We had a three day weekend, this past week, and I wanted to do something fun. I planned a ton of events with my friends, but something was still lacking. I felt like I wasn’t being adventurous enough. After a night of contemplation and a thousand YouTube videos, I figured out what I wanted to do: I wanted to cook. I had a lot of time on my hands, and my literal hands needed something to keep them busy. Cooking something I already knew how to cook seemed boring, and I didn’t want to bake any cakes or cookies, so I had to think harder about what it was I wanted. A trip down memory lane to when I first had ribs (Myrtle Beach, 2007, Tony Roma’s Steakhouse. It was quite the time for eight-year-old me.) was the inspiration, since I hadn’t had any good ribs or barbecue in the past couple months.
I had this epiphany around midnight on Saturday, which was convenient, since I go grocery shopping on Sundays. I researched the ingredients I would need for the rub and the sauce, before I actually went shopping. The different spice combinations were confusing, so I ultimately bought a generic barbecue meat rub and bottled barbecue sauce, just to make it easier on myself. Picking out the ribs that I wanted was a little bit easier. There was a small selection, so I didn’t get the one I wanted (one that didn’t have a lot of the meat juices) and had to settle for a different one (with a ton of meat juices).
The ribs sat in my fridge overnight, until I finally decided to get up and start cooking at around noon on Monday. The videos and recipe blogs made this sound so easy, but not having access to a grill definitely complicated things. I mean, I do have access to a grill, but it’s one of those camping grills that no one cleans, so I figured staying indoors was the best option for me. Using the dorm kitchen to cook was, well, an experience. I’ve taken the liberty of breaking down the cooking process so I can not only show you the progression of the ribs, but also walk you through my thought process throughout the whole ordeal.
- Pre-Baking
-
The above image depicts the ribs pre-baking. It looks nice in the picture, and I know this. I figured I could spare you all from the gory mess that was the ribs before I cleaned and seasoned them.
Trying to clean meat, and a cut as large as the one I had, was difficult because I needed to go back and forth from the sink to the table to rinse and dry the rack because it was really wet from the start. I was also wearing gloves, which took away some of my sense of touch, making things just a little bit harder than they should have been.
Once rinsed, I had to trim the fat off the ribs, and, for whatever reason, this particular rack was full of fat. No matter how hard I sawed at it with my knife, it never came off entirely. And taking the membrane off the back was so hard, since it was pretty stuck on there. I peeled off as much as I possibly could and eventually gave up.
For optimal flavor, I stabbed the ribs in a couple places, before drizzling my oil over it, so the seasoning really got in there. After the oil came the rub. A rub is just a mix of spices with which you coat and massage the meat, before sprinkling more spices onto it. The flavor is important, when making ribs.
This was one of the funniest steps because it was a lot more hands-on, and the expressions on the residents’ faces were priceless. I’ve seen my fair share of weird things happening in the kitchen, but people were absolutely shook when they opened the door and saw this tiny girl prepping her ribs.
- Saucing
-
After cooking the ribs for two hours (low and slow wins the ribs race), it was time to get saucing. I was using a generic BBQ sauce to add extra flavor to the ribs. I felt fancy because I was using a kitchen brush to brush the sauce on, which was messier than I had anticipated, but I could have just been too vigorous in my saucing technique. By the end of it, I was reminded of a very iconic Vine. BBQ sauce doesn’t stain, as long as it’s not on a white shirt. Cooking barbecue does leave a lingering smell, however.
The ribs went back into the oven at a higher temperature to finish cooking.
- Finishing
-
Broiling the ribs was the last step in the process. I took the ribs out of the oven, re-sauced to ensure a good caramelization and put them right back into the oven. The recipe I followed said Medium-High for the broiler, but my oven only had a High or Low setting, so I went with High. The ribs were supposed to stay in there for five minutes; surely, nothing was going to go wrong.
Except it started smoking like something was burning.
I mean, something was burning, but it was the grease and other stuff that cooked out of the ribs that decided the heat was too much for them and started to burn. I had to pull the ribs out a little early and frantically open the window and kitchen door, since the oven ventilation was broken. It was still pretty smokey, so I had to stand on a chair to wave the smoke away from the smoke detector. I wasn’t even mad that something burned; I was mad at the idea that we would have to call the fire department because of my cooking. Talk about embarrassing!
Luckily, that didn’t have to happen, and I was able to slice up the ribs with no further issue. I tried them and liked how they tasted, but I still wanted extra validation for my cooking. My staff that I work with is full of amazing people, and I had a handful of them come out and try the ribs. They gave them two thumbs up!
Cooking ribs in the oven was unconventional, but it was an absolute experience. The entire process was a little crazy, since the kitchen was small and several people intruded to clean their dishes or pop popcorn. It was an experience trying to navigate cooking ribs even without the added obstacles of people, but I think my little experiment turned out well. I even inspired a coworker to try to make ribs! This is definitely something that I would try again in the future, maybe mix it up with the spices!