How to Cook Pork Ribs Without a Smoker

Ribs have a reputation for being difficult, and the reason is that almost everything written about them is American. Those guides assume an offset smoker, a bag of hickory chunks, and an afternoon that is not going to suddenly rain sideways.

I cook outdoors for a living in the south of England. I have cooked ribs in July sun and in February drizzle, and the honest truth is that the kit matters far less than people claim. You need a heat source you can keep low, somewhere to put smoke, and patience. That is it.

Which Ribs to Buy

• Baby back ribs: From the top of the ribcage nearest the loin. Leaner, more curved, quicker - around three to four hours. The easiest place to start
• Spare ribs: From the belly side. Bigger, fattier, flatter, more flavourful, and they need longer - four to five hours. This is what I cook when I have the time
• St Louis cut: Spare ribs trimmed square with the cartilage tip removed. Cook more evenly and look better. Ask your butcher and they will do it for you
• Belly ribs or rib tips: The cheap offcuts. Not pretty, extremely good, worth asking about

Buy from a butcher rather than a supermarket if you can. Supermarket racks are often trimmed so hard there is barely any meat between the bones, and they are frequently sold pre-marinated in something sweet that burns.

The One Step Everyone Skips

Turn the rack bone side up. There is a thin, shiny membrane across the bones called the silverskin. It does not render, it does not take smoke, and it turns to something like plastic film as it cooks.

Slide a butter knife under it at one end, get a grip with a piece of kitchen paper, and pull it off in one sheet. It takes twenty seconds and it is the difference between good ribs and ribs where every mouthful has a papery layer on the back. Do not skip this.

Seasoning: Less Than You Think

Commercial rubs are mostly sugar and salt with paprika for colour. You can do better with what is already in your cupboard:

• Two parts coarse salt
• Two parts cracked black pepper
• One part smoked paprika
• One part soft brown sugar
• Half a part garlic powder

Pat the rack dry, coat both sides, and leave it in the fridge uncovered for a few hours or overnight. The sugar is there to help the bark form and caramelise - keep it in proportion, because too much and it burns before the meat is done.

Method 1: Over a Fire

My preference, and no special equipment needed. Build your fire at one end of the grill and put the ribs at the other, bone side down, as far from the heat as you can get them. You are aiming for 110-130C in the cooking area.

• Feed the fire small and often. One modest log every twenty-five to thirty minutes keeps the temperature steady. A big log spikes the heat and burns the sugar in the rub
• Do not touch them for the first two hours. Smoke only sticks properly to a cool, slightly damp surface, so the early part of the cook is when all your flavour is being laid down
• After two hours, start spritzing every forty-five minutes with a cheap spray bottle of half apple juice, half cider vinegar. This keeps the surface tacky and stops the bark drying out
• Wrap at around the three hour mark if the colour is where you want it. Butcher paper, or foil with a splash of apple juice, tightly sealed. This pushes through the stall and tenderises
• Unwrap for the last thirty minutes to firm the bark back up. Glaze here if you are going to

Method 2: Kettle Barbecue

A standard kettle is a perfectly good smoker if you set it up as one. Bank all the coals against one side, put a foil tray of water on the empty side, and sit the ribs above the tray. Lid on, bottom vent half open, top vent a quarter open and positioned over the meat so smoke draws across it.

Add a couple of wood chunks - not chips, which burn out in minutes - directly onto the coals. Apple, cherry and beech all suit pork. Top up with eight to ten fresh briquettes every hour or so. Everything else is the same as above.

Method 3: The Oven, and No Apologies

It rains here. Sometimes you want ribs anyway. An oven will get you eighty per cent of the way there and there is no shame in it.

Rub the rack, wrap it tightly in foil, and put it on a tray at 140C for three hours. Then unwrap, brush with glaze, and finish under a hot grill for five to eight minutes until it bubbles and chars at the edges.

You will not get real smoke, and no amount of liquid smoke fixes that convincingly. What you will get is tender, well-seasoned, properly cooked ribs. If you want a hint of the real thing, finish them over embers for ten minutes once the weather clears.

Forget the phrase "fall off the bone." That is overcooked. A properly cooked rib holds together when you pick it up and releases cleanly when you bite. If the meat is sliding off on its own it has gone past the point where it had any texture left.
- Cai

How to Know When They Are Done

Not by time, and not really by temperature either. Two tests:

• The bend test. Pick the rack up in the middle with tongs. It should droop into a deep arc and the surface should crack slightly. If it stays rigid, it needs longer. If it folds in half and tears, you have gone too far
• The toothpick test. Push a cocktail stick into the meat between two bones. It should go in with about as much resistance as warm butter

If you want a number, the meat between the bones will usually be somewhere around 90-95C, but the feel tests are more reliable because ribs vary so much.

Sauce: At the End, or Not at All

If you are saucing, do it in the last fifteen minutes and no earlier. Sugar burns. Brush thinly, let it set, brush again.

Honestly though, ribs that have been properly seasoned, smoked and cooked do not need it. I serve them dry with sauce on the side and most people never reach for it. If the ribs only work with sauce on them, the sauce is covering for the cook.

Ribs are not hard. They are just long. Pull the membrane, keep the heat low, put smoke on early, wrap when the colour is right, and judge them by feel instead of the clock. You do not need a smoker and you certainly do not need good weather.

- Cai