Dad's Memphis Ribs

My Dad is a Minnesotan now living in Memphis, TN. He hasn't picked up the southern accent but he has sure learned how to make some good ribs. He sent us the directions on how to make these ribs after he ended up serving them to a group of neighbors, including some Memphis in May BBQ judges, who declared them winners.

This method of making ribs does require a time commitment as the ribs will be on the grill for 4 hours & every hour you will be doing something to the temperature or the ribs themselves. But its that time & the long slow cook that makes these ribs fall off the bone tender. Real BBQ takes time.
We won't be giving recipes for BBQ rub or sauce here as this is really more about the technique of cooking the ribs. We did make our own rub but for the sauce we used Wee Willy's, a Minnesota-made sauce that Bon Appétit just wrote up as one of the best.

Dad's Memphis Ribs

Baby Back Ribs
Dry BBQ Rub
Yellow Mustard
Tin Foil
Apple or Pineapple Juice
BBQ Sauce
Smoker Box & Wood Chips

Heat your grill to low, less that 150, & get the wood chips smoking in the smoker box.
Rub the ribs with the dry rub,

then coat the meat side with a thin coat of yellow mustard.

Place the ribs over indirect heat on the grill.

Close the cover to build up the smoke & allow them to cook for 1 hour. Raise the heat to about medium & let the ribs cook for another hour.
Make a tin foil pouch big enough to wrap your ribs in & put some juice in it.

Place the ribs in the juice & wrap it tightly shut. Put back on indirect heat on the grill & let cook another hour. Carefully remove the ribs from the tin foil pouch. Coat the meat side with BBQ sauce.

Place the ribs back on the grill & allow another hour of cooking. The meat will firm up & the sauce will dry.

Serve with extra sauce if you like a wet rib.

My Dad likes to make a couple batches of these at one time & then freeze them. He puts them on a baking sheet & reheats them in the oven to reserve. I think if I was going to freeze some I might take them off the grill 15 minutes early & then they be finished off in the reheating.