ribs not as good as restaurant ?

Steam the ribs with water, season rub of your choice and liquid smoke first.
Then finish off on the grill to get the crust you desire.

Works like a charm

Cat Man

Some of the best ribs I've seen and had are basically done as Cat Man describes. Basically cook the ribs first and finish on something really hot.

The best imo are slowely done in the oven or grill with a dry rub then finished off on a high with a bbq sauce.

I gotta disagree. Those kind of steamed ribs are why I thought I didn't like barbecue for many many years.

Phil

Another way I've seen them done is to braise them in your liquid of choice, dip in your BBQ or BBQ sauce of choice, then reheat in the oven.

I use a recipe that uses a flavoured liquid/stock , totally submerse the ribs in it, bring to boil and then simmer for 15 mins. Turn off heat then cover and leave in the liquid to cool.

Take them out, dry them off, season with sauce/ rub and crisp them up in hot oven on a rack quickly. Meat turn out crispy on outside and juicy and falling off the bone. (Could do on grill or bbq but I'm lazy :) )

Even my son who generally dislikes meat will pile into them - works for us!

I have to be honest here and agree with this. I just think that the flavor is so lacking cooking them in or over wet heat...(well except for beef short ribs but that's sooo much different).

Wolfgang Puck does a rib recipe that is pretty awesome. It's been a family favorite for a long time. You marinate the ribs and bake them then finish on a hot grill.

The recipe is called Spareribs Chinois by Wolfgang Puck and you can find it online by googling.

But for real honest to goodness ribs I just think there is no sub for cooking/smoking dry in a wood and charcoal environment. Low and slow till tender. Then you remove and wrap in foil for a bit. Then serve with sauce on the side. All you have to do on the ribs is pull off the silver skin on the back of the ribs and salt them. Then onto the pit.

If I'm completely going for baking then I will do a country style pork rib. My family loves them...Again I cook them very slowly in a 300 degree oven. You can even cook them at 250 for a longer amount of time, too. Here's what I do:

Country Style Pork Ribs, washed and dried
Country style Dijon Mustard
Garlic Powder
Salt
Fresh Black Pepper
Flour
Olive Oil

Season ribs with garlic, salt and pepper. Slather liberally with mustard and dust with flour. Shake off excess flour and lightly brown on all sides over medium heat in olive oil. Remove from heat and place in baking pan. Bake on 250-300 degrees until tender. Cook them uncovered.

How long this will be depends on how big the ribs are and how tough they are to begin with. I usually will cook them for about 4 hours or more even!

Bluezebra is exactly right. Low and slow! 250 degrees for about three hours. Make sure and start with a good rub recipe (I like spicy) and then you can mop with some sauce a couple times during the last 30 minutes of cooking. If you follow this recipe there is no way they will not be good. Oh yeah, stay away from water. Boiling or steaming ribs is a sin and should only be done if you simply don't have the time to really cook them correctly. I would say you are better off cooking something else if you have to resort to using water to cook your ribs. Just my opinion.

I also use the "no water" method for ribs. I usually put a liberal dry rub on the night before (which will include some brown sugar). If I feel like pulling the back silver skin off I will (other wise I score it in a cross pattern.

Then I'll bring a large Weber kettle up to 250-275 with all hardwoods (for indirect heat). I'll cook it here for 3-4 hours, mopping along the way with a apple cider, mustard, spices, vinegar and brown sugar.

After the ribs are good and started with the hardwood fuel, then it's time to wrap them in heavy aluminum foil. I'll cook them still at 250 for another 2-3 hours. After this time the ribs should be quite tender and juicy with a nice crust formed from the first 3-4 hours cooked/mopped on the grill. Now place the ribs (still wrapped in foil) into an extra large cooler. Here they can sit for 1-2 hours (or alot more while resting and keeping warm).

