Over the weekend, I was catching up on Steven Raichlen’s show Barbecue University, gearing up for the Fourth of July. Raichlen definitely has a way of making standard barbecue dishes — ribs, chicken, big cuts of pork — interesting. He uses a lot of Asian and Mediterranean flavors and isn’t afraid to serve a lot of vegetables alongside his meat. I like that.

Anyway, one of this weekend’s shows featured baby back ribs. First, he marinated them. Then he made a rub for them. Then he made a glaze for them. As I was watching I found myself wondering: are all three of those necessary, or is he just trying to squeeze as much barbecue showmanship as possible into one recipe? What about just a rub or just a marinade? Or, at most, a marinade and then a glaze? At what point do the marinade, rub and glaze make each redundant or — worse — conflict with each other?

Last night I decided to look into it.

First, I made a chimichurri marinade. I nestled a rack of baby back ribs inside a ziploc bag, covered them with the marinade and refrigerated them for a couple of hours. When I was ready to start cooking, I pulled them out and patted them dry to get them ready for the rub.

I didn’t follow a recipe for the rub. I just combined a few spices I had on hand in roughly equal parts — ground cumin, ground ginger, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. (I went easy on the salt, figuring my glaze would be salty.) I sprinkled the rub over the ribs — not too much — and patted it in on both sides.

I got the hardwood charcoal going in my Big Green Egg, adjusted the vents so the grill was pegged at 325F, put the ribs on the grate and got to work on the glaze.

I didn’t want too strong a glaze, just a little caramelized sweet, salt, sour and umami taste — something to keep the ribs moist. I mixed together equal parts kecap manis, Dijon mustard, ketchup, and apple cider vinegar. The resulting sauce was really flavorful and balanced, but not overpowering.

Glaze in hand, I went out to the grill, flipped the rack of ribs and basted the cooked side with the glaze.

After 30 minutes I flipped and basted them again, and let them go until the meat seemed to be pulling away from the bone, about an hour total.

I think it’s tough to screw up ribs, but I was pleased with how they turned out. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where all the flavors were coming from, but for now, I’m thinking that Raichlen didn’t overdo it. The marinade, rub and glaze can each do their part to make the ribs better, as long as you watch the salt and keep a good balance of taste and flavor in mind.

Like Chip, I’m headed down South today. While I’m on the road I may experiment with some different flavor combinations. Suggestions always welcome.

Posted by brys in craving, recipes, personal, techniques | | Subscribe to this feed