After my trip to Texas at the beginning of the month and my introduction to what the term "Texas BBQ" really means (you have to taste it to understand the difference between that and what is called BBQ in the rest of the world) I needed to try to recreate that taste at home.

Using about 4# of pork ribs:

DRY RUB (Full recipe - put 1/2 away for next time)
1/4 C Paprika
1.5 T Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1.5 T Brown Sugar (packed)
1.5 t Cayenne
1.5 t garlic powder (or to taste if you like garlic :)
1.5 t dry mustard
1.5 t cumin
about 1T of Cajun seasoning

MOP (basting broth)
2 C Cider Vinegar
about 1/2 C Brown Mustard
Splash of Tabasco
Garlic Powder until it looked right
And since I'm moving soon, I used a splash of soy and that last 1/2 inch of whatever condiments were still on hand that "sounded right" for this purpose.

Prepared BBQ Sauce of choice

Skin the ribs (just learned this trick and it matters!) and dry rub both sides, reserving about 1/4-1/3 of the rub for later. I wrapped it back up and stuck it in the 'fridge until I was ready to cook.

Also recently learned, I used a smoker made from two tin cans over the fire on my gas grill with cherry wood sticks inside and NO direct flame under the meat...to imitate a "pit." You can buy little smoker boxes at Walmart that will do the same thing or (obviously) use a real smoker or pit if you have one. Keep the temperature inside about 210-220 degrees. I cooked the ribs for about 4.5 hours, "mopping" about every 45 minutes, sprinkling the nearly done meat with the remaining rub about 30-45 min before finished and then brushing BBQ sauce about 20-30 min before finished to let the sauce begin to caramelize a little.

Serve extra warmed BBQ sauce for the sauce lovers at your table.

These were SUPER delicious! My son can no longer claim the "Rib King" title in our family and I'd feel a little bad about that except that he DID get to enjoy something incredibly yummy.

But I didn't get any!!!!!

Ribs!!! Aaaahhhh

love em oriental style!!

Bury me with ribs baby...I'll eat em all the way to heaven!

This is the traditional way to cook them in Texas... but Memphis makes really INCREDIBLE ribs too... just the sauce is different... You can get them just as tender buy cooking them in a pressure cooker... actually they come out just a shade better... I love making my own sweet and sour and also root beer sauce... Thanks for this reminder... I think I'll buy some ribs today for this weekend

I have ALWAYS prefered mine to be to RUB RIBS,
right before sitting down to eat them....

oh, i love ribs.
i love it when a girl is so skinny her ribs show. that's hot.


. . .

its actually been years since I have had ribs

Ribs! (My Favorite) Oh!! I tasted, the West Texas Ribs, WOW!! they are great. & they are still my favorite. **TEXAS LOVES MEAT** (and they let me know this, when i worked for John Deere, in Seminole, Texas and two other Texas Cities.)

I am SO all over that rub recipe. lol

Looks like it's time for me to go buy a new grill and perhaps a smoker.

Don't forget the tuning.

YOU should explain that...

No, you should explain that. This is your thread.

First you take a harp...

Okay, seriously -
You have to "tune" your grill to keep it in the right temperature range. I don't happen to have a thermometer so I put a ceramic cup of water on the grill and checked it with a meat thermometer, then continued to check it for a while to make sure I had the flame at a level which would keep the grill at a fairly consistent temperature (210-220 degrees.) Remember that you only want flame under the smoker...not under the ceramic cup and not under the meat when you are cooking it.

BTW - if you don't see smoke coming out of your smoker, you don't have it hot enough. The 210-220 range worked for me, but watch it for your own use. Just keep it low enough temp that the meat can cook very, very slowly.

One more thing...and I totally learned all this from being fed one afternoon in Texas (blondes are quick learners!) is to make your little smoker from two tin cans, emptied, washed, one snipped/bent so that the open end can be inserted into the other end, then with about 8 holes punched in the side.

My blond sista is already turning Texan!!!

One delicious meal and blonde-intelligence...I'm a quick study! :)

I am definitely gonna try this next weekend

I think we need an official cookoff