What's the best method for making Oven Ribs?

what is the best way to make tender juicy and smoky ribs except inside and without a smoker it's a question i'll have an answer to very soon you see i wanted ribs a nuanced spice rub a tangy and slightly sweet barbecue sauce succulent meat all enveloped in a swath of smoke for several hours something like this except that's not my house that's not my smoker and those aren't my rips because i live in an apartment without a balcony or a grill so good ribs seem like they'd be impossible to make due to cooking and a little food science we can learn how to get past all of that and make some killer ribs with a basic kitchen setup hey everyone i'm ethan a home cooking nerd who likes to find better ways to cook and share them with all of you today is all about ribs and in this video i'm going to find out the answer to which cooking method for indoor ribs that i prefer and this video is also in collaboration with tim over at kitchen and craft where he did a classic outdoor smoked ribs and also provided me a bunch of the shots that i needed to help explain the science behind you know smoking ribs in the first place so go check out his video after you're done watching mine without further ado let's hop in in order to make great ribs without a smoker we should probably learn why ribs are smoked in the first place in most cases a smoking setup for ribs is an indirect heat source with wood whether chips logs or pellets that waft smoke over the meat at temperatures around 225 to 250 degrees fahrenheit for ribs this cooking method is used for two main reasons number one turn collagen into gelatin and number two smoky flavor from the book meathead the science of great barbecue and grilling we learned that ribs have high amounts of connective tissue compared to leaner cuts like a filet mignon or a chicken breast this connective tissue has collagen which is spread out throughout the meat and when it is cooked it melts and turns into gelatin and gives ribs that succulent mouth feel however it takes time to turn the collagen into gelatin this is why the term low and slow is so important for these tougher cuts of meat and why smoking is a great method for cooking ribs the great thing for us all of that can be done in an oven just set the temperature to 225 degrees fahrenheit for several hours and away you go to gelatinized collagen heaven the big differentiator is number two and that is smoky flavor again from meathead we learned that smoke from burning wood contains up to 100 unique microscopic solids like char ash polymers carbon monoxide carbon dioxide nitrogen oxides and a bunch of other sciency terms when these microscopic solids hit the meat they stick and dissolve on the surface flavoring our food most of this flavor remains all on the surface but some compounds like nitrogen dioxide actually move below through diffusion and absorption and react with the myoglobin in the meat to perform a stable pink molecule this is what is known as the beloved smoke ring you can clearly see this smoke ring and some chicken thighs that i smoked for about 30 minutes using this indoor method given this information we can conclude that smoke is essentially a seasoning just like salt or a rib rub but instead of being able to physically sprinkle it over food it is microscopically wafted over the food now getting that smoky goodness is pretty easy if you have a great outside setup and a grill but what do you do if you're like me in an apartment where getting a grill isn't the most feasible option in my mind you have two options one is use ingredients on the ribs that have already been smoked like liquid smoke which is essentially smoke particles that have been condensed in water and option 2 is jerry rig an indoor smoker i tried both and let's walk through how they work the first option is as simple as applying liquid smoke to the ribs while dry brining and adding a drop or two to your barbecue sauce which will be glazed on to provide an extra layer of smoky flavor obviously since we aren't actually smoking with this method it's gonna give a much different kind of smoky flavor and we definitely won't see a pink smoke ring the second method needs a little bit more explaining since we are quite literally still smoking these ribs let me explain how to maximize how much smoke sticks to the surface of the ribs again from meathead we learned that smoke sticks best to both wet and cold surfaces this can be demonstrated with an experiment i recreated from the book i painted these two cans white and filled one with ice water and one with nothing then i placed them in my smoker and after smoking for just 15 minutes the one with ice water clearly has more smoke on it this means for us the keys for smoking are using cold meat and maintaining a humid environment for this setup i dry brine the ribs in the fridge and set them right up in the smoker before burning the wood chips then to maintain the humid environment i placed a water pan underneath since i won't be able to spritz these while they're smoking or else i'll probably set my fire alarm on so obviously option number two is a lot more work but the question is will it provide superior smoky flavor we'll answer that in a couple minutes now i did also make a homemade barbecue sauce and a rib rub for these but i'm not going to cover them in this video they'll just be on the recipe that goes on my website without further ado let's hop into the step-by-step process for the indoor smoked ribs using a paper towel for grip remove the silver skin membrane from the underside of the ribs and i should point out i am using st louis or center cut style ribs but you could do this exact same process with baby back or full spare ribs if you would like place a wire rack over a baking sheet on top of a scale then add the ribs and note the weight down calculate one percent salt and sprinkle over top of the ribs evenly and then we're going to let this dry brine in the fridge for at least one hour before cooking meanwhile the rib rub and barbecue sauce can be prepared again both those recipes are linked on my website once brine pull the ribs out and sprinkle the rib rub all over until a thin layer has covered every nook and cranny and just rub the rub into the meat and then we're going to toss that back into the fridge until we're ready for the smoker to prepare the smoker cut two square pieces of aluminum foil and place a handful of wood chips in a thin layer on the foil then fold that into a rectangular packet containing the wood chips and poke a little hole in the top to allow smoke to escape take the ribs out of the fridge and remove the rib rack from the baking sheet and make sure you clean out the bottom of this baking sheet or else your spices and sugar that fell down will burn and kind of ruin your baking sheet i know because it happened to mine anyways cut two very large sheets of tin foil that will be able to completely circle the ribs and the baking sheet and place them perpendicular to each other let's take a look at this from the top down point of view place the wood