Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Everyone has a go-to method for grilling ribs that (hopefully) earns accolades from guests at cookouts. Many pitmasters have taken years to refine their process—but if that process doesn’t involve a blowtorch, it’s not going to earn the credit it deserves.
Sure, grilling ribs is a pretty basic procedure: Season the meat, prepare the fire, toss the ribs on the grill, close the lid, periodically check to make sure the temperature is constant, replenish smoke wood if necessary, and maybe slather the meat with sauce… All the while, the conversation meanders around any number of topics—until the pitmaster busts out a blowtorch to finish the ribs. Then, the talk will turn to one thing: “You’re going to do what to those ribs?”
Trust us: On Monday morning, your guests’ water-cooler conversations will revolve around those ribs. It will go something like this: “You’re not going to believe the ribs I had this weekend!”
1. Skin and Season
Remove the membrane from the bone side of the ribs, using a paper towel for a better grip. Then season both sides of the rack with salt and your favorite rub, starting on the bone side first.
2. Smoke
Prepare the grill for two-zone or indirect grilling. For a traditional grill, that means hot coals and smoke wood on one side, meat on the other. In a Kamado-style grill, there is a plate setter between the coals and the grill the meat is on, to deflect the heat. The target temperature for both styles of grill is 300 degrees.
3. Torch
After smoking the meat for about two hours, until it pulls back about a quarter to a third of an inch from the bones, make a glaze of four parts apricot preserves, four parts apple jelly, two parts hot-pepper jelly, and one part Worcestershire sauce. Warm the mixture in a microwave to melt the gelatin. Slather the ribs with the glaze. Then spark up a standard propane plumber’s torch. To caramelize the sugars in the glaze, keep the blue flame just off the surface of the ribs. (And, as with any time you're using a torch, be sure to use caution.) Within moments, the sugars will begin to bubble, shine, and—with practice—harden, resulting in a slightly chewy crunch.
4. Serve
The ribs should be just short of falling off the bone, providing a tender-but-clean bite. Or for those who prefer the meat to literally be falling off the bone, at the 90-minute mark, before glazing, place the ribs in foil along with some liquid (beer, wine, syrup—whatever you’d like), then put them back on the grill for 45 minutes. Finally, remove the meat from the foil, and perform the glaze-and-torch procedure.
Scott Thomas is the founder of Grillin’ Fools, a website offering step-by-step instructions on the best ways to grill meats, seafood, fruits, and vegetables. He’s also a featured blogger for Char-Broil and Sears.
