I love ribs.  Part of me thinks they should be a food group to themselves.  But alas that won’t happen.  I make ribs a few different ways and am always on the lookout for new ways to make them.  Having always lived in an apartment I’ve never been able to do [...]]]>

I love ribs.  Part of me thinks they should be a food group to themselves.  But alas that won’t happen.  I make ribs a few different ways and am always on the lookout for new ways to make them.  Having always lived in an apartment I’ve never been able to do the whole backyard grilling thing and have always relied on my oven to make the rib magic happen.  A few months ago Mark Bittman wrote about this method for oven-smoking ribs. I was intrigued.

The recipe seemed super easy.  Like no-brainer easy.  The rub used things already in my pantry and aside from the ribs I just had to go out and buy wood chips and a disposable roasting pan.  I thought wood chips would have been hard to find.  Nope! I went to Canadian Tire and they had hickory, mesquite, apple, maple and maybe another kind of wood.  I opted for hickory although I pondered the merits of mesquite.

The only part that I thought could potentially be scary was the whole foil tent bit.  Oh so not EVEN scary!  Bittman talks about using 20 feet of foil.  I used maybe 6 feet and was totally fine.  The whole contraption came together very easily and stayed put which I really didn’t think it would.  As for cooking I decided to err on the side of caution and cook the ribs for the full 3 hours instead of 2.5.  I would have been annoyed if after all that time I had a rack of undercooked ribs.

The results were great.  Obviously not as good as some of my fave BBQ spots, but for a homemade smoking solution they were pretty good.  The ribs weren’t intensely smoky but there was a nice hint of natural smoke.  It was subtle but a welcome addition to my rib repertoire.  I was so happy with the flavour between the dry rub and the smoke that I didn’t even bother with any sauce.

Oven-Smoked Ribs

1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons paprika
1 rack spareribs, 2 to 3 pounds.

1. Heat oven to 225 degrees. While oven heats, mix together dry ingredients and rub them all over pork.

2. Layer bottom of roasting pan with hickory or oak chips and add enough water to create a shallow pool coating bottom of pan and moistening chips; do not drown them.

3. Put a rack over chips and put rubbed meat on rack. Cover entire roasting pan tightly with foil, making a tent at top so smoke-flavored steam can circulate around meat. Bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until meat is cooked and tender.

4. Carefully remove foil from pan and run ribs under broiler, watching carefully, until nicely crisp and browned, about 5 minutes.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.