Expert: John Langenfelder - 5/19/2008

Question
Hi,
My husband and I have been trying very hard to cook baby back pork ribs on our propane grill and haven't been having much luck.  We have tried boiling first the putting on the grill and it turned pretty good the first time, but were terrible the second time even though we did exactly the same thing.  We tried cooking in foil until the end, when we put them right on the grill for the last 20 minutes or so and they were terrible.  We tried cooking them on the grill and wrapping them in foil the last hour or so and they still were bad.  We've gotten most of these ideas from looking at websites, but I thought if I could ask you directly you might have better advice.  Thanks so much for your time.

Answer
Pamela,

First thing all you do with boiling is boil the flavor away.  You can cook ribs on a gas grill and get good results.  First, remove the membrane from the ribs.  Rub a little olive oil over the ribs and then try a bbq rub that you like. Allow it to marinate for several hours or overnight.  For a good rub do a query for "rendezvous rub recipe" in google and you'll find plenty of sites with the recipe.  Preheat your grill, add a piece of apple wood to the fire.  You can wrap it in aluminum foil if you don't want to make a mess in your grill.  Lower the heat on one side and leave the temperature medium to high on the other side.  Put the ribs, bone side down on the cooler side of the grill and close the lid. Cook for about 15-20 minutes.  Turn the ribs over meat side down, turn the heat to medium on the hot side and turn the heat off on the cooler side.  Close the lid and leave on the grill for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.  You should have some good browning and grill marks on the meat side.  Turn over, spray or brush with some apple juice (over other baste) and cook bone side down until the meat has pulled away from the bone by about 1/2 inch.  You can add paste some bbq sauce as a glaze at the last 15 minutes of cooking (just judge the time).  The key is indirect heat, all cooking is done on the cool side of the grill.

Good luck.