Actually anytime is the time for ribs but I cooked these yesterday on a little charcoal grill at my chef friend Jamie's house (her recipe and she did the prep. I just cooked!). They were meaty, tender, and the glaze was slightly caramelized. I used lump Mesquite charcoal. The ribs are done when you sample one and pronounce "Yum".

SERVES SIX

6 pounds pork baby back ribs
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine sugar, salt, paprika, turmeric, celery seed and dry mustard. Rub mixture all over ribs, cover and let stand from 2 hours to overnight. Put ribs bone side down on grill for 30 minutes on low, then grill for another 30 minutes. Cook covered.

Meanwhile in saucepan, combine ketchup, brown sugar, ginger, soysauce and garlic. Cook, stirring until sugar is disolved. Brush sauce on both sides of ribs and grill uncovered until done, 10 to 15 minutes more. Heat any remaining sauce and serve with ribs.

i'm ready to eat

k now im hungwy

Almost the same color and degree of caramelization!

I don't know but my mouth is seriously drooling
I bbq ribs

Yummo!!

yum yum! pass me some....

i didn't want to do it. but that is decsent!

I am not clear on this part. What is the difference between the first 30 minutes and the next 30 minutes? Are you flipping them bone side up for the second half hour? Are you changing the temperature for the second half hour? Are you foiling them for the second half hour? You just say cook covered. Since something is different the first 30 minutes and the next 30 minutes, do you mean to just cook covered the second half hour?

I know you said someone else did the prep work for you, but you failed to mention trimming the ribs or removing the membrane before you begin. It is always nice to include prep instructions in your recipe in case a beginner is going to try it. Failure to remove the membrane results in a huge deduction of grillmanship points, and this doesn't matter if it is in the back yard or a restaurant. I have eaten a lot of ribs in restaurants that have not had the membrane removed. They really should know better.

You also failed to identify your cooking method. Are you doing the ribs using a direct grilling method, indirect method, modified direct grilling method, or using a smoker. I know it was probably not a smoker because you said a small charcoal grill.

Back during national barbeque month, they had a grilling week on the food network. I watched two shows during grilling week about cooking ribs.

The first was on Alton Brown's Good Eats show. He never removed the membrane. He said to just pat the rub on the ribs and to not rub it. HUH? That is why they call it a freekin' rub! And he steamed the ribs in aluminum foil in the oven.

Then, I watched Down Home with the Neelys and they showed how they do ribs. They made a point of removing the membrane. They said to rub the rub into the ribs real good. They took the ribs outside and smoked them low and slow on the exact same smoker that I have. They explained how to use wood to get that great wood smoked flavor.

I'm sorry Alton, but I'm down home with the Neelys on this one.

I likes me some st louis style ribs betta, but mmm mmm recipe sounds gooooooodddd.

I have watched a lot of Alton Brown and find his show enjoyable. However, over and over he shows that in many areas of cooking, he doesn't know sh**. He will take some time tested food like BBQ or Chili of which he has no experience, and show a "quicker better way" of preparation. Martha Stewart has a bad habit of doing that too. Practice makes perfect.

BTW, I think Alton was actually a cameraman, not a cook.

BTW, the recipe up there is how I "grilled" the ribs. Grilling ribs is a common summer way to cook and works well. Trust me, they were yummy.

However, a better way to cook ribs is by slow smoking. The above method overall took about an hour and a half. Slow smoking takes about four, give or take, depending upon pit temperature.

Fire up your wood smoker or set up your charcoal grill for indirect cooking (fire on one side and meat on the other). Don't let the internal temperature of the pit/grill go over about 275F or the ribs will dry out. Just to make sure, baste (mop) every twenty minutes or so with a mix of beer and cooking oil. Keep one half of the beer with you at all times while cooking and constantly check for rogue beer spoilage.

