St. Louis Ribs With Whomp! Maple Bourbon Glaze
Smoke up Matt's St. Louis ribs recipe for a barbecue masterpiece with flavor and looks fit for a king!This new recipe is based on years of experience and experiments in our test kitchen. After cooking with hundreds of different rubs and sauces and testing different techniques, Matt is finally ready to share his recipe publicly.It's a fairly complicated recipe, but the pay-off in flavor is well worth the effort! Follow the steps outlined in this recipe and you won't be disappointed.Scroll to the bottom of the recipe for links to the tools and ingredients you will need.
Equipment
- Smoker
- Instant-Read Thermometer
- Cooler
- Basting Brush
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- Boars’ Night Out Double Garlic Rub
- Elk Creek Hog Knuckle Rub
- Elk Creek Texas Red Rub
- Meat Mitch Whomp Sauce
- Kosmos Maple Bourbon Rib Glaze
- Bacon Up bacon grease
Instructions
Meat Prep
- Eight to twelve hours before putting the ribs on the smoker, remove the membranes and trim off the flap of meat from the bone side of the racks. Then apply a medium-heavy layer of Boars’ Night Out Double Garlic rub to both sides of the racks of ribs. Wrap the ribs tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- One hour before you begin smoking, preheat your smoker to 250 degrees F.
- If you are using a charcoal smoker, add three or four wood chunks twenty minutes before you begin smoking.
- Remove the plastic wrap from the ribs and apply a medium-heavy layer of Elk Creek Hog Knuckle rub to the meat side of the ribs. Let this sweat out for five minutes on the countertop.
- Apply a light layer of Elk Creek Texas Red rub to the meat side of the ribs and let this sweat out for ten or fifteen minutes on the countertop.
The Cook
- It’s go time! Put the ribs on the smoker meat side up, thicker end toward your smoker's hot spot (if applicable).
- In a saucepan, combine two parts Meat Mitch Whomp Sauce to one part Kosmos Maple Bourbon Rib Glaze. Heat the sauce (do NOT boil), stirring often, until it has been slightly reduced (thickened). Remove the sauce from the heat. Plan on using about 1/2 cup sauce per rack of ribs.
- Prepare two pieces of heavy-duty foil per rack of ribs; stack all the sheets on top of each other.
- Smoke the ribs until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees F between two bones in the thicker end of the rack. This temperature should be reached around the 2 or 2-1/2 hour mark.
- Wrap it up! Put a generous drizzle of the sauce (about the length of a rack) in the center of the top piece of foil, then add two heaping tablespoons of Bacon Up. Lay a rack of ribs meat side down right on top of the Bacon Up and sauce. Wrap the rack of ribs in two sheets of foil. (Don’t wrap in one sheet first, then the other; that’s a real pain to unwrap. Bring the two sheets up together.) Repeat this process for each additional rack.
- Return the ribs to the smoker, meat side down (as you wrapped it) and continue smoking at 250 degrees.
- After an hour, start checking the internal temp of the ribs; you want to hit 205–208 degrees F between two bones in the thicker end of the rack. Also gauge the resistance to the thermometer probe; you want very close to a “hot knife through butter” lack of resistance.
- When your target temperature is reached, remove the racks from the smoker, handling them carefully so the racks don’t break or fall apart. Open the foil and drain off the juices. Close up the foil wrap again.
- Rest the ribs for thirty to sixty minutes in an empty cooler. Put a towel in the bottom of the cooler to protect it from the heat. Carefully stack the ribs in a pan to catch any leaks, put them in the cooler, then close the cooler lid and LEAVE IT SHUT!
- Raise the smoker temperature to 275 degrees during the rest. After thirty to sixty minutes, remove the ribs from the foil, flip them meat side up, glaze them generously with the sauce, and put them back on the smoker for ten or fifteen minutes to set the sauce and caramelize the sugars.
- Remove the ribs from the smoker, lightly dust with more Elk Creek Texas Red, and flip them meat side down on the cutting board to slice (so you can see the angles of the bones).
- Pro tip: smear some sauce on the cutting board before you flip the first rack down to slice. This keeps the gorgeous glaze you put on the ribs from sticking to the board and getting all messed up.
- Eat, moan with delight, repeat! Ribs are my favorite ‘que to cook.
Notes
Baby backs:
Total cook time for baby back ribs at a smoking temperature of 250 degrees F will be about 3 or 3-1/2 hours; the meat will be ready to wrap at about 1-3/4 to 2-1/4 hours.Other wrap ingredients:
If you like sweeter ribs, add agave nectar, maple syrup, or honey to the wrap.Matt's Favorite Supplies for Smoking Ribs
Wood chunks: Peach, pecan, or cherry Pellets: Cookin’ Pellets Black Cherry, BBQr’s Delight Pecan, or Royal Oak Charcoal pellets. Try mixing equal parts of Black Cherry and Charcoal pellets. It’s pure dynamite! Rubs: The rubs and sauces listed in the recipe are my current absolute favorites for ribs, but here are some other real winners:- Rub #1 (AP or SPG type rub): Boars’ Night Out White Lightning or Elk Creek AP
- Rub #2 (BBQ type rub): Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub or Meadow Creek Black Pepper Brisket Rub
- Rub #3 (BBQ type rub with slight heat): Kosmos Dirty Bird or Killer Hogs Hot Rub
- The sauce featured in this recipe is a must-try! Adjust the ratios if you like or add a little Blues Hog Smokey Mountain sauce for a great touch of smokiness.
- Elk Creek Original (great stuff!), Blues Hog Championship Blend, or Sweet Swine O’ Mine Lambo Combo
