Fourth of July Baby Back Ribs
Baby back ribs with a sweet and smoky rub, cooked low on the grill or smoker, wrapped with butter and honey, then glazed with sauce. Tender, not mushy.
- Full Meals
- Smoker
- Grill
- Pork
- Dinner
- 330 min total
- Serves 6
Ingredients
Ingredients for servings
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Original recipe serves 6. Ingredient amounts adjust automatically. Cooking times and pan size may need adjusting separately.
Ribs
- 3 racks baby back ribs, about 2.5 lb each
- 3 tbsp yellow mustard, binder
Rub
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
Wrap
- 6 tbsp butter, sliced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup apple juice
Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce
Gear
- Smoker or grill set up for indirect heat
- Hickory or apple wood chunks
- Heavy-duty foil
- Basting brush
- Grill thermometer
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Steps
Step 1: Flip each rack bone-side up. Slide a butter knife under the thin membrane on a middle bone, lift, grab it with a paper towel and peel it off.
Step 2: Mix the rub. Brush the ribs thinly with mustard and season both sides well. Let them sit while the cooker heats.
Step 3: Set up a smoker or a grill for indirect heat at 250 to 275°F with a few chunks of hickory or apple wood. On a kettle, push the coals to one side; on gas, light one side only.
Step 4: Put the ribs on, meat-side up, away from the fire. Cook 2.5 hours, spritzing with apple juice once or twice after the first hour, until the bark is set and the color is deep mahogany.
Step 5: For each rack, lay out a large sheet of heavy foil. Scatter 2 tablespoons butter, a drizzle of honey and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Lay the rack meat-side down on top, pour in a splash of apple juice, and wrap tightly.
Step 6: Return to the cooker for 1 to 1.5 hours, until the meat has pulled back from the bones about 1/4 inch and a toothpick slides between the bones easily.
Step 7: Unwrap carefully (hot steam). Put the ribs back on the grate meat-side up, brush with sauce and cook 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce is sticky. Brush again once.
Step 8: Rest 10 minutes. Slice between the bones and serve with extra sauce.
Game plan
Fourth of July cookout at 5:00 PM (ribs, corn, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon):
- Day before: Make the potato salad and the rub. Chill watermelon.
- 11:00 AM: Peel membranes and rub the ribs. Light the cooker.
- 11:30 AM: Ribs on.
- 12:30 PM: Doctor up 2 cans of baked beans (onion, brown sugar, bacon) and put them on the cooler side of the grill or in a 275°F oven.
- 2:00 PM: Wrap.
- 3:30 PM: Unwrap, sauce. Corn on the hot side of the grill, 10 to 12 minutes, turning.
- 4:15 PM: Ribs off and rest. Slice watermelon.
- 4:30 to 5:00 PM: Slice and serve. Fireworks later.
Swaps
- Spare ribs: St. Louis cut spares take about an hour longer total.
- Oven: Bake at 275°F for 2.5 hours, wrap and bake 1 hour more, then sauce under the broiler 3 to 5 minutes.
- Dry ribs: Skip the sauce; dust with more rub before serving.
Tips
- Doneness test: pick up the rack in the middle with tongs. It should bend until the surface cracks, but not break apart.
- Sweet sauce burns. Only add it at the end.
The story
HAM Cooking. Let’s fire it up.
On the Fourth of July, the neighborhood smells like charcoal, lighter fluid and somebody’s cousin learning the hard way that you shouldn’t put the sauce on first. Let’s be the house where it smells right.
This is a riff on the classic three-stage rib method. Stage one is smoke, where the ribs pick up flavor and build a bark. Stage two is the wrap: butter, honey and juice create a little steam bath that pushes the meat to tender quickly. Stage three, back on the grate with sauce, sets the glaze into a sticky, shiny coat. Baby backs are leaner and smaller than spare ribs, so they wrap for less time. Too long in the foil and they get mushy.
Here’s my take: the perfect rib leaves a clean bite mark, with meat that comes off the bone where you bit and stays put everywhere else. Falling off the bone sounds nice, but that’s overcooked. Bite, pull, pause, grin. That’s the rib.
HAM out.
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