The ribs are ready when a toothpick enters the meat between the bones easily (actually, after a while ... you just know). In the last thirty minutes you can baste with the sauce instead of the mop ... or not. The longer smoking period will add depth, smoke, and flavor to the ribs. You may not want sauce.

If you would rather use a simple spicy rub you can use

3 Tbs salt
3 Tbs good quality paprika
1 Tbs ground black pepper (freshly ground is better)
1 Tbs cayenne

If you like less spicy substitute garlic for the cayenne

If you like sweeter, add one or two Tbs of sugar

If you are from Texas, add one or two Tbs of chili power to the rub.

If you want complexity, go back to the top recipe and add one Tbs powered mustard and substitue molasses for the sugar.

hmmmm--i bbq all year round--rain or shine--hot or cold--i still bbq--

Agreed. I saw one of his shows recently about espresso that I thought was good.

I was a little shocked at how he does ribs. But heck, it is probably no worse than some of these chain restaurants that serve ribs. I read their menus and they talk about their ribs being cooked slowly over hickory wood...blah....blah....blah. Why don't I see any stacks of hickory wood out back? Why don't I see any employees carrying any wood around? Why don't I smell any wood burning? Why do their ribs not have a smoke ring? Those menus are downright false advertising. They might have some hickory liquid smoke in the sauce.

I saw a show on Food Network that showed how Texas Roadhouse did their ribs. It was pretty much what I figured. The only thing that I found hard to believe was that they cooked them in the oven for 8 hours at 350. I thought they would be way over done that way. Anyway, I have had their ribs and they are a tasteless mush.

Ummmm....I guess I didn't ask my questions very well. I was simply trying to ask the grilling technique. I am assuming that you grilled them using indirect grilling based on the time that it took. The recipe at the top just failed to mention it.

Also, there seemed to be some kind of difference in the first 30 minutes and the second 30 minutes. The top recipe just didn't explain it.

I agree that I prefer using my smoker for ribs. I have used indirect grilling on my kettle grill if I am in a hurry. I have also done them on a gas grill with a smoker pouch. I have also done them on a rotisserie. If I have my druthers and I have the time, I prefer doing them on my smoker.

It looks like a really good recipe. I am sure they were yummy. I just had a couple of questions about how you did them. Heck, I really just enjoy talking about the art of cooking over a live fire.

Yeah, I got lazy. The first set of ribs discussed was grilled directly over a mesquite charcoal gill with a cover. The basic cooking method of direct grilling ribs always has the bones down to keep the meat from drying out. Placing the bones down over low heat for thirty minutes brings the bones up to temp first and starts to cook the meat next to the bones before flipping. After flipping the ribs bone side up over direct heat, the meat can cook uniformly. Keeping the lid closed allows additional heat to work from all directions. Cooking ribs on an uncovered grill takes much longer and tends to lead to dry meat. Baste (mop) of course adds moisture and flavor. There really is not enough room to use indirect methods on a small charcoal grill.

My friend Jaimi mixed up the rub, rubbed it on the meat, put it in the fridge overnight and mixed up the sauce. She handed me the meat the next day and said "Here you go!" so off I went. The fire I made was hotter than called for in the recipe so I had to pay attention and rotate the center ribs to the outer (cooler) ares about every five minutes or so.

In the smoker, it doesn't matter really which way the ribs go although bone side down is usually done from habit. There are some nice racks that allow you to stand ribs up in a larger smoker which mainly allows you to get way more racks in the pit.

We remove the membrane 90 percent of the time depending upon how hungry we are, whether or not we have started drinking beer, how much help is available (we usually cook a lot) and what phase the moon is in. Actually, on the cookoff team, we remove the membrane on the ones we turn in and most of the rest, but lately have not removed it on a percentage of the rest. They come out more tender without the membrane and more crispy with it. Some say the membrane adds flavor; they are usually the assistants we cooks have asked to remove the membranes.

I'm not exactly sure but I think we did seven hundred pounds at the rodeo this year. We ran out.