Just about the best quote about doing ribs ever

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walking dude

Gone but not forgotten. RIP
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Aug 5, 2007
6,480
18
Des Moines, IOWA
I have read Mike Mills "Peace, Love, and Barbecue", which i would recommend to EVERYONE.

But now i am reading "Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country", by Lolis Eric Elie, photographs by Frank Stewart, which i also recommend to everyone...........

But back to the quote about cooking ribs:

by Ray Robison, owner of the Cozy Corner in Memphis, Tennesse. One of the best places to find good bbq in Memphis. If you ever get a chance to go there, i would suggest it.
 
WD

I don't blame em..I would not drink that TN water myself anyhow..Get some of that good bottled water from China..
PDT_Armataz_01_04.gif
 
i hear ya walking mike mills book is a great bar-b-q read,i also like legends of texas bar-b-q another good one in my opinion
 
Believe it or not, Memphis water is some of the best in the nation. It's artesian well water, filtered by huge layers of subterranean sand. It's still treated because it has to be, but it's as good of water as you're going to get in a metropolitan area and better than many rural water sources that I've tasted.

BTW, I had a chef who made scrumptious ribs and he boiled his ribs first. His technique required it and it worked. Now, he was sort of a Pan-Asian/Southern sort of chef (he is from Northwest TN and is quite well-known here in the Nashville area). He is totally skilled in a lot of techniques, from straight southern to Southen France and he swears by the boiling, smoking and baking technique. I can attest that his ribs were always succulent and delicious, so be careful about dismissing certain techniques because there's more than one way to skin a pig. Especially when you're using things like hoisin and other less traditional methods.
 
i STILL would throw the meat away, and boil greens in it.........around here, its considered a sin.........
 
<shrug>

It worked for him. Maybe it was because he was a fancy chef and all that, but I can attest that his ribs were as moist and tasty as any that I've had.

I'm afraid of being too dogmatic about this, because people have worked up techniques that work for them, plus, people stay in their comfort zones (and my culinary tastes are pretty broad and I don't want to impose my experiences on anyone else). But that's my point. If a technique works, it's works. Simple as that. And, since the guy was trained at the CIA, I imagine that there's a "scientific" reason why it works or he wouldn't have used it.
 
yeah..............but most of us here.........not ALL.....are backyard........no one person's better than anothers.......but i have seen chefs from the CIA, overdo ALOT.........make it hard, when it should be easy..........most of us here, just like to stand around the smoker and drink beer. Didn't know the CIA USED alot of food science. Just....what werked in the past, why change it, type of mentality..........i should know......i know folks that are trained chefs, and are LOST when he see's us smoke........and read some posts here, told me we would blow him outta the water..........i can foward the email if you so choose..........
 
I wouldn't want to speak for him. However, he's a guy who grew up in rural West TN in a family that raises horses. He's not some effite intellectual who learned how to cook at the CIA. For all I know, he learned the boiling technique from his grandpa. His family has been doing BIG cookouts for his entire life because they have a big extended family.

I'm sure that he would agree that there's nothin' finer than standing around the smoker on Memorial Day weekend cooking for a huge family. Especially if there's beer involved. I'm sure that he wouldn't diss any techniques that work. I'm sure he's done many of the same "backyard" techniques himself. In fact, he's brought a lot of that to his own cooking.

I'm just sayin' that he was the first chef I worked with who dragged a small bullet smoker onto the back balcony of his restaurant in order to smoke meats in house in the afternoon as part of his prep. He was grilling corn for his corn salsa before I knew that it was the best way to do it. This was about 7 years ago. I'm sure he's still doing it the same way at his two new restaurants.

His rib appetizers were always among the most popular of his dishes. And I loved them as well. Very tender. So it works, but all I know about his technique is that he told me they were triple-cooked and the first step was boiling them. Then he smoked them and finished them in the oven at the time of service. I'm sure that this technique was intended to be able to supply great ribs to guests within minutes whether they were dining at 6:30 or 9:30 without them having to wait for ribs to be cooked from scratch each time. But it worked, regardless of the necessity. And that's all I'm saying. Dismissing a technique is risky without being able to taste the result. If it works, it works. Simple as that.
 
