This is a basic recipe for doing pork spare ribs on your water smoker, please feel free to play around with your own combination of herbs spices and sauces.
There’s nothing quite like a rack of spare ribs, rubbed, basted, then cooked low and slow on a BBQ Smoker.
The important thing to remember when buying ribs (or any meat) is to ensure you get the best quality available..... You're going to spend about 5 – 6 hours cooking them, so you don't want to start off with meat that will not turn out right, no matter how you prepare and cook it.
Serves 4 -6
Preperation time 15 minutes - Preferably done the day before and then refrigerated overnight.
Cooking Time ± 6 hours (220 - 250°F)
Ingredients
1 Rack of pork spare ribs 3 - 4lbs
BBQ Sauce (store bought or homemade)
BBQ Rub (store bought or homemade) we've used Steve Raichlen's Iced Tea rub.
Hickory wood (Chunks or Chips) for those of you in the USA, we highly recommend Smokinlicious wood products.
Method
Set up your water smoker see here for basic set up instructions, allowing for the fact that you will need to keep the smoker going for at least 6 hours, so don't skimp on the charcoal.
Step 1 through to step 3 should be done the day before and then kept refrigerated overnight.
Step 1
Remove the membrane from the ribs, this will allow the smoke, rub and basting sauce to penetrate evenly.
Step 2
Once the membrane has been removed, pat the ribs dry using a paper towel, cover them liberally with your favourite rub, some basic rub recipes can be found HERE.
Step 3
Wrap the ribs in some Clingfilm, or use a food saver bag and refrigerate overnight.
Step 4
Take the ribs out of the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature, baste them with your favourite BBQ sauce before placing them on one of the cooking grills of your water smoker. Place the lid on the smoker - REMEMBER to make sure the vent on the lid is fully open. Your smoker should be running at between 220 and 250°F. Add wood for smoke.
Step 5
Baste the ribs every 30 minutes, either with the BBQ Sauce or some pure apple juice. Do this for the 1st 3 hours of cooking, then remove the ribs, baste them again and wrap them in some heavy duty kitchen foil, place back on the grill for the next 2 hours (at this stage there is no need to add more wood for smokey flavour, as it will not penetrate the foil).
Step 6
Remove the foil from the ribs, baste again and place them back on the BBQ. During this period, you should check if the ribs are done to perfection, by grabbing the one end, with a pair of tongs and lifting it upwards. If the rack of ribs bends easily in the middle, this indicates that the ribs are done and to finish them off, baste one more time and then grill them directly over the charcoal, to caramelise the sauce.
