Individual Spare Ribs

So ... I have not shared any of my BBQ adventures recently.

I've been smoking / grilling every week, but just have not had anything I've taken the time to share.

Sunday, I did something new, though.

I've tried various ways to smoke BBQ Spare Ribs. all of which take several hours to make.

On various BBQ forums, I've seen pit masters do ribs "hot and fast". Some of them cut the ribs into individuals before putting on the grill.

Theoretically, individual ribs cook faster than a big rack of ribs.

With all the riding I'm doing this month, long cooks are a little more difficult to pull off. So, I decided to give this technique a try on Sunday.

I trimmed up the ribs early Sunday morning and placed them in a plastic bag to marinate for a couple of hours.

Then, after my Sunday ride, I pulled those our and applied my "SheppyBrew Rub", letting them sit a little longer.

Usually, when cooking ribs as a whole rack, I would have aimed to get the ribs on the kettle around 1pm. With this technique I had them on the kettle a little after 3pm.

I probably could have waited another half hour or so.

I started the grill a little lower in temperature, leaving the vents wide open so that it would heat up over an hour or so.

After about an hour, I had to open the lid a bit to get the heat up around 275 to 300.

I let the ribs cook until around 5:10 and slathered the ribs in BBQ Sauce.

I let the sauce tack up over the next 40 minutes or so. The temperature at this point was between 250 and 275.

Then, I pulled them off and let them rest just a bit.

They turned out FANTASTIC. So Guuuud! This might be my new preferred method of cooking ribs. They were not fall-off-the-bone, but honestly, I enjoy a little more bite on my ribs a little more than that tenderness.

I think next time I might go for closer to a 2 hour cook with a little higher temperature earlier, which would save me a little more time. 

Although, they turned out so great this way, maybe not. If you look at Sheppy's Blog: Spare Ribs, you might see how I do it next time.

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