It’s been really, really rainy here the last month, which can put a damper on summer barbecue plans. On a day that was supposed to be sunny, we planned to go all out and turn our kettle charcoal grill into a smoker and barbecue some ribs. That afternoon it decided to start raining, but it wasn’t raining too hard, we have a covered area in our back yard, and we would be cooking over low heat anyway. It wasn’t as pleasant as originally planned, but the ribs still turned out well.

To me, barbecuing absolutely not the same as grilling; you can’t just grill a slab of baby back ribs, you have to barbeque them, which means setting them up to smoke for several hours over low heat. We only recently got a grill, and I had never done anything like this before. I diligently followed the instructions for how to turn your kettle grill into a smoker given on Simply Recipes, which made it look easy enough to set up that I figured, why not?

Along with the ribs, I put together a batch of cole slaw and some corn bread. I’ll put the corn bread in a separate post, but the slaw will stay in this one. Both the slaw and the ribs started the night before; the ribs set to brine in a mix of 4 cups water, 1/4 cup salt and 1/2 cup brown sugar. The slaw was actually put together entirely the night before to give it time to cure, so to speak.

I don’t have a full sized food processor, so I cheated on the carrots and bought pre-shredded. I wanted to cheat on the cabbage too, but I couldn’t find any pre-shredded cabbage at the store, so I just sliced it top to bottom in thin sections, and it fell apart as if it had been shredded anyway.

You’re actually supposed to mix the dressing in a bowl before adding it to the vegetables, but I guess I wasn’t really paying attention. In any case, if you mix it up well at this point, it should be fine anyway (and it was).

After spending overnight in the fridge, voila, cole slaw. It’s a ridiculously easy dish to make, but it is better to give it overnight, or at least several hours to set. This gives time for some of the moisture to come out of the cabbage and incorporate with the dressing, as well as for the dressing to marinate the vegetables as well.

The next day the ribs come out of their brine and get a rub applied. I used the Spice House’s Old World Central Street Seasoning, which is a tasty mix for all kinds of meat. The rub should be applied at least an hour before putting them on the grill; with the length of time it took to get the grill started, mine ended up sitting for about 2 hours. This also gives the meat time to come up to room temperature, which is best.

The grill is set up like so: a disposable, aluminum pan half full of water is place on one side of the grill so that the ribs will be sitting over it. This is for catching drips, and for helping to keep the ribs moist. On the other side the coals are heaped. Here you can see the chimney starter on the side where the coals will go. A chimney starter is best for this kind of thing because it more evenly lights the coals. We used lump charcoal (not briquettes), which is better for smoking.

I don’t have a picture from of the wood chips, but we used hickory wood chips we picked up at Home Depot and soaked for about 2 hours. They got scattered on the hot coals to provide smoke, and it really worked! After the charcoal is dumped out of the chimney and the first handful of wood chips are put on, the grill grate goes on and so does the meat, over the side with the pan (not directly over the coals!). Put the lid on such that the vent is on the meat side so that the smoke gets directed over the meat. Close down all the openings to cool down the fire, and keep a close eye on the temperature. I used a candy thermometer stuck through the openings in the vent; it should read between 250-300ºF.

Every hour I checked the meat, turned it, basted it with a mix of apple juice and bourbon, and threw some more coals and wood chips on the fire. Fortunately both our lump coal and our wood chips contained small enough pieces to slip through the grate, which made everything much easier. I ended up cooking our meat for about 3 hours, but next time I would go for five or six probably. The meat was pretty tender, but it could be even better. About a half an hour to 45 minutes before the ribs were going to get taken off the grill I started basting them with barbecue sauce (store bought) as well. You don’t want to add that too early so that the sugar inside it doesn’t scorch.

The ribs came out great, just like real barbecue. They were very smoky and pretty tender, though like I said before I could have smoked them for even longer to make them more tender. All in all a very rewarding experience, and one I’ll try again.

Homemade ribs, cole slaw and corn bread… a great meal.

The ribs don’t have a recipe, but below is the recipe I used for the cole slaw, an adaptation of Bobby Flay’s Creamy Cole Slaw.

Cole Slaw (adapted from Bobby Flay)

Ingredients

• 1/2 head of white cabbage, sliced into ribbons
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 3/4 cup of mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/8 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons celery salt
• Salt and ground black pepper

Directions

1. Combine the shredded cabbage and carrots in a large bowl.
2. Whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, parsley, sugar, vinegar, celery salt, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl, and then add to the cabbage mixture.
3. Mix well to combine and taste for seasoning. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.