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Award Winning Competition Ribs Recipe


Sliced competition pork ribs
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4.26 from 117 votes
If you want to produce award-winning ribs, here is a recipe to help you get it done. Once you have a few contests under your belt, feel free to make minor tweaks to make the recipe uniquely yours.
Serve with: your favorite local beer, but wait until after turn-ins.

Course:
Dinner
,
Lunch
,
Main Course
Cuisine:
American

Makes:

Servings: 1 slab of competition ribs

Takes:

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 hours

Equipment

  • aluminum foil, 18-inch wide (I use Reynold's extra strong 18-inch wide grilling foil)

Ingredients

  • 1 slab St. Louis cut ribs
  • 1/4 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt per pound of meat
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 4 tablespoons Meathead's Memphis Dust (see notes below if you would prefer to use our bottled pork rub)
  • 1 stick margarine such as I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (1/4 cup (56.5 g))
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons apple juice
  • 1/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt (1/4 teaspoon per pound of meat)
Notes:
About the mayonnaise: The use of mayonnaise is completely optional but is something that I have done for years. As with the more popular yellow mustard, the mayonnaise serves as a binding agent for the dry rub without altering the flavor of the finished meat. Unlike mustard, mayonnaise is high in fat, something that can only benefit the ribs).
About the Meathead’s Memphis Dust. If you’d rather not make this rub from scratch you can buy it instead. We have created a bottled rub that is very similar and you can purchase it here. Keep in mind that our bottled rubs have salt in them. When using the bottled rub with this recipe, you do not need to add the salt that is called for in the recipe. Just use the rub instead and add it when the salt is called for.
About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works. As noted above, SKIP the salt if you are using a bottled commercial rub containing salt.
Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

  • Prep. Remove the membrane from the slabs of ribs (read more on removing the membrane here).
  • If you are using the homemade Meathead's Memphis Dust rub, begin prepping the ribs by seasoning them with Kosher salt. If you can, give the salt 1 to 2 hours to be absorbed. The process of salting in advance is called dry brining. The rule of thumb is 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat, but ribs consist of only about 50% meat, so use about 1/4 teaspoon per pound. You can simply eyeball it by sprinkling on the same amount of salt you would sprinkle on the ribs if they were served to you unseasoned. 
    If you are using a store-bought rub containing salt (we often use Meathead's Amazing Smoked Pork Seasoning And Dry Brine), skip the salting step in order to avoid double salt jeoprady.
  • Fire up. Prepare a smoker for indirect cooking. Alternatively, you can set up a charcoal grill for 2-zone cooking by placing a chimney full of lit charcoal briquets on one side of the grill's charcoal grate in order to create direct and indirect cooking zones. Adjust the smoker or grill vents to bring the temperature to about 225°F (107.2°C) and add two to three chunks of your favorite smoking wood to the charcoal for flavor. On a gas grill, adjust the temperature knobs so that one half of the grill is off and the other half is heated enough to maintain a temperature of approximately 225°F (107.2°C) on the indirect side.
  • Prep again. Once the smoker or grill is ready, coat the ribs with a thin layer of mayonnaise and season with Meathead's Memphis Dust dry rub.
  • Cook. Place the slabs of ribs meat side up on the main cooking grate as far away from the heat source as possible. Close the lid on the smoker or grill. Allow the ribs to smoke until the meat just begins to shrink back from the ends of the bones, about 3 1/2 hours.
  • Lay out two double layers of heavy-duty 18-inch wide aluminum foil approximately eight inches longer than the ribs. Cut the stick of butter into 1/2 tablespoon pieces and top each double layer of foil with two tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon of honey drizzled over the butter, and two tablespoons brown sugar sprinkled over the top. Lay the ribs meat side down on the butter, honey and brown sugar mixture. Place another two tablespoons margarine, a tablespoon of honey, and two tablespoons brown sugar evenly on top of the bone side of each slab of ribs. Fold up the sides of the foil to create a boat, pour in the apple juice. Begin crimping the foil to create a good seal while also being careful not to wrap the foil too tightly against the ribs themselves.
  • Place the foiled ribs sealed side up on the smoker or grill, close the lid, and cook for one house then gently open a small section of the foil to check for doneness. If the meat has begun to pull back from the bone (approximately 1/4 of an inch of bone exposed), remove them from the smoker or grill. If they haven't begun to pull back, re-seal the foil and check again after 15-20 minutes.
  • Conce you have removed the ribs from the smoker or grill, cautiously open the foil packet to allow the steam to escape. Remove the ribs from the foil and set them back on the smoker or grill with meat side up. Cover the smoker or grill and allow the ribs to cook until tender but not falling off the bone, about 20 minutes. We prefer to use the "bend test." Use tongs to pick up one end of the slab of ribs, then bend them slightly. If they are ready, the slab will bow until the meat starts to crack on the surface.
  • When they are ready, brush sauce on both sides of the ribs and turn them meat side up on the smoker or grill. Cover the smoker or grill and cook until the sauce sets and becomes tacky, 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Serve. Remove the ribs from the smoker or grill, and slice. When preparing the ribs for a competition, set 4 to 5 ribs side-by-side in the turn in box and top with another 4 to 5 ribs.
    Competition rib turn-in box