It’s summertime again, and that means barbecue time! One of the primary, time-honored standards of ‘que is the rack of ribs, and the 3-2-1 method is a popular way to make them come out tender and full of flavor. It means you smoke the meat for three hours on low heat, cook it wrapped for two, and unwrapped for one with a generous coating of sauce for that signature, candy-like shell that ribs are known for. (There’s another post with my recipe for Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce.)

And everyone knows barbecue is made more enjoyable by Dr. Pepper, whether you’re drinking it, marinating the meat in it, using it in the sauce, or any combination thereof.

• 1 or more rack(s) of baby back ribs
• 1 2-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• Spray bottle of apple cider vinegar
• a sweet & smoky brown sugar rub
• Sauce and a brush
• Heavy duty aluminum foil
• 1 foil pan, casserole dish or cake pan
• hickory wood chunks, chips or pellets for smoking

You may also wish to switch out the Dr. Pepper & apple cider vinegar mixture with my Dr. Pepper Bourbon Brine.

Baby back, or spare ribs, are smaller because they’re taken from the back where the ribs join the spine (i.e., not taken from piglets), as opposed to St. Louis style ribs, which are taken from the lower area around the side and under the belly, cut away from the breastbone. St. Louis style are, therefore, flatter and have more fat, being from the belly. Still, it’s not hard to keep baby backs juicy and flavorful.

Start out by using a table knife to get up under the edge of the silvery membrane on the back of the ribs and pull a little bit of it loose. Then carefully peel the rest of it off from end to end. Don’t worry if it tears here and there, just get it all. I started by placing it meat side-down in a foil pan. I could’ve fit two, but I wasn’t cooking for that many people this time. Pour in enough Dr. Pepper to cover the meat, followed by the apple cider vinegar. Let that sit for 30 minutes while you make the final preparations on your smoker.

After pouring the Dr. Pepper and vinegar mixture out, shake a generous amount of brown sugar rub on both sides of the ribs and place it on the smoker. Today I used my Traeger Jr. because I was only making a small amount of meat. So for the stick-burner purists who hate pellet grills, just ignore the photo.

3 Hours

Smoke on low heat, around 175 to 185, for three hours with hickory, spraying it every half hour or so with more apple cider vinegar, or a mixture of Dr. Pepper and vinegar. Some may prefer apple wood for pork, but you can’t beat hickory for a good, sweet smoke.

2 Hours

Come back after the smoke and pull out a sheet of foil long enough to wrap over the ends of the rack and lay it in the foil pan to form a sort of trough. Set it on a table or other surface next to the smoker and put the ribs in it, meat side down. Pour in a little bit of the vinegar or vinegar/Dr. Pepper mixture and wrap it shut with another layer of foil over the top. Put the wrapped ribs back in the smoker and cook them on a medium heat, around 275, for two hours.

1 Hour

When that’s done, carefully remove the foil and lay rack meat-side down, pour on the sauce and brush it all over. Turn it over and repeat, then continue cooking another hour. Bring it inside and let it rest 10 to 15 minutes before slicing into portion sizes.

As awesome as good ‘que is, it’s important not to forget the sides. Today I made skillet potatoes along with the obligatory brown sugar baked beans. But the cold glass definitely called for Dr. Pepper!

I wanted some variety for dinner, so I decided to do some drumsticks and country style pork ribs. Why don’t I ever seem to do actual ribs? Well, I have, I just haven’t documented it yet.

Anyway, there was no rub involved this time, but I did put both meats in foil pans with some Head Country marinade that I found on clearance at Walmart. It has similarities to Worcestershire, so it would probably work well with beef, too. Just be sure to shake it well before pouring, as it has spices in it that settle at the bottom of the bottle otherwise.

I also deviated from my normal routine this time by using my gas grill and smoker boxes instead of the barrel smoker.

