Page 17 - July 2020 Barbecue News Magazine

4) Dry brine
Salt (NaCl) is the magic rock. Two little atoms, sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl), become electrically charged when they get wet from the moisture on the surface of the meat, and they can penetrate slowly to the center of the meat. Once in there they also alter the proteins and help them retain water. Salt also amplifies flavor without altering it. So, if you have time, salt your ribs an hour or three before cooking. Use 1/4 teaspoon Morton’s kosher salt or 1/8 teaspoon table salt per pound of ribs. This process of salting hours before cooking is called dry brining. Read more about dry brining on AmazingRibs.com https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/salting-brining-curing- and-injecting/dry-brining-easier-and-less-wasteful-wet-brining
You can add the rest of the seasonings, such as the rub, at the same time as the salt if you wish, but they will not go more than a fraction of an inch beyond the surface because their molecules are too large.
Beware: Some commercial rubs can be half salt. That’s some ex- pensive salt! But salt and spices should be applied differently. Be- cause salt penetrates the meat, you need to apply it based on the weight of the meat. Because spices sit on the surface so you apply them based on the surface area. For example: A slab of ribs and a hunk of pork shoulder might have the same amount of surface area but the shoulder can weigh 2 to 3 times the ribs and be many times thicker. So you need more salt on the shoulder but the same amount of spices. For this reason (and others) you should make your own rubs sans salt.
5) Season it
The rub should fuse onto the meat's surface and enhance the
meat, but not overwhelm it. Meathead’s Memphis Dust was for- mulated just for pork and is used by many competition teams, caterers, and restaurants. The recipe is free on AmazingRibs.com. https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/spice-rubs-and- pastes/meatheads-memphis-dust-rub-recipe
Before sprinkling on the rub, many cooks like to coat the ribs with a layer of mustard as a glue to hold onto the rub. Mustard is mostly water. If you want mustard flavor, add it to your rub. I just wet my hands and pat the meat to moisten it. Don’t be stingy with the rub. With a spice shaker with large holes, sprinkle on enough to coat the surface but not so much that you can’t see the meat below, about 1 teaspoon for every 4x4-inch square is a good rule of thumb to start.
6) Cook it low and slow with smoke
The best device is a dedicated smoker, but it is not hard to smoke ribs on a charcoal or gas grill set up in two zones.
Our Max Good is the only person in the world who tests grills and smokers full time. On our website, click on “Ratings & Reviews” to see his detailed testing results.
The ideal cooking temp is about 225°F in the indirect zone, hot enough to brown and dry the surface and develop a good bark, melt fat and collagens, but not so hot as to shrink the meat too much and make it tough and dry. On most cookers, when the oven temp is 225°F at sea level, it takes about three to four hours to cook a slab of babybacks and about five to six hours to cook a slab of St. Louis cut ribs or spares.
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JULY 2020
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