Pork ribs on the BBQ

I don’t know how many of you have tried cooking ribs on the barbeque, but it doesn’t always turn out the way you’d like them to. You can always make killer ribs in a crock pot and slow cook them, but there’s nothing like food cooked on the grill.

Like many good recipes for the grill, marinating the meat is always a great idea. Ribs are no exception. A good friend of mine, and work colleague I might add, gave me a recipe a while back. I tweeked it a little. It is a great way to prepare your ribs so I thought I would share this recipe with all of you.

So here are the steps to a killer feed of ribs:

1. Boil your ribs in a mixture of tomato juice and water. Cut your ribs in smaller portions, with 3-4 rib bones per portion. You then place them in the water/tomato juice mixture.  The mixture should be approx. 1/2 water and 1/2 tomato juice. I have used tomato sauce in the same way and diluted it a bit more with water. Boil the ribs for approx. 45 minutes.

2. While the ribs are boiling, mix up your marinate. Your marinate consists of mixing together your favorite barbecue sauce and maple syrup. The mixture should be approx. 1/2 barbecue sauce and 1/2 maple syrup. Depending on the thickness of your barbecue sauce, you may be able to do with a little less, or perhaps a little more, maple syrup.

3. After the ribs are finished boiling, you’ll now want to remove them from the water and place them on a rack to cool.

4. Once the ribs have finished cooling you can place them in a container of your choosing and marinate them with the barbecue/maple syrup mixture. Use a brush and thoroughly cover the ribs in the marinate, ensuring you cover all surface areas.

5. Now you’re ready to place the ribs in the refridgerator. Cover your container of ribs and now place them in the refridgerator for a minimum of 5 hours. Now the secret to really great ribs is to keep them in the marinate for a longer period of time, even up to 2 or 3 days. The longer the ribs stay in the marinate in the fridge, the better they’ll be.

6. Here comes time to barbecue. Take your container of ribs out of the refridgerator and start the grill. It’s always good to have some of the marinate on hand at barbecue time. What I like to do is brush the ribs with marinate again before they go on the grill. Ribs are best cooked at low to medium heat on the top rack. Place them on the bottom rack, and unless you have a really expensive grill they will burn up. It’s better to cook them slowly on the top grill (with the barbecue closed of course). Flip the ribs periodically and brush them with the marinate, perhaps every 5-7 minutes or so. It usually takes approx. 30 minutes to cook them. It might take a little longer, it depends on your barbecue, and also the quality of the ribs you purchased.

7. The ribs are now cooked. Remove them from the grill and  place them on a platter to serve. A nice side of fries and veggies, and you’re good to go.

Enjoy!