The Rub on Ribs
Posted by by Maureen Fischer, FoodE Expert, Byerly's Ridgedale
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Although Midwestern born, I spent part of my formative years in the Deep South where I cultivated a taste for hot grits with butter, deep-fried okra and barbecued ribs. After my return to the Midwest, my interest in grits and okra waned, but not so the taste for ribs! Nothing compares to the taste of seasoned baby back pork ribs, cooked to perfect tenderness and slathered with a tangy barbecue sauce. Although I am partial to baby back ribs, I also love country-style ribs, the meatiest of pork ribs. They come both bone-in and boneless and are meaty enough to eat with a knife-and-fork.
So what’s the rub on ribs? Ribs vary in each locale with barbecuing being a very serious endeavor in many regions. “Dry” ribs are rubbed with a dry seasoning mixture and rubbed into the meat before barbecuing. “Wet” ribs are sauced generously during the cooking process, preferably during the last 30 minutes. This prevents the sauce from burning. Barbecue sauce can be tomato, vinegar or mustard based. Some are sweet and smooth, others tart and complex. It’s all personal preference and I love the opportunity to sample ribs in different regions and establishments wherever I go.
To cater to rib fanatics like me, Lunds and Byerly’s makes four mouth-watering sauces that are terrific not only for ribs, but for chicken and beef as well. Twin Cities Original Barbecue, Chipotle Chili, Northwoods Maple-Rosemary and Kentucky Bourbon are all thick enough to slather and yet each have their own magnificent nuances of sweet and savory, tangy and smooth.
We recently went into the test kitchen and developed a new rib recipe, Twin Cities Grilled Ribs with Honey Barbecue Sauce. This recipe uses our dry seasoning, Twin Cities Rib Rub, both on the ribs and in the sauce. These ribs are mellow and balanced, but with just the right amount of sass! Sample these ribs and let us know what you think!