Baby Back Rib

These spicy-sweet ribs are ideal for fuss-free grilling as they can be cooked directly on the grill, with no need to bake or steam them first.

If you like your ribs extra saucy, remove them from the grill when they’re ready, baste them one last time with the barbecue sauce, then throw them back on the grill to make them nice and sticky.

I love the notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, sweet warming spices in these baby back ribs.

Serve these mouthwatering ribs alongside a simple slaw made with shredded cabbage, lime juice, and avocado oil mayonnaise.

Making a batch of barbecued ribs in the Instant Pot is much faster than doing it on the grill, and you can make them any time of the year.

Cooking ribs under pressure means they get incredibly tender without falling apart or shredding—in a fraction of the time as braising and with no attention needed.

A tamarind glaze gives these grilled ribs an intoxicatingly sweet, spicy, and sour flavor.

Tim Love's rib rules are few, but strict: Don't par-boil, rub liberally but never sauce, and once they're smoking, keep your hands off.

For Super Bowl 50, go all-out with our epic 50-ingredient nachos, or choose just one of the (much-simpler) five “zones” to make for game day.

Slow-cooked and broiled in the oven, these sweet ribs can be made year-round.

Grilling baby back ribs is an exercise in patience, requiring low and slow heat to break down the tough connective tissue for a tender result (similar to what happens for braising; see pages 180–181). This method is called barbecuing, created by maintaining a constant stream of hot smoke over, rather than directly under, the ribs. To do this, the coals are heaped on one side and the ribs placed on the other; the opened vents, positioned over the ribs, draw the heat from the coals to the ribs. The temperature of the grill should be carefully monitored so that it never gets higher than 300°F; a basic oven thermometer set near the ribs will prove indispensable here. To cool it down quickly, open the lid.

Even though eating a slab of baby back ribs isn’t an Italian tradition, I felt that, Italians being the pork lovers they are, we could justify serving ribs as long as they had an Italian sensibility. After much prodding by me and experimenting by him, Matt came up with these tender, juicy, peppery, fennely, vinegary, Italianish baby back ribs. It was his brilliant idea to saw the racks of ribs in half down the middle— something you’ll have to ask a butcher to do for you. The riblets feel a bit closer to the single rib you might be served among the unusual cuts on a mixed grill plate in Umbria or Tuscany instead of something you’d get in a roadside barbecue joint. Italian? Not exactly. Delicious? Very. The coleslaw recipe makes twice as much dressing as you’ll need to dress the slaw for four servings, but because it is an emulsified dressing made with one egg yolk, you can’t make less.

We don’t understand why pork ribs are too often confined to summer barbecues, outdoor festivals, and dinner at a rib joint. At $15 to $20 a restaurant rack, maybe it’s the cost. But at half the per-pound price of rib eyes, filets, and strip steaks, cost can’t be the whole story. We think ribs are just another casualty of barbecue hype and mystique, a victim of their own popularity. The result is that lots of folks are reluctant to make them at home. Can they be any good if they’re not from a “real pit barbecue” restaurant, a competition team with matching shirts and dancing pig logo, or the crazy guy down the street with six grills and a smoker on wheels? Truth is, we should all be making ribs and having them with champagne, another enjoyment unfortunately confined to special occasions. If you’re a reluctant ribber, or still recovering from disappointing attempts, the cheater oven method will lead you to really great “fall-off-the-bone” spare-and baby back ribs with consistent results and minimal hassle. No lie.

If you love ribs, it’s hard to break the habit of the classic barbecue profile of brown sugar, vinegar, and ketchup. Since we can’t easily find lamb ribs in Nashville, we cheat by dressing up pork ribs with Mediterranean herbs, garlic, and mustard. Serve the pork in lamb’s clothing with couscous, rice, garlicky white beans, tomatoes and fresh basil, Greek feta salad, pita bread, or anything inspired by any country that touches the Mediterranean—and anything other than sweet barbecue beans and traditional slaw.

To mop or not to mop, that is the question. There seem to be two schools of thought about moppin’ ribs while they’re cookin’. Personally, I think that if the ribs look dry and thirsty you should mop ‘em. Mop sauce should never contain sugars that would burn before the ribs are cooked through. A good mop sauce is based on the spicy flavors of the rub.

