Once you have your equipment picked out, you need to pick your meat. I’d suggest starting with spare ribs since they are less expensive than babybacks, and tend to be a bit more forgiving as you cook them.
Let’s look at the ways to cook them.
Oven
Yep, you can do them indoors. Just put them in a covered roaster on a meat rack with a little apple juice in the bottom of the roaster. Cover it, and put it in the oven set for 225 and leave them in there for 3 to 4 hours. This gives you perfect, fall of the bone tender ribs. But, no smokey flavor. Once they are done, you CAN throw these on the grill to apply and set a BBQ sauce and add a little smokey flavor.
Weber Kettle Grill
Use about 1/2 to 3/4 of a chimney full of charcoal. Bank all of the charcoal to one side of the kettle (push all the coals to one side in a pile). Put on the rack and place your ribs on the opposite side as far away from the coals as possible. You can also put a tray of water in the middle of the grate to add some moisture and deflect some of the heat. You’ll cook the ribs anywhere from 2 to 3.5 hours. You should baste them with a wet mop (one part oil to one part cider vinegar is great) every 30 minutes. You should also turn the meat 180 degrees every 30 minutes. This is so that one side of the ribs doesn’t spend all of its time closer to the pile of coals than the other side.
You can also flip them occasionally, but this isn’t required....but turning them is. When the meat has pulled back on the bone by about 1/2 inch and the meat between the ribs is fork tender, take them off and wrap them in foil. Allow them to rest for 10 minutes then serve.
Water Smoker
If it is a water smoker, start a batch of coals in the fire pit, place the body on the fire pit, then fill the water pan with water. Add your ribs to the meat racks and then cover. You want to watch the temperature and keep it at 225 to 235. When you first start this, the water will be cold and will absorb most of the heat, so it will keep the temp at 220 or less the first 30 minutes. After that, the water will have heated up, and the temperature in the smoker will begin to rise. At this point, close the bottom air vents to decrease airflow and cool the coals. Leave the vents closed for 15 to 30 minutes and watch the temp. When it is at 225 and steady, crack the vents a bit. If the temp falls, open the vents a bit.
You’ll also need to add more charcoal every 45 to 60 minutes. To do so, light the charcoal in a chimney off to the side, then transfer the lit coals to the fire pit via the front door on the smoker. You CAN add unlit coals (and I often do because I’m lazy), but you run the risk of tainting your meat with charcoal smoke instead of wood smoke!
Speaking of smoke, you should have some wood chunks (or chips, but chunks are better) soaking in a bucket of water. Add a few chunks every 40 minutes or so. Depending on the type of wood you use, and how strong you want the smoke, you can add wood more often.
As you are cooking, resist the urge to peek. Try not to take the top off for the first 1.5 to 2 hours. After that, you can start basting with a wet mop. I like to baste every 30 – 35 minutes. Keep the temp at 225 to 235, and cook the meat for about 3.5 hours. Again, when the meat pulls back on the bone and is fork tender, they are ready. Let them rest in foil for 10 minutes before serving. If you want sauce on your ribs, add it after abut 3 hours of smoking so that it will be on the ribs for about 35 minutes or so to set.
Offset Smoker
If you use an offset smoker, the same methodology is used except you don’t have a water pan. Also, placement of your meat is important. The firebox is off to the side, so where you place the meat on the rack is important with relation to how close it is to the opening where the heat from the fire pit is coming. You’ll want a good oven thermometer to place in this kind of smoker so that you can monitor various locations for temp. As with the water smoker, keep the temp at 225 – 235, and run the ribs for about 3.5 hours. Baste them every 30 minutes after the first 1.5 hours of cook time.
Notes
You can also “cheat” cook your ribs by simply par boiling them first for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then grill them with direct or indirect heat and add a sauce. I don’t suggest this method, and it doesn’t sound like what you’re looking for anyway.
To make basting much easier, get a large spray bottle from a home improvement store and mix one part apple cider vinegar to one part oil. Shake well, and then just spray the meat! Super simple and very easy!
For charcoal, always use Kingsford or another quality brand. You’re going to be cooking a cut of meat for 3.5 to 4 hours, so now is not the time to save a few pennies on charcoal. Get the good stuff and you will be pleased. Lump coal is also an option, but I don’t suggest playing with that until you have mastered using regular coal. As for wood, experiment a bit. Hickory is the classic wood for smoke. Mesquite is good, but you don’t want to use a lot of it on ribs (kind of strong). Oak is a great choice as well. Since Hickory and Mesquite are so readily available in most stores, I’d suggest getting a bag of hickory CHUNKS and start with that.
