Local experts discuss the delicious variations of this BBQ favorite
Nothing says summer barbecue quite like a plate of melt-in-your-mouth pork ribs, and while it may take another year before the return of Merrimack’s Great American Ribfest, there are still restaurants, food trucks and trailers all across the state serving up ribs in a variety of styles. The options become even more customizable if you’re grilling or smoking ribs at home.
“Ribs are what I think of when I think of barbecue. They’re one of the most well-liked foods and tend to be what’s going to lure people into the hobby,” said Jayna Todisco Coulon, a member of the Northeast Barbecue Society and founder of A Mazie Q, a New Hampshire-based barbecue competition team. “A rack of ribs has all the things you want. It’s a finger food that’s not going to give you any issues with dryness or anything if you cook it correctly.”
From the types of cuts available to the regional styles and cooking methods associated with ribs, local barbecue experts and butchers discuss this staple’s many variations and provide their own tips and tricks for how to cook them yourself.
Cuts and styles
When it comes to pork ribs, depending on where you go, you’ll encounter either baby backs or spare ribs — the difference between the two is where they are on the animal’s body, said Dan DeCourcey, an award-winning competitive barbecuer and the owner and pitmaster of Up In Your Grill, a food trailer and mobile caterer based in Merrimack.
“Spare ribs are going to be on the front, on the belly. They are going to be flatter and meatier, and they also tend to be fatter,” DeCourcey said. “The baby backs are near the loin area. They are smaller and more curved, and they tend to be leaner because they are not on the belly side. … The baby back ribs basically connect to the spine, and the spare ribs connect to the breast bone.”
You might come across the term “St. Louis-cut ribs” on restaurant menus too — DeCourcey said this refers to spare ribs that have the cartilage tissue connecting to the breast bone removed, resulting in a more uniform rectangle-shaped cut that can be easier to grill or smoke.
One rack of ribs will generally have around 12 individual bones, and some restaurants will give you the option to order them by the full rack or half rack, as well as third or quarter racks.
How the ribs are sauced and rubbed is going to vary depending on that regional style of barbecue. Kansas City style, for instance, is characterized by a much thicker and sweeter sauce, usually containing ingredients like molasses, brown sugar or honey, as well as sugar in its rubs. Memphis and Texas styles are more known for their dry rubs — the difference there being that Texas is much more narrow with their ingredients, while rubs in Memphis will be more complex.
“Down in Texas, they love salt and pepper and just keeping it really simple, whereas Memphis might have more paprika and cumin and all sorts of other stuff going on,” DeCourcey said.
Over at KC’s Rib Shack in Manchester, owner and co-founder Kevin Cornish said he considers his pork spare ribs to be more of a Memphis-style.
“There are certainly some places in Memphis that will sell their ribs sauced, but Memphis style is definitely known for a dry-rubbed, seasoned rib,” Cornish said. “We cook what we call untrimmed spare ribs, so we serve the whole rib together rather than a St. Louis cut.”
Smokeshow Barbeque in Concord, which is all about Texas style, according to owner Matt Gfroerer, offers smoked ribs cooked low and slow with sauces on the side.
“A lot of places will do a rib plate, but what we do is we weigh everything out as close as we can and you pay [for] exactly what you get,” Gfroerer said. “You’ll find that more in Texas as well.”
Georgia’s Northside, also in Concord, nearly always has pork ribs that can be ordered from of its “Meat & Three” menu, according to chef and owner Alan Natkiel. In Londonderry, Greg LaFontaine of the Smoke Shack Cafe said his pork ribs are seasoned St. Louis cuts that can be ordered as a half rack or full rack.