Because our weather in Central New York is less than tropical, we have to figure out ways of keepin’ those warm weather flavors coming even when poundin’ rain or three-foot drifts make it hard to get to your backyard grill. So here’s a way to make ribs in your oven and bring on all the flavors of places with better weather. Our method for makin’ ribs in the oven can also be applied to the recipe for Dinosaur-Style Ribs (page 93). All you’ll be missin’ is the taste of the smoke and the smell of the outdoors, but the ribs will still be fallin’-off-the-bone tender.

Our use of ribs extends beyond a plate of ribs. We use them in gnocchi and in potato soup, and we will cut them into three, remove the bones, and make a McKiernan ribs sandwich. As lard was a staple at the turn of the century, so are ribs at Joe Beef. We provide two ways of cooking: roasting and smoking. Serve with Good Fries (page 154).

Small and lean baby-back ribs are a quick-cooking (and very tender) alternative to spare ribs. If desired, coat them with your favorite spice rub before baking. Serve the ribs with any of the potato side dishes on page 284 or steamed corn on the cob.

Barbecued ribs are a delicacy born of the ingenuity of the poorest—the slaves and servants who were tossed bones by their masters and transformed gristly, fatty “spare ribs” into a complex delicious, finger-sucking feast—the New World equivalent of the French potage. The trick to cooking ribs is keeping them moist: brining is a must. Even the most delicious housemade bacon would envy the subtle woodsy notes infused from the smoked salt used in this brine. Bacony ribs glazed with a rich and spicy sauce: it’s like Christmas in July.

Coca-Cola is to Atlanta as Guinness is to Dublin. Friends and family liked my Coca-Cola–Glazed Wings (page 24) so much that I decided to try a similar combination on pork. Pork has a natural affinity for sweet, rich caramel flavors. These “nouveau” Southern ribs are by no means traditional, but they are lip-smacking good. Scotch bonnet peppers are intensely hot, but their fire is tempered by the sweetness of the sugar and Coke. To tone down the heat, substitute jalapeños instead.

Back ribs are sometimes referred to as loin back ribs but are most commonly called baby back ribs. The baby back rib is cut from the upper section of the rib cage below the spine and the loin muscle of the pig. A slab of baby back ribs can have as many as 15 bones (the number of bones in a pig’s rib cage). This long thin cut of pork has many defining characteristics. The bones are no thicker than a finger and are slightly curved. Because of the small bones there is generally more meat between each bone than on spare ribs. Baby back ribs are the leanest pork rib type, with a less pronounced pork flavor and a finer and denser texture. Pineapple Sweet Ribs utilize a sweet rub and a fruity liquid seasoning, followed by a sweet glaze. The key to a multi-step rib is to layer the flavors, creating complex tastes without overpowering the pork flavor. This strategy worked at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 2004, when the judges declared this rib recipe the winner of this world championship event.

I love these ribs—they’re better than real BBQ for two reasons: (1) They ring in at one-third the calories and fat of the original, and (2) you can make them easily at home in your oven and enjoy BBQ even when it’s raining, or too hot, or too cold, or the mosquitoes are out in droves.

Craig promises that if you follow this recipe, you can make dizzyingly delicious Chinatown char siu ribs at home in the oven or on the grill. That makes them a great choice for the winter, when you've got a hankering for ribs and the smoker is snowed in. Many Chinese restaurants use spareribs that are chopped into 3- to 4-inch riblets. If you want, your butcher can make you riblets with a band saw. Craig likes baby backs for this recipe because they are a bit meatier. You can also substitute 4 pounds of pork loin for the ribs if you wish. The booze is important for the marinade because it helps penetrate the meat, and even if you're a teetotaler, don't worry—there isn't any measurable alcohol in the ribs. If you must skip it, use apple juice or water. You can buy char siu sauce at Chinese specialty stores, and it makes a fine glaze, but it doesn't make ribs that taste like Chinese restaurant ribs. That's because you need to marinate the meat in a thin sauce first.