. Honestly, I think the tea is merely a source of smoke and doesn’t really affect flavor, but the liquid smoke mixture ensures a more authentic, smokey flavor.

Start by cooking the ribs at 500 degrees for 30 minutes and then reduce the heat to 200 degrees and cook for 1 1/2 – 2 hours more. What results is tender, almost fall-off-the-bone beef ribs. Finish them using the broiler setting or throwing them on a hot grill so you get a nice crust on the ribs that makes them look as good as they taste. Serve it with the Texas-style BBQ Sauce recipe, or use your favorite sauce (Bullseye is a good choice).

INGREDIENTS
Ribs
3 – 4 beef rib slabs (3 to 4 ribs per slab, about 5 pounds total)
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

Dry Rub Recipe
4 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

Tea Smoking Mixture
1 cup loose black tea (Lapsang Souchong preferred)
1 cup rice
1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with at least two layers of aluminum foil
2. Spread the Tea Smoking Mixture evenly on the bottom of the baking sheet.
3. Place a wire rack or roasting rack above the Tea Smoking Mixture so that ribs are elevated above baking sheet
4. Mix chili powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper in small bowl
5. Remove membrane from the bone side of the ribs (See here for instructions)
6. Rub ribs evenly with spice mixture.
7. Place ribs on rack and let stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour
   About 30 minutes before you’re ready to cook, heat oven to 500 degrees (if you have a pizza stone, place this in the oven also).
8. When you’re ready to cook, baste ribs with liquid smoke/oil mixture and cover ribs with foil so that they are completely sealed. See smoker setup diagram at right.
9. Place ribs in oven directly on the rack or a pre-heated pizza stone.
   (Image from Cook’s Illustrated).
10. Cook ribs for 30 minutes at 500 degrees.
11. Reduce heat to 200 degrees. Leave oven open for a minute to cool it down.
12. Cook ribs for additional 90 minutes (for firmer ribs) or 2 hours for fall of the bone ribs. The meat will have shrunk, exposing about 1/2 to 1 inch of bone.
13. Remove ribs from oven and let them rest for 10 minutes before removing foil.
14. Remove ribs from foil and serve. You can also refrigerate them and then reheat them when ready to serve. If you want to finish the ribs so they have a nice crust, place them under the broiler or cook them meat side down on a hot barbecue grill or grill pan for 5 minutes. Flip and cook 5 more minutes and then serve with your favorite sauce on the side.

Possibly Related Posts:

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• Homemade Pork Tocino
• Know Your Ribeye, a.k.a. New Year’s Eve at Ad Hoc
• Cook the Book: Ad Hoc at Home – Blowtorch Prime Rib
• Chicharrones (Fried Pork Rinds)

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