Spare Ribs - Easy as 3-2-1

When you are on a massive countdown of 61 cuts of meat, it is an odd coincidence that the 60th cut has a recipe that is essentially referred to as the 3-2-1.  It sounds a bit more like a countdown to take-off than it does an instructional guide to cutting meat.  But hey.  Here I am with only one more cut of meat left after today, and I am going to describe a super easy spare rib recipe by the expression 3-2-1.  So here goes.

Now, let me first say that if you had to prepare "everything" in this recipe all at once, it could be a bit more consuming.  But I have been fortunate enough throughout the year to have made and accumulated a bit of a collection of rubs, marinades and sauces.  I have a highly regarded pork rub that I used with the Pork Shoulder - Pulled Pork recipe just a few months ago, and plenty of it leftover.  And I of course have the BBQ Sauce recipe that Fat Dan provided me, and always have a homemade bottle handy.  So, taking into account that I had the rub and the sauce ready to go, this really was as easy as 3-2-1.  But if you're trying to replicate mine, feel free to use any high quality rub and sauce.  If you don't want to make your own, I say go local.

Paulina provided me with a full rack of spare ribs, membrane removed (that's important) and halved for convenience.  I got the Big Green Egg fired up for cooking on indirect heat, and used a large supply of soaked cherry wood chips for smoking.  My target temperature for the egg was 230 degrees, and once there, it needs to stay there for 6 hours.  Yep, I just gave away the rationale behind 3-2-1.  While the Egg was coming to temperature, I prepared the ribs rather simply:  A light coating of dijon mustard, followed by a complete (not thick, not thin) coating of my pork rub.  Once the Egg got to 230, the half racks went on the grate on indirect heat.  Closed the lid, and went to work (literally).  Here's where the "3" comes in.  After 3 hours on the grate unwrapped, I took the ribs off and wrapped them in foil (securely), and placed them back on the Egg for "2" hours.  Keep an eye on the Egg temp every so often to stay at 230.  And after the 2 hours wrapped, I unwrapped them and put them back on the grate for "1" hour (the final step in the 3-2-1.  During this last hour, I brushed the ribs several times with the BBQ sauce, to get the ribs wet with some of the sauce to caramelize.  Yum.

These ribs are phenomenal.  Paulina has provided me many delicious meats and this year has provided me many delicious recipes for my repertoire, but these spare ribs and more likely, their cousin (the Baby Back Ribs) are going to be frequent endeavors post Year of Meat.

60 down, 1 to go!