I turned the meat over in their pans about half an hour in so they would cook evenly. Another half hour later I took them out of the pans and let indirect heat cook them. Of course, the drumsticks finished a lot sooner than the ribs, but that was okay because it gave us something to eat while we waited for the rest to be done. I kept the ribs on the top rack, dripping down into their pan to minimize the mess and keep some moisture in the air inside the grill.

Of course, the last half hour I mopped the ribs with my homemade sauce. I know, you really only have to do the last ten minutes or so, but I really like a good glaze of sauce soaking in at the end.

When it hit the plate, I served it up with baked beans and loaded potato salad.

For today’s entry, there’s a new piece of equipment. For two upcoming camping trips, I want to be able to smoke something, anything, for dinner one night while we’re there, but all the campsites have are fire pits and those grills that are so wide open and shallow that you can only grill things on them fast and hot like burgers and hot dogs. But whatever goes has to be small and lightweight.

Enter the Brinkmann Smoke’N Grill portable charcoal smoker. I had considered one of the many DIY plans online for smokers using things like a Weber Smoky Joe kettle grill and a 32 qt. steamer pot, or a terra cotta pot and an electric hot plate, but one takes metal fab skills I haven’t used since 8th grade shop class and tools I don’t have and the other requires electricity where you should be at least roughing it a little bit. Not to mention both ended up costing more than the $50 of the Brinkmann because of all the parts and extras you have to buy. So I grabbed the last one The Home Depot had, some Kingsford hickory briquettes, lighter fluid and hickory chunks.

Once I had it out of the box and assembled, I couldn’t wait for the next morning. Kind of like the reverse order of a kid with a Christmas present.

When I smoke meat it’s almost always pork butt. But since this was a new cooker whose personality I hadn’t yet learned, I decided to go with something smaller in case it didn’t come out right. So I settled on a small tray of country style pork ribs. They’re almost entirely deboned, so there’s more meat to one than some others, and already in individual pieces that you don’t have to break apart to fit on the grill surface or peel anything off of. The rub I chose to use this time was from Bud’s Custom Meats in Penngrove, CA, about an hour north of San Francisco. It’s a little sweeter than the Head Country rub I usually use, which is also a little spicier with more garlic and onion flavor.

After getting the charcoal lit, I applied the rub, which didn’t take long enough for the Kingsford to burn down to coals, but who’s in a hurry? There was plenty of time to enjoy the cool breeze of a rainy Arkansas day while visiting with a neighbor, who would be my guest, smoking chicken leg quarters on the lower grill surface. Once they had burned down enough, we added a few small, dry hickory chips at first just to get the smoke started, followed by some chunks that had been soaking for about half an hour. Finally, it was time to add the meat, close the lid and sit back for a 5 hour visit, occasionally stoking the fire adding more charcoal, adding more wood, and refilling a beverage, always careful not to let the smoke stop and keep the temperature in the “Ideal” range on the gauge.

Note to self: shop for inexpensive aftermarket temperature gauge that fits the same hole, but has numbers on it.

The final half hour or so, we removed the water pan to let the meat cook faster and all the way through. That was also the opportunity I took to turn the ribs,  slop some sauce on them, and turn them again halfway through to get the other side. Nothing like a good cooked-on glaze. My choice this time was Head Country’s hickory flavored sauce.

You can point the finger of blame at me for forgetting to get baked beans when I was at the store the night before, so frozen tater tots were the best available candidate for a side. Leave it to my girlfriend to come up with something to step it up a notch. Some people would be satisfied with salt and/or ketchup.

Others go for cheese tots. She came up with a whole new creation: Ro-Tel (seasoned, diced tomatoes and diced green chilis) and Velveeta. So, is this a new twist on an old favorite that Sonic and other fast food places will eventually offer, “Southwest Cheesy Tots?” Or has moving to Arkansas turned her full redneck? You decide. I’ll say they were really good!

The ribs were a bit on the salty side, but I suspect it was the combination of the rub and the cooked on sauce. One or the other by itself would probably have been fine.

So this time around you not only got my account of smoking ribs, but a long winded story and a bonus recipe!