I usually serve mine with some homemade cornbread made on the grill in a cast iron skillet. For me...a bit of vinegar based cole slaw makes it complete. When you unwrap the the ribs...you may not even need sauce.

dan

It's hard to suggest- does the instruction book for your oven tell you the difference? There is no definition for "Econo Broil", it means whatever the oven company made up.

In most ovens I know, "broil" means it is only using the top electric coils, and the bottom ones are shut off, while "baking" means it uses both.

I've never seen "juicy" restaurant ribs. Perhaps the restaurant used beef ribs instead of pork? Perhaps they brine them first? (I'd suspect the ribs you ate were brined, meaning soaked in a water/salt solution)

I make beef ribs on a gas barbeque grill, using indirect heat and a LOT of smoke. I put the ribs on an upper grill rack and smoke them for about 4-5 hours, then put them on direct heat for a few minutes for a little crust, and that's it. I've never had any luck with a rib recipe in a regular oven.

Cooks Illustrated did a rib feature a couple of months ago Cook's Illustrated-Recipe Resource might have some information for you.

I have always cooked my ribs in a good court-bouillion until they are thoroughly done, meat almost falling off the bone. Then properly cool them and individually wrap for storage. When service comes along, a great sauce is the secret to juicy ribs; and don't be shy! I have found the biggest reason we get dry ribs is because the cook scrimped on the sauce. Heavily coat the ribs and bake until they are as crispy as you want. Let's face it, ribs are finger food and you should expect to get dirty when you eat them. Just my opinion though....

Combo cooking

Everyone here is right about the moist then dry cooking method. My avatar is me cooking four racks of ribs on my own "rib tree". I steamed them some first over a beer (yeah baby) and then cooked them over a pit of coals I dug into the ground and used an inverted tomato tower with hooks I put on it.

They came out great. The ribs acted like a "tent" to capture all the smoke in there as they cooked. I threw in some soaked hickory chips while the cooked as well...

It was a fun and unique way to cook the ribs, though I have to say that flipping them was a chore. :)

slow cooked with BBQ saucein a crockpot for 5-6 hours is great too. Dry or wet I've had it taste great either way.

Google Tyler Florence Ultimate Ribs.
I tried this recipe and it was to die for. Of course, I am a Brit so what do I know?:D

Yechh! A greatway to ruin good ribs, IMO. I am not, as you may guess, an advocate of steaming or boiling ribs.

Shel

2. what is the difference between Maxi Broil and Econo Broil for baking?

Well, for openers, those settings are not for baking. They're for... well, you know. :blush:

As far as KitchenAid electric ovens are concerned, the Maxi Broil turns on all the top heating elements, while the Econo Broil only turns on the middle one of the (presumably) three. Use it for something that doesn't require full heat/power or is small enough to fit easily in the center of the oven where you don't need heat coming down from the entire top of the oven..

I've seen the KA electric ovens criticized for not having powerful enough top heating elements, though I think mine has been adequate over the years. It won't do to a steak what a grill will do, so that's why I use the grill unless it's raining pitchforks or the grill is snowed in. I have been known to shovel my way out to the grill when I really need to use it. :cool:

Mike

What we do at my restaruant and a couple others that I have worked at in the past is to braise the ribs in whatever liquid you like. We use chicken stock w/ some barbecue spices added. You can fit like 6-9 racks in a deep hotel pan. Stick it in the convection at 300 for around 2.5 hrs. By this time they should be extremely tender. Next remove the liquid and place the pans in the walk in to cool. To serve place the ribs on a 1/2 sheet pan w/ parchment and stick them in a 500 degree oven until the ribs are thouroghly heated (usually the parchment is dark brown). Baste the ribs in sauce and stick under the salamander to caramelize. We have had multiple people say these are the best ribs they have ever had.

Most restaurants use this braise, heat, sauce, caramelize method for ribs and that could be what your missing.

If you want ribs like the restaurants make, there are a couple of good restaurant recipe guides you can find. In fact, one of the best is in my signature. I know it has a great recipe in there. Cheers!