Carolina style ribs help

[TealStBBQKing]

Today I'm smoking spare ribs in my pit barrel and I want to use a North Carolina vinegar barbecue sauce. Normally I put a ketchup base barbecue sauce on the ribs and then let them go back in the barrel to glaze/caramelize for 15 minutes; but I'm worried this thin vinegar sauce will just run off. Should I do it anyway, should I sauce the ribs when they come out to rest or should I sauce them just before serving?

 

[Monkey Uncle]

People sometimes mop whole hogs and chickens with eastern NC vinegar sauce, so I don't see why it wouldn't work for ribs. Yes, some will run off. Just don't use so much you put your fire out.

 

[Mike Twangzer]

Try thinning your sauce with red wine vineger ...

 

[ShadowDriver]

How'd it go, Jeff?

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

With a thin sauce/glaze I usually use two or three layers letting each one set before adding the next.

 

[Hamdrew]

thin out like a MF and chargrill layer after layer into it rite at the end




credit: STL BBQ

 

[Cook]

A North Carolina style rib, not there is actually such a thing, would be cooked over direct heat & not wrapped. Because of the direct heat, the racks will need to be flipped as needed. Once about half way done, you can lightly baste on the top every time you make a flip. You baste early because, as you predict, it's thin & doesn't stick. There is also no sugar in most of these sauces to cause premature burning. Just keep mopping & hit it with a light mop once you take them off. The vinegar flavor should be light, but apparent.

 

[SirPorkaLot]

Cook has it right, there is no such thing as a Carolina style rib, but if there was it would be cooked as he suggested.

 

[NCGrimbo]

I'm probably late in responding, but this is how I use vinegar sauces when cooking ribs. I use the 3-2-1 or the 2-1-1 method when doing ribs, so there is a part of the cook that the ribs are foiled. This is the step where I add the initial batch of sauce. Make a foil pouch to hold the ribs and pour a decent amount of sauce into the bottom then place the ribs in the pouch with the meat side down so that the meat is in the sauce. Then I pull the foil up and over the sides of the ribs and then add more sauce and seal up the foil pouch. Then back into the smoker. Once the ribs are ready to be coolered, I will check the sauce and see if it's got a nice amount on the rib meat. Depending on how much sauce was added at the foil stage, you might need to baste the rib meat with more sauce and leave it unfoiled in the smoker to let the sauce tack up. I've found that I over sauce when I foil, so I usually can just pop the ribs into the cooler for the final hour. I leave the smoker running so that when I pull the ribs from the foil after they sit in the cooler I can do another basting step if the ribs need it. There is usually plenty of sauce in the foil after coolering to baste the ribs if they need it.

 

[El Ropo]

As mentioned above by cook, the rack of ribs would need to be attached to a whole hog to start with I think


And as some folks will blurt out "BUILD A UDS!", my thing is "ribs don't need no stinking sauce if they are cooked right!" Sorry, couldn't resist. I've never bothered saucing or mopping ribs... ever!

 

[rogerdunlap]

I use a vinegar base sauce when serving...but I use a rub to begin with, and then spray apple cider vinegar on the ribs several times while cooking. I'm cooking at 200-220 degrees on an Egg, over indirect heat so it takes several hours. Being in the Carolinas, my family eats nothing but vinegar-base sauces.