what is up it's susie from heygrillhey.com and today we're making some memphis style
ribs we're cooking these kind of hot kind of fast
no wrap a happy little spritz but the real magic happens with this homemade memphis style dry rub
seasoning the only question left is are you taking yours wet or dry
todd and i have traveled to tennessee quite a few times we've been to memphis in may we've traveled
through the country on a road trip and stopped in memphis and i really love a memphis style
rib they've got a little bit of a bite to them a great texture and we like to take ours dry
when we're in memphis or in tennessee because we love that little crunchy of that crispy seasoning
on top and it's pretty different than a lot of other rib styles we've had eating barbecue across
the country so i'm going to walk you through my version of a memphis style rib with the homemade
dry rub seasoning this seasoning is pretty simple to put together you'll probably have most of these
things in your pantry we're gonna start with three tablespoons of kosher salt three tablespoons of
smoked paprika this gives you a base smoky flavor for your seasoning as well as beautiful color
two tablespoons of brown sugar this is less brown sugar than you'll see in a majority
of barbecue seasonings this is not primarily a sweet rub but it does have a little bit of
sweetness to it a tablespoon of black pepper two teaspoons each of garlic powder and onion powder
and one teaspoon each of celery seed oregano and mustard powder now these three things i
think really set a memphis style rub apart they're a little bit herby definitely savory
and they give a nice tang to the seasoning blend give that a little mixy mix with your
fingers until everything's well combined and you don't have any chunks of brown sugar
all right you're gonna be using about four tablespoons of your rub on two
racks of baby back ribs these have the membranes removed and i've just trimmed off the end bone
that's a little bit skinny and won't cook as evenly and this rub goes directly on your ribs
like i said we're gonna be using about four tablespoons total but we're only gonna be using
three tablespoons to season we're gonna save some for the end as a nice little finishing powder
press that seasoning blend into your ribs with your fingertips we want as much to adhere as
possible and we're going to flip over and season the other side our ribs are looking
a little bit juicy the seasoning has mostly absorbed there's still some flecks of salt
not super worried about it we're going to pop those on the smoker at 275 degrees and we're not
going to look at them for another hour but when we do look at them we're going to spritz them
with a mixture of apple juice and apple cider vinegar we're going to do half a cup of each
give it a little shake and then we'll be spritzing these throughout the cooking process
it's a little bit full look at it it's going to spill i did a bad thing where's the straw you no
no no no no todd all right feel fill it a normal amount and not too full like i did screw your
cap on give it a little shake and then like i said after the first hour we start spritzing
and we spritz every 30 to 60 minutes all right spritz is ready let's get these ribs on the smoker
like i said 275 degrees the entire cook time is probably gonna take about
four and a half ish hours but that varies based on how thick your ribs are so we're
going to be monitoring temperatures i'm looking for some other signs of doneness
uh hickory wood is my favorite wood to use for memphis style ribs i asked my friend carrie
bringle what he uses on his pork ribs and he said hickory all day long and he would know he
runs peg lake porker in nashville tennessee which i know is not memphis but i think he
makes some of the best dry rub ribs i've ever had in my entire life so i'm gonna count it
we're just about four hours into our memphis style rib cook and our ribs are actually
quite close i'm not exactly ready to pull them off yet maybe another half hour but i'm seeing all the
signs that i'm looking for my ribs are reading at a temperature between 195 and 200 which i really
like they still feel a little bit tight so i think i'm gonna push them closer up to that 200 zone
we are seeing some pullback from the bones not as much as if you're doing a wrapped or a braised rib
but we're seeing it pull back a little bit and we're seeing this bend when we lift up
the ribs with our tongs it's kind of a little bit bendy but it doesn't break apart we get some nice
splitting in the meat right there those are all great visual cues and texture cues that our ribs
are coming along beautifully i think maybe like i said another half hour and we'll be ready to go
ribs are done look how beautiful i'm obsessed with the color that we got on these baby backs
between the smoke and the spritz and the paprika and the seasoning this is just a pile of mahogany
meaty goodness now in memphis you can order your ribs wet or dry if we were doing wet ribs you
would baste with your favorite barbecue sauce but i'd actually cut my barbecue sauce with my apple
juice and apple cider vinegar mixture to thin it out a little bit give it a little bit more
tanginess and that would be more representative of a memphis style sauce in my experience now
we're doing dry rope ribs because that's what todd likes and todd usually gets what he likes
so we're gonna sprinkle our finished ribs with just a light dusting of some of our seasoning that
we set aside from earlier this will add a great punch of flavor on the top of our ribs right when
we take a bite but it's also gonna look awesome somehow these smell even better than they look
and we've reached my favorite part of the day the part where todd and i get to eat some of these
beautiful ribbies this is a skinny guy on the end but look at that cross section
we've got some great smoke some nice mahogany color on the outside
i mean nailed the texture absolutely nailed it that dry rub does something that you're
not going to get from a sauced rib it gives you a crisp on the outside and then that melt away
fatty delicious smoky rib meat on the inside this is a rib to be remembered i hope i did memphis
i know i'm not from memphis but i just love it so much that i wanted to make ribs like you guys too
um all right i'm gonna take another bite after i tell you guys all of the important things like
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time we post something new it's time for taste test todd to come on in here don't you think yes
oh my gosh all right you can't have this one this is mine i cut you a little guy dude it's so small
i like sauce on my ribs i do i just i know yeah oh it's yeah dude oh
that's good man winner winner
guys it's dinner actually so holy cow they're perfect yeah nailed it
everybody do the rib dance
my brain just all day is just like various clips of tick-tock songs now yeah
i believe will you talk about what you just did by that smoke oh yeah yeah