This is the order of time I spend on for the pieces of each blog entry starting with the most time spent:  creating the meal, figuring out what to make (sometimes this takes longer then the actual cooking), photographing the meal, and then writing the blog entry.  I tend to rush through writing the entry and in turn they are pretty short and not that descriptive.  I am going to change that.

I've made ribs one other time.  I tried to smoke ribs in the BGE using hickory wood chips last fourth of July.  It's a pretty bold task.  I'd never made ribs before that and I never smoked anything before that.  So I got everything set up, rubbed the ribs with a dry rub the night before, made a mop (which is a basting liquid to put on the ribs throughout the cooking so it stays moist), soaked the wood chips and started smoking the ribs. Well it turned out that a lot of people came over.  So now all of these people were there to try my first attempt at making ribs.  They turned out to be decent, but could have been better.  I think they had too much of a hickory flavor, like beef jerky.  They weren't tough but weren't fall off the bone either.  So that was a bit disappointing.

This time I decided to make the ribs in the oven.  It is so much easier to cook the ribs in the oven because you have full control over the temperature.  On the grill it's hard to make sure the temperature is consistent.  You have to keep opening and closing the vents, and pretty much have to stay by the grill the whole time.  In the oven, you just throw the ribs in and the oven takes care of it.

Another difference is the rub I used - a mixture of seasonings that you rub onto the meat prior to cooking.  The flavors soak in as it rests.  The last time I put the rub on the night before, but this time I put it on only 30 mins before cooking.  I didn't put it on the night before because I was afraid it would pull out most of the moisture, due to the salt.  But when I put on the rub only 30 mins before i was going to cook, I was afraid it wouldn't be long enough to soak into the meat.  That wasn't the case.  I definitely could taste the rub.  It was good but I will keep trying new ones until I find my secret rub recipe.  Here is a picture of my spice rub:

And now on to the recipe...

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1 1/2 tbsp mustard powder
• 1 tbsp crushed red pepper
• 1/2 black pepper, I used a smokehouse black pepper, but only because it was readily available
  
• liquid smoke
• RIIIIIIIIIIIIBBBBBBBBS, I used spare ribs, baby back would work too.  I don't remember the sizes, I just got a package from Shop-Rite
• Bottle of BBQ Sauce, you can make your own but in the words of Alton Brown, that's another show

Directions

1. Create the rub by mixing the first 7 ingredients.
2. There is a thin membrane on the bone side of the rib.  We want to remove this because it can make the ribs tough and also so the rub can touch the meat on both sides.  You have to get underneath it and then just pull it off slowly.  It helps if you use the backside of the spoon as to not cut it and allow you to get most of it off in one piece.
3. Rub the rub all over the meat and then put it in the fridge to let it soak up all of the spices.
4. After 30 mins, take it out of the fridge and put the oven on to 250.
5. Put the ribs in between pieces of foil and crumple the edges together to make a little oven for them.  Use double sheets on top and bottom to give more stability.
6. Cook for 3 hours.
7. Take the ribs out and let sit for 10 mins.
8. Take the ribs out of their packets.  At this point you can cut them into individual ribs, sets of two, half racks or just leave them as they are.
9. Turn the oven to broil.
10. Put the ribs on a cooking pan, meat side down, spread on bbq sauce and broil for 2 mins
11. Flip the ribs, put on some more sauce and broil for another 2 mins.
12. Get out some napkins because its time to get messy.