chip packets at each end of the baking sheet then add a small pan with water to the center and the wire rack with the ribs will go back over top before placing those ribs though put the wood chip packets on the stove until they just start to smoke to help that wood chips get going and get up to temperature then you can place the ribs over top and wrap the large tin foil sheets and the sides together completely enclosing the ribs where the smoke will circulate at the stove place one end of the baking sheet over medium high heat then turn on the range hood fan and open the windows in your apartment because there's a good chance that you're gonna set off your fire alarm after a minute or two you should start to notice some smoke coming out the edges of the tin foil smoker and then turn the heat to around medium or medium low set a timer for 15 minutes to let the ribs smoke there should be only a small stream of smoke nothing like big billowing clouds of white or anything and then after 15 minutes rotate the pan to the other end turn the heat back to medium high until the other packets start to smoke then set another timer for 15 minutes meanwhile you can preheat the oven to 225 degrees fahrenheit once smoked slide the entire sheet of ribs into the oven and cook for three and a half to four hours after the time is up i like to completely remove the aluminum foil and cook for another 30 minutes to one hour to let the crust develop towards the end of cooking you can intermittently check the doneness of the ribs by probing the meat until around 195 degrees fahrenheit this can be a little bit hard to get accurate since the bones are there so i like to actually perform the bend test for this the bend test is done by picking up the rack with tongs and bouncing the ribs if the surface cracks the ribs are ready the meat should also have started to pull away from the bones but not be literally falling off the bone because i prefer a tender rib that has a slight bite to it but still comes clean off the bone if you do want them to be literally falling off the bone just let them cook in the aluminum foil for an extra hour or so with the ribs cooked slather a thin layer of barbecue sauce all over the ribs then turn the broiler on high and place the ribs underneath to caramelize the sauce keep an eye on it so that sauce doesn't burn you really just want the sauce to just barely lose its sheen and turn a darker brown you can spread as many sauces as you would like but i just like one for a little bit of stickiness then you just slice the ribs and enjoy for the liquid smoked ribs on the other hand it's much easier as before weigh the ribs and sprinkle with salt except this time add a drizzle of liquid smoke over the top of the ribs and rub it in then just as before let this brine for at least one hour in the fridge then apply your rib rub in a thin layer now tightly wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and cook at 225 degrees fahrenheit again for the same amount of time for hours for the last 30 minutes to an hour remove the aluminum foil and let the crust develop and then you can perform your bend test and then this time before adding the barbecue sauce add a drop or two of the liquid smoke and then slather it on and caramelize as [Music] before take a slice open and let's finally decide which method i think you should try all right everybody it's taste test time get my paper towels ready i have the smoked version here on my right and the liquid smoked version here on my left let's give them a taste test and if you notice these aren't like fall off the bone and that's completely purposeful because i don't want them to literally be like falling off the bone i want them to be bitten off the bone and come clean off the bone and actually bite through them because that's my preference yeah so if you can see that like i'm biting through it and nothing's like sticking to the bone so we're biting them clean off the bone very good let's give this one a taste test as well [Music] and you can really see that's exactly what i'm talking about like that bone is clean and it's biting clean off but these aren't actually falling off they got a nice tender bite to them [Music] so both of these definitely have smoky flavor and i'm going to evaluate them based on taste and texture versus the ease of use and as you can probably guess i definitely do prefer this [Applause] bro they do that on purpose i mean it doesn't look like it really hit anything but everyone's dude i literally just look over and just hear all this like so i kid you not a tree just got done falling down right outside my apartment on accident it was not purposely cut down luckily it looks like everyone's okay no cars or people or dogs or anything were hit in it but let's get back to this i don't remember where i was so we're just going to completely restart so basically i'm going to evaluate these based off ease of use and the taste and which one i ultimately would decide to use if i want to make ribs so both of these have their own smoky flavor that being said i definitely do prefer this one it's what i'm used to you know it's real smoke and even though it was just 30 or so minutes it definitely makes a difference compared to kind of the the liquid smoke which is like that commercial smoke taste which it's not bad at in any means it's just it's just not what i prefer that being said as far as ease of use goes the liquid smoke version is a million times easier i mean you don't worry about the aluminum foil you don't have to throw stuff on the stove you can just pop it in the oven and literally go about your day and do whatever versus you know spending making sure you're at the stove for like 30 to 45 minutes um and obviously less you waste less of the aluminum foil and stuff like that but for me if i'm gonna make ribs i'm kind of already assuming that it's going to take several hours so i don't mind going through the effort because i think it shows in the actual flavor of the product so in conclusion i'm definitely going to be using the indoor smoking method for my ribs going forward but both recipes will be linked on my website below so you guys can check them out try whichever one works best for you and also the rib rub and the barbecue sauce recipes will be on there as well which are very really quite good i was really happy with how they came out definitely some of my better rib rubs and barbecue sauces that i made that's gonna wrap it up for this one hopefully you guys have enjoyed drop me a comment if you learned something and i'll catch you in the next one [Music] peace you

Channel: Ethan Chlebowski

Views: 606,437

Keywords: Ethan Chlebowski, oven ribs, indoor smoked ribs, oven smoked ribs, ribs, ribs inside, ribs without smoker, rib recipe, smoked ribs in oven, oven ribs recipe, oven smoked ribs liquid smoke, liquid smoke, how to make ribs in oven, rib rub, homemade ribs, ribs on indoor grill, what is the best method for oven ribs, best method oven ribs

Id: yUfjRXnurNk

Length: 13min 36sec (816 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020