4:20 pm ribs....

Sometimes I hate television, only in america can I be watching tv at four in the afternoon when I stumble upon "Rib Paradises" on the travel channel and be so inspired to eat ribs that I drive straight to the grocery store, start the smoker and have 3 racks of ribs cooking by five! My last batch of ribs were far from perfect, in fact they were almost far from edible (my opinion). So looking for some redemption I succumbed to the ways of the internet and attempted the 3-2-1 method. Not being the "foiling type" this never interested me but it was worth a try none the less. For those unfamiliar the 3-2-1 method of ribs is a cooking process that consists of 3 hours in the smoke, 2 hours wrapped in foil with some kind of liquid and 1 more hour in the smoke. I did a slight hybrid of this and the last hour only left it in the smoke fore about 30 minutes and another 30 minutes finishing them with some sweet baby rays on the grill.

and away we go...

I should also mention I didn't see any good looking baby backs at the store so I ended up buying some st louis cut spares. This was my first time cooking spare ribs and honestly I prefer baby backs despite the price difference. The Spares are great for the extra meat but the tenderness of a loin back rib is unrivaled by anything I have tasted..

As with any piece of pork I have cooked a nice layer of yellow mustard for some stick and bark enhancement is always a good idea. Also don't forget to remove the membrane from the back!

Rubbed down and ready for some smoke

A good kitchen scale is paramount to good results!

I split one rack in half to ensure they would all fit on one rack, here are the end results. Texture and tenderness were perfect however the flavor was not.... I love this rub on pulled pork but cannot stand it on ribs for some reason. I am not sure if its the chilli powder or paprika but my pallet does not agree with one of the two red flavors. Next time I am keeping it simple with some salt, pepper, sugar and maybe some garlic and onion powder. I think its way too easy to over season mean and all you end up doing is ruining the true meaty deliciousness!  Less is almost ALWAYS more when it comes to cooking.

last but not least, the money shot... some serious bbq porn.

my first and last spare ribs : (

baby backs > *

So what did I learn? The 3-2-1 method is a good way to cook ribs I think with spares this method is a particularly great way to cook them. However it might be a bit much for leaner, lighter baby backs. That is unless you like fall of the bone ribs then the 321 with baby backs might be a good choice for you but for me a slight tug is a-ok for ribs. I am hungry just looking at the last picture, it might be time to try baby backs again.