Simple spare ribs recipe
Courtesy of Kevin Cornish of KC’s Rib Shack in Manchester
1 full rack of untrimmed spare ribs
For the dry rub:
3 Tablespoons brown or white sugar (or 1½ Tablespoons of each)
1½ Tablespoons kosher salt
1½ Tablespoons paprika
1½ Tablespoons coarse grind black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
For the barbecue basting spritz:
3 cups apple juice
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup barbecue sauce
Season your ribs generously on both sides with rub, shaking off the excess. Cook in a preheated 250-degree smoker, or in the oven on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Cook for about two and a half hours. At two and a half hours, spritz the top, then spritz every half hour until ribs are done (about three and a half to four hours). Ribs are done by testing the tenderness of the meat — you can do this by twisting between the third and fourth largest bones. The meat should begin to release easily from the bones. Finish off on the grill for a few minutes, adding sauce if desired, or cut up and serve as they are with sauce on the side.
Picking your meat
If you want to cook your own ribs, local butcher shops and some livestock farms will sell them by the rack or the pound — and there are indicators you can look for before you buy.
“Like any meat, you want to try to find the right marbling. Big giant monster chunks of fat are going to be too much,” DeCourcey said. “It’s also nice if the bones of St. Louis ribs are straighter … because it makes it easier to cut.”
Todisco Coulon said one of the biggest things she looks out for in ribs are called shiners, or exposed bones as a result of the meat being trimmed down too much.
“You want a meatier rib,” she said, “because a bone sticking out is going to disintegrate when it cooks, and so you’re not going to get as much meat.”
All racks of ribs will start out with a thin membrane on their underside, and there are different schools of thought for either removing it or leaving it on before you cook the meat.
“I generally find that they have a better bite if you pull the membrane off,” DeCourcey said. “The easiest way to do it is you use a butter knife, get a little bit under a corner and then use a paper towel and peel it back. You get better at it over time. Sometimes they are difficult and other times they’ll just come right off at once and you feel like a pro.”
Cornish, on the other hand, said he now likes to leave the membrane on the rib.
“I totally am a firm believer that it helps the rib retain moisture. I think we were peeling it off and it was just another place for moisture within the meat to escape,” he said. “I find that, after it’s cooked for three and a half hours in the smoker, you really don’t notice it’s there.”
Some brands of Cryovaced ribs, like Chairman’s Reserve, are sold with the membrane already pulled off. The Prime Butcher, with separately owned locations in Windham and Hampstead, sells both baby back ribs and St. Louis-style ribs produced by this brand.
Butchers will also sometimes sell pre-marinated or pre-rubbed racks of ribs, or you can get your own customizable rub or marinade to save on prep time.
“If you can imagine it, we can do it,” said Billy Steeves, store manager of The Prime Butcher’s Hampstead location. “We also run a smoker here three days a week, usually on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so we’ll sell ready-to-eat smoked half racks and full racks.”
If you regularly buy pork, beef or chicken, you may have noticed a sharp price increase lately.
A wide-scale labor shortage in the meatpacking industry caused by the pandemic, along with high feed costs, are among the factors to blame, Steeves said.
“Ribs have really been climbing in the last six weeks to two months now,” he said. “We’re up probably 60 to 70 percent. It’s a big number, but ribs are still one of the cheaper things you can buy. … St. Louis [ribs] are usually pretty significantly cheaper than baby backs.”
Fire it up
A good basic rub to use if you’re starting out with ribs, according to Cornish, is equal parts salt, pepper, paprika and either white or brown sugar, and about half the amount of garlic powder and onion powder.
“A lot of times I’ll tell people to take this wherever they want to go with it,” he said.
But you don’t need too many diverse ingredients for the rub to do its job — Todisco Coulon said it’s a good idea to taste-test it for sweetness. If it’s too sweet, it can burn too quickly and leave the ribs with a bitter taste, in which case you’d want to cook at a bit lower level heat.
“I would rub it down 20 minutes to an hour in advance,” she said. “It will look like the rib will have absorbed the rub. It will almost look wet to you, and that’s when you know you’re ready.”
You don’t need a smoker to produce great flavor and texture in your ribs, either.
“If you know your way around a gas grill, you can actually pull off some pretty darn good ribs, especially if you start to incorporate things like smoke tubes or smoke boxes,” DeCourcey said. “You can buy wood pellets, throw them in the smoke tube and then chuck them on the edge of the flame, and they’ll smoke. … Or you can even take tinfoil, throw some wood chips in there, wrap them up and poke holes in it.”
