I often cook barbecue baby back ribs for my family and I always boil the ribs in water with a bay leaf, half an onion, salt and pepper for 1 hour. I remove the ribs, place them on a baking sheet, and brush barbecue sauce on both sides and bake them in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes and serve.
I decided to take the opportunity to see if oven-baking the ribs would make much of a difference. Seeing that I had 2 1/2 hours to spare, today would be the day!
I divided 2 racks of ribs into 5 portions. Each portion was then seasoned with a dry rub that consisted of seasoning salt, garlic powder and paprika. I wrapped each portion with parchment and foil. The ribs went into a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven and baked for 2 hours. I removed the parchment and foil (and juice), slathered barbecue sauce on each portion, and baked the ribs for another 1/2 hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
They looked identical to my boiled version and the ribs were just as tender - there is an added hint of smokiness, which you don't get when the ribs are boiled. The main difference for me was in texture. There was a thin presence of fat left on some of the ribs (which I don't care for). Unless you plan on trimming the excess fat left on the ribs, I prefer the boiled version, and it takes less cooking time!
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