Hell, I'm just stuggling to get up to speed personally with smoking/grilling. I'm less than a week into my new gear.

However, if I talk to him in the near future, I'll ask him about his method. And maybe I'll try it out.
 
kewl.........for all that............but just about all of us, are not cooking for a resturant, and need to speed things up..............bbq'ing is LOW AND SLOW........why rush it..........thats the point i am trying to make..........true bbq is LOW AND slow...............thats where it started over 100 years ago.........taking a crappy, tuff piece of meat, and turning into summin wonderful, tender, melt in your mouth............why take short cuts, is all i am saying..........its one of the reasons i REFUSE to eat bbq in a resturant, cause i always come away disappointed, KNOWING i can do better in my lil ol ecb gourmet..........blow em outta the water infact.

BBQ started years ago, low and SLOW.........short cuts do not belong in TRUE bbq............

read Mike Mills "Peace, Love, and BBQ", or Lolis Eric Elie's Smokestack Lighting.........those books will show you REAL bbq
 
We kind of just were having a similar conversation in another forum and I realized this fine line that seperates the two opposing views.
The truth lies in the rib itself. Its a frickin delicious piece of meat. It can be used in just about any recipe that calls for pork. Its bigger than BBQ. It trancends BBQ. But when the subject IS BBQ, leave your stock pots and braisers at home. Theres only one way to bbq and thats slow and low WITH smoke. You can make delicious ribs many many many other ways, just please dont think youve just BBqd.
I do like smoked ribs simmered in broth with beans and vegetables but even then for some reason I prefer to cure them and smoke them just to 140ish then boil or what not. I dont understand the boil then smoke thing and I almost wonder if you have that backwards.
Anyway, theres only one way to BBQ and a million ways to cook a rib.
 
LOL a throwdown-Richtee yes! but this one has to be more than visual-I boiled ribs when I was a Kid.not since!
 
Quote:
Then too, alot of people boil their meat. Once water hits the meat, the meat aint no good no more; you need to take it, throw it away, and cook some greens in that water.


After having read the rest of the thread, I certainly don't want to diss anyone's method if it works for them. Whatever gets your meat cooked the way you like it is what you should do as far as I can tell. I think WD had it right though that boiling is (often) done for convenience because many people can't take or don't want to commit to the time it takes to smoke them. I, however, prefer to take the time I think it is well worth the effort.

Having said all of that . . . the quote reminded me of what my mom used to say about food she didn't like. She would say the best way to cook (insert food name here) was to smother it in sh**, When it is done cooking, throw away the (insert food name here) and eat the sh**.

Dave
 
Look, I don't want to start a fight, but I grew up in Memphis. I sorta know what BBQ is all about (at least Memphis BBQ where you won't be disappointed if you eat at Payne's or Interstate BBQ...and yes, they cook low and slow). But it's funny - one of the heavyweights of the NC BBQ scene, Ed Mitchell, says this about how he cooks:

"I am probably the only guy who goes against the grain when it comes to the "low and slow" barbeque mantra. I get the fire really hot so it sears the meat. I cover the smoker and walk away. Don't peek".

Here's my point. BBQ encompasses a lot of territory. Heck, some of my favorite food is "Korean BBQ" (probably isn't to many peoples' taste but I'm not super fond of KC style either...that doesn't mean that I'm not going to eat it though or that I'm going to say that it's not "true BBQ" because I grew up on pulled pork and pork ribs <chuckle>). I guess I bristle when someone tells me what is "true BBQ" because, to me, it's the result that matters (and every region seems to think that theirs is the one true BBQ). I don't care how someone gets there. Someone can cook low and slow and have a tasteless but tender BBQ if they don't get the smoke right. And someone can create a smoky disaster cooking low and slow. And this board is a testimony to to the fact that there are a dozen ways to do everything. The simple fact is, boiling ribs can work IF you know what you're doing. I know, because I saw it done for months at a time every year for about 3 years (we did a seasonal menu for three months at a time, and the ribs were so popular that they were done every year). My point is, there's not just ONE way to cook BBQ. That's the great thing about it.
 
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