DeCourcey said an approach to ribs that’s geared toward beginners is known as the “3-2-1 method,” or cooking low and slow at around 220 to 225 degrees for a total of six hours.
“It’s three hours in the smoke chamber, then you wrap the ribs in foil and put them back in for two more hours,” he said. “Some people like to add some pats of butter, maybe a little honey or a few tablespoons of apple juice, and basically that creates a braising liquid inside the wrap.”
After the two hours wrapped in foil, the meat should start to pull back from the bone and be very tender. The final step of the 3-2-1 method involves applying a slather of barbecue sauce and cooking unwrapped again, this time for one final additional hour.
Other optional techniques you can apply to your ribs include what’s called a binding agent, or an ingredient like mustard that you can add to help your rub stick on to the meat. Adding a spritz of something like water, apple juice or apple cider vinegar periodically as the ribs are cooking can also help them to further retain more moisture, Gfroerer said.
“You can follow the 3-2-1, but then there’s a million variations thereof,” DeCourcey said. “It’s such a rough guide … and after a while you start to learn what to look out for.”
Are they done yet?
You can generally tell when ribs are ready when they gently pull away from the bone. If you use a thermometer, the internal temperature should be around 200 to 205 degrees.
“What I’m looking for is how they feel when I pick them up and how much the meat recedes from the bottom bone,” Todisco Coulon said. “Ribs that fall off the bone are overdone.”
Cornish said he’ll often twist between two of the larger bones on the rack as a test.
“If I feel that the meat is starting to kind of separate and pull apart, then I know it’s pretty close to done,” he said. “You want it to basically come clean off the bone when you take a bite.”
Then there’s the “bend test,” which involves either picking your rack of ribs up either on the end or in the middle, or taking a pair of tongs and lifting it from one side of the rack.
“You want it to bend nicely. If it doesn’t bend enough, it’s underdone,” DeCourcey said. “If the meat starts to crack a little bit, it’s probably just about right.”
But as DeCourcey has discovered, some of his customers prefer fall-off-the-bone ribs.
“Even with some of my regulars, I’ve learned that they like fall-off-the-bone, and if I know they’re coming, I’ll leave some on for them for a little longer,” he said.
Where to get pork ribs
This list includes local restaurants where you get a ready-to-eat plate of pork spare ribs or baby back ribs, as well as catering companies available for hire that offer ribs on their menu. For the at-home barbecuer, local butcher shops, farms and corner markets selling ribs by the rack or by the pound are included here as well. Do you know of another local business not on this list? Let us know at [email protected].
• 603 Smoke’n Que (603bbq.com) is a Merrimack-based barbecue catering company offering a variety of smoked meats, including St. Louis-cut ribs.
• The Alamo Texas Barbecue & Tequila Bar (99 Route 13, Brookline, 721-5500, alamobarbecue.com) offers half racks of baby back ribs that come with two sides and either traditional or candied jalapeno cornbread.
• Arnie’s Place (164 Loudon Road, Concord, 228-3225, arniesplace.com) offers dry-rubbed, slow-cooked St. Louis-cut spare ribs, available in quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack sizes and served with cornbread and your choice of two additional sides.
• Backyard Brewery & Kitchen (1211 S. Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-3545, backyardbrewerynh.com) offers baby back ribs in its house “bar-b-brew” sauce, served with fries and a pickle slaw.
• Big Kahunas Smokehouse (1158 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 935-7400, nhkahuna.com) offers smoked pork ribs, available in half-rack or full-rack sizes, with your choice of two sides and a signature sauce like spicy Caribbean barbecue, pineapple habanero or Bali sweet soy sauce.
• Boogalow’s Island BBQ (boogalowsbbq.com) is a Danville-based food truck and mobile catering service offering a variety of authentic Jamaican and backyard barbecue options, including dry-rubbed and slow-smoked pork ribs.
• Border Brewery & Barbecue (224 N. Broadway, Salem, 216-9134, borderbrewsupply.com) offers St. Louis-cut ribs over smoked bacon macaroni and cheese on its barbecue menu.
• Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, 742-4084, brookfordfarm.com) offers pasture-raised pork spare ribs that can be purchased at the farm store or online.
• Brothers Butcher (8 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 809-4180; 142 Lowell Road, Hudson, 577-1130; brothers-butcher.com) offers plain or chipotle barbecue baby back ribs that are priced by the pound.
• CJ’s Great West Grill (782 S. Willow St., Manchester, 627-8600, cjsgreatwestgrill.com) offers a one-pound rack of smoked barbecue ribs that’s served with fries, coleslaw and baked beans. The ribs can also be ordered as part of a barbecue combo sampler plate, along with your choice of smoked brisket, pulled pork, barbecue chicken or beef tips.
• Concord Beef & Seafood (75 S. Main St., Concord, 226-3474, find them on Facebook @concordbeefandseafood) offers marinated and unmarinated baby back ribs, sold by the rack.
• Derry Restaurant & Pizza (111 W. Broadway, Derry, 432-2107, derryrestaurantandpizza.com) offers half racks or full racks of barbecue baby back ribs. They can also be ordered as part of a combo plate with barbecue chicken breast.
• The Flying Butcher (124 Route 101A, Amherst, 598-6328, theflyingbutcher.com) has a wide selection of pork options available for purchase, including baby back ribs.
• Gauchos Churrascaria Brazilian Steakhouse & Butchery (62 Lowell St., Manchester, 669-9460, gauchosbraziliansteakhouse.com) offers a variety of meats, including full racks of baby back ribs, that can be ordered online. Orders placed before noon will be ready for pickup or local delivery that day beginning at 4 p.m.
• Georgia’s Northside (394 N. State St., Concord, 715-9189, georgiasnorthside.com) offers barbecue pork ribs served with three fresh market sides that change daily, as well as add-on sauce options like barbecue, smoked jalapeno mustard and Parmesan peppercorn ranch.
• Grill 603 (168 Elm St., Milford, 213-6764, grill603.com) offers St. Louis-cut ribs on its dinner menu, dry-rubbed with its signature spice blend, slow-smoked and served with house macaroni and cheese and fresh coleslaw.
• Heritage Corner Market (1380 1st New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, 942-9963, heritagecornermarket.com) has various cuts of pork available for sale, including marinated ribs.
• Hickory Stix BBQ (hickorystixbbq.rocks) is a Londonderry-based food trailer and mobile catering service offering multiple barbecue options, including half-rack or full-rack-sized St. Louis-cut ribs.
• J&B Butcher (259 E. Main St., E. Hampstead, 382-0999, jandbbutcher.com) offers several cuts of pork, including racks of baby back ribs that are sold by the pound.
• KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net) offers third-rack or half-rack-sized pork spare ribs, available with cornbread and two additional sides of your choice. The ribs can also be ordered as part of a combo plate with pulled pork, barbecue sausage chunks, Texas beef brisket or bone-in chicken breast, as well as in bulk, by the half rack, third rack or full rack.
• Lemay & Sons (116 Daniel Plummer Road, Goffstown, 622-0022, lemayandsonsbeef-bbq.com) offers a variety of fresh meats, including ribs, out of its specialty store, The Steak Out.
• McKinnon’s Market & Super Butcher Shop (236 N. Broadway, Salem, 894-6328, mckinnonsmarkets.com) offers a wide selection of meats for sale, including baby back ribs.
• Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co. (messymikesbbq.com) is a Derry-based mobile food trailer and catering service offering multiple slow-cooked barbecue options, including St. Louis-cut ribs available in half-rack or full-rack sizes. Find them most Thursdays through Sundays, from 11 a.m. until they are sold out, in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (161 Rockingham Road, Derry).
• Mike’s Meat Shoppe (1009 Upper City Road, Pittsfield, 435-0002, find them on Facebook) offers several cuts of meat available on any given day, including full racks of spare ribs and baby back ribs.
