TheSaint
Legendary Pubber
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- May 1, 2022
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So, I'm not going to start an argument here, because barbecue means different things to different people, and we're not allowed to have religious arguments here on The Pub.Thanks!
No smoker. I've got a charcoal grill, an oven, a slow cooker, and an air fryer.
I'm just going to forge ahead with my advice.
IMHO: Cooking ribs in a slow cooker you will not wind up with ribs, you'll wind up with a morass of generic pork meat. You may as well throw a pork shoulder in there, you won't be able to tell the difference when you're done. For me, to really cook ribs properly, barbecue style, you want a dry heat, low and slow. That is what builds that bark that gives you that barbecue flavor. Depending on your charcoal grill, you could improvise it as a smoker.
How to Grill Over Indirect Heat on a Charcoal Grill
Throw some hickory and cherry chips on your coals as the ribs are cooking, and that will change your life.
If that seems like too much (and I totally get that) then just go with the braising method in Who Loves You Baby Back. Just so you know, as Alton noted in that episode, that is not barbecue, but it does create a magnificent rack of ribs.
You'll say, "Well, at that point, why not just throw them in the slow cooker?" So, braising is about cooking them semi-submerged in liquid. Enough liquid, but not too much. By cooking them in packets in the oven, you have just enough liquid to braise them, but not too much. You aren't drowning them. The problem with a slow cooker is that it's the wrong shape for that. In order to get that submergence correct in a slow cooker, you have to add a lot more liquid to the container, which means that your ribs just get deluged in liquid. You wind up with all of your porky goodness flowing out into the cooking liquid. Or you don't add enough liquid, and then they don't actually braise, they steam. They wind up cooked, but they don't pull any flavor from the cooking liquid.
Don't get me wrong, I love a slow cooker. But it's the wrong tool for ribs.