Recipe & Process Notes
Ashley found some killer country-style pork ribs (the meatier kind) at the farmer’s market and this was a no-brainer. I really love Meathead’s Memphis Dust, so that’s what I used for the rub. The recipe below makes a large batch of it– we keep a large jar of it on hand.
We heavily salted the ribs and let them chill for 12+ hours, then they took a warm sous vide bath for 36 hours. We chilled them and then they hit the charcoal smoker for 15 minutes on a relatively low heat. I seared them very briefly over the coals to let the sugar caramelize and form a bark before I served them (dry, with optional BBQ sauce on the side).
I thought they were delicious but perhaps a bit too dry. Apparently this is the way country-style ribs are– more meaty, less juicy. I might stick with baby back or another less-meaty rib style going forward.
Meathead’s Memphis Dust Dry Rub
Ingredients
- ¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ½ cup sweet paprika
- ½ cup garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons rosemary powder
Instructions
Meathead’s recipe notoriously is lacking salt. You can read his long explanation for this, but the TL:DR is that it’s a good practice to pat meat dry with paper towels and cover it with salt first before adding a dry rub. This makes it harder to over-salt the meat if you happen to go overboard with the rub. It’s also beneficial to dry brine certain cuts of meat by coating them with salt and letting them hang out in the fridge for a while.
- If you have time, sprinkle on ½ teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat up to 12 hours in advance.
- Mix the ingredients thoroughly in a bowl. If the sugar is lumpy, crumble the lumps by hand or on the side of the bowl with a fork. If you store the rub in a tight jar, you can keep it for months. If it clumps just chop it up, or if you wish, spread it on a baking sheet and put it in a 225°F oven for 15 minutes to drive off moisture. No hotter or the sugar can burn.
- If you plan on serving with a BBQ sauce, wet the surface of the meat with water and sprinkle just enough Meathead’s Memphis Dust on to color it.
- For Memphis-style ribs without a sauce, apply the rub thick enough to make a crunchy crust, perhaps 2 tablespoons per slab of St. Louis Cut (Center Cut) and a bit less for baby backs.
- To prevent contaminating your rub with uncooked meat juices, spoon out the proper amount before you start and seal the bottle for future use. “Keep your powder dry,” as the old expression goes. To prevent cross-contamination, one hand sprinkles on the rub and the other hand does the rubbing. Don’t put the hand that is rubbing into the powder or use it to hold the bottle.
Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Ribs
Recipe by J. Kenji López-Alt adapted from Serious Eats. I snipped the relevant bits for making Memphis-style, dry-rubbed, country-style pork ribs finished on a charcoal smoker
Cook Instructions
- Remove the papery membrane on the back of the ribs, using a paper towel or kitchen towel to grip it and pulling it away in one piece. Divide each rack of ribs into three to four portions with three to four ribs each by cutting through the meat in between the ribs. Rub ribs generously on all sides with the remaining spice rub mixture. (Set aside 3 tablespoons spice rub if making dry-style ribs.)
- Place individual portions of rubbed ribs in vacuum bags. (Fold over the top of each bag while you add the ribs so that no rub or pork juices get on the edges of the bags, which can weaken the seal.) Add 4 drops (about 1/8 teaspoon) liquid smoke to each bag. Seal the bags, transfer to refrigerator, and let rest for 4 to 12 hours.
- Set your immersion circulator to 145°F (63°C) for extra-meaty ribs (or 165°F (74°C) for more traditionally textured ribs).
- Add ribs to the water bath and cover it with ping pong balls. Cook for 36 hours at 145°F (or 12 hours at 165°F for less meaty ribs). Transfer cooked ribs to a large bowl of water filled with ice to chill thoroughly. Ribs can be stored in the refrigerator at this stage for up to 5 days before finishing.
Finishing Instructions
- Remove ribs from vacuum bags and carefully pat dry with paper towels. Coat generously with more spice rub.
- Light one-half chimney full of charcoal (about 2 ½ quarts of coals). When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Add any smoker chips or blocks directly to the lit coals. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill, and allow to preheat for 5 minutes.
- Scrape the grill grates clean with a grill scraper, then oil the grates by holding an oil-dipped kitchen towel or paper towels in a set of tongs and rubbing them over the grates 5 to 6 times.
- Place the ribs, facing up, over the cooler side of the grill. Cover and cook until ribs are heated through and dry to the touch, about 15 minutes.
- Transfer ribs to hotter side of grill and continue grilling, turning occasionally, until a crusty bark has formed, about 10 minutes. Serve.