• Mr. Steer Meats (27 Buttrick Road, Londonderry, 434-1444, mrsteermeats.com) offers a variety of specialty meats for sale, including house marinated and baby back ribs
• Paradise Farm (468 Center Road, Lyndeborough, 345-0860, paradisefarmnh.com) offers a variety of pasture-raised pork products, including spare ribs. Find them at the Milford Farmers Market every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 300 Elm St.
• Parker’s Maple Barn (1349 Brookline Road, Mason, 878-2308, parkersmaplebarn.com) offers a half rack of maple baby back ribs that’s served with two eggs, home fries and toast.
• Porkside Farm (10 French Pond Road, Henniker, 748-3767, [email protected]) offers a variety of its own pork products, including spare ribs. Find them at the Concord Farmers Market every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to noon near the Statehouse on Capitol Street. Phone or email orders are also accepted.
• The Prime Butcher (201 Route 111, Hampstead, 329-7355; 58 Range Road, Windham, 893-2750; primebutcher.com) offers multiple cuts of pork, including both baby back and St. Louis-cut spare ribs, sold by the pound either marinated or unmarinated.
• R & J Texas-Style BBQ on Wheels (183 Elm St., Milford, 518-0186, rjtexasbbqonwheels.com) offers a variety of barbecue options, including racks of ribs with your choice of sides.
• Ranger’s BBQ (rangers-bbq.com) is a Nashua-based food trailer and mobile catering service offering a variety of slow-cooked barbecue options, including dry-rubbed ribs that come in quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack sizes, served with your choice of a side and homemade sauce. When they’re not catering for a private event, Ranger’s BBQ can be found on Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua, near the Tyngsboro, Mass., state line, on weekends.
• Smoke N’ Butts BBQ (smokenbuttsbbq.com) is a mobile food trailer and catering service specializing in smoked meats, including dry-rubbed pork spare ribs, available in quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack sizes. Find them on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, outside of The Farmer’s Wife (20 Main St., Candia).
• Smokehaus Barbecue (278 Route 101, Amherst, 249-5734, smokehausbbq.com) offers half- or full-sized slabs of baby back ribs, that come with bread and your choice of two sizes, like collard greens, hush puppies, french fries and macaroni and cheese.
• Smoke Shack Cafe (226 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 404-2178, smokeshackcafe.com) offers St. Louis-cut pork ribs that are available in half-rack or full-rack sizes, each of which comes with your choice of two sides. The ribs can also be ordered as part of a combo plate with another meat, like brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken or Italian sausage.
• Smoke Shack Southern Barbecue & Ice Cream (146 King St., Boscawen, 796-2046, ss-bbq.com) offers quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack-sized baby back rib plates that are served with cornbread and one or two additional sides. The Smoke Shack also operates concessions at New England Dragway (280 Exeter Road, Epping) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1122 Route 106 N, Loudon).
• Smokeshow Barbeque (89 Fort Eddy Road, Concord, 227-6399, smokeshowbbq.com) offers slow-smoked pork ribs, with three different sauces available on the side and additional sides available a la carte.
• Tim’s Drunken Sauces and Rubs ([email protected], find them on Facebook) is a mobile food trailer offering a variety of barbecue options, including ribs. Find them at 244 Elm St. in Milford most Tuesdays through Sundays, as well as at a few local breweries.
• Up In Your Grill (upinyourgrill.com) is a Merrimack-based food trailer and mobile catering service specializing in a variety of meats, including slow-smoked Kansas City-style baby back ribs. When he’s not catering or prepping for a private event, Up In Your Grill owner and pitmaster Dan DeCourcey posts on social media where he’ll be vending roadside. Dates vary — follow him on Facebook @upinyourgrill for updates.
• Wicked Good Butchah (209 Route 101, Bedford, 488-5638, wickedgoodbutchahnh.com) offers a variety of specialty cuts of meat, including baby back ribs.
• The Wine’ing Butcher (16 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, 856-8855; 28 Weirs Road, Gilford, 293-4670; 81 Route 25, Meredith; wineingbutcher.com) offers a variety of specialty cuts of meat, including tender baby back ribs.
Featured photo: Ribs from the Up In Your Grill food trailer, based in Merrimack. Photo courtesy of Dan DeCourcey.
