Can someone explain to me the different rib styles? Such as Memphis VS
Kansas City vs Texas, etc, etc.?
Thanks!

> wrote in message
...
> Can someone explain to me the different rib styles? Such as
> Memphis VS
> Kansas City vs Texas, etc, etc.?
> Thanks!

This is kinda like "how high is up?" You'll get many opinions and
comments. Using my own words and experience:

Memphis: ribs that can be baked, smoked or grilled, but using a
dry rub as the primary flavoring ingredient and eaten, generally,
with no sauce. The dry rub has paprika in it for added color and
the exterior of the rib is dryer.

KC: Prepared with just S&P, then slow smoked or slow grilled or
even baked by some without outdoor equipment. The primary
flavoring is a sweetish sauce that they can be cooked in, brushed
on while cooking or brushed on after cooking. Home cooks might
even parboil the ribs before finishing on a grill, but the key is
a cooked on sweetish sauce. Ribs that are moist and the bone
falling out are considered good by most home cooks, while a firmer
rib is preferred competitively. There is tremendous latitude,
outside of contests, in this dish, but the consistent theme is the
sweet sauce that's cooked onto the ribs.

Texas: I don't associate Texas with a particular style of pork
ribs. Generally, the ones I've had there are cooked pretty naked
and served with a KC-style sauce on the side.

Lexington: The poor ribs are submerged in tomato soup and boiled
until the bones settle to the bottom. The most classic Lexington
style ribs are some of the few I've even declined to eat.

--
Nonny

.. . . on a darned diet
and ready to chew off
my own elbows.

"Nunya Bidnits" > wrote in
message ...
>
> As far as KC style ribs, most of the locals do use a dry rub,
> not just S&P,
> otherwise that's correct, there's a majority preference for
> sauce carmelized
> onto the ribs, with some folks even drowing them in overwhelming
> molasses
> based goo. However as I understand it the molasses based stuff
> is an import
> from somewhere south of here, and in my long experience eating
> ribs in KC,
> I'd have to agree that excessively sweet goo isn't part of the
> local
> tradition. In fact, in most places you will see them sauce the
> ribs with a
> brush when plating them up, but otherwise any sauce that may
> have been used
> by the restaurant has been well carmelized and incorporated so
> the surface
> is not gooey in any way. So if you order ribs without sauce,
> they don't
> appear to have been sauced even if sauce or mop was used during
> cooking.
> There's also no clear majority doing it one way or the other...
> some places
> cook dry (dry rubs only), some with mops, and some with sauce.
> However it
> seems like only the chains and tourist restaurants serve the
> gooey stuff,
> and that's not representative of KC style.
>
> MartyB in KC
>

Marty, I agree with you for the most part. My comment about
cooking the ribs with sauce on them to caramelize it stems more
from the backyard barbecues I grew up with, more than the
ultra-classic KC style of Ocey Bruner's place about 2 blocks away.
Ocey's ribs were (perhaps) mopped, but when he'd get a rack out of
the big tray, it'd be mahogany colored and appeared dry. Ocey
kept another big tray of his sauce on the heat, and he'd dunk the
ribs into the sauce for you, unless you asked for it on the side.
While Ocey's sauce was not cooked onto his ribs, it was still
caramelized from being in the pan on the stove.

To this very day, I've been to some backyard cookouts where the
ribs were boiled and put straight onto the grill. The chef would
then slather them with KC Masterpiece or Bullseye and repeat that
every ten minutes or so. Despite what I turn out when I do my own
ribs, I ate them and truly enjoyed them.

IMHO, the term KC style is about as forgiving for variations as
can be. <Grin>

--
Nonny

.. . . on a darned diet
and ready to chew off
my own elbows.

"Nunya Bidnits" > wrote in
message ...
> In ,
> Nonny > typed:
>
> clip
>>
>> IMHO, the term KC style is about as forgiving for variations as
>> can be. <Grin>
>
> And that statement is about as true as true can be!

.. . . and it's all good.

--
Nonny

.. . . on a darned diet
and ready to chew off
my own elbows.

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009 13:16:59 -0500, "Nunya Bidnits"
> wrote:

>In ,
>Nonny > typed:
>> Lexington: The poor ribs are submerged in tomato soup and boiled
>> until the bones settle to the bottom. The most classic Lexington
>> style ribs are some of the few I've even declined to eat.
>
>BARF!
>
>As far as KC style ribs, most of the locals do use a dry rub, not just S&P,
>otherwise that's correct, there's a majority preference for sauce carmelized
>onto the ribs, with some folks even drowing them in overwhelming molasses
>based goo. However as I understand it the molasses based stuff is an import
>from somewhere south of here, and in my long experience eating ribs in KC,
>I'd have to agree that excessively sweet goo isn't part of the local
>tradition. In fact, in most places you will see them sauce the ribs with a
>brush when plating them up, but otherwise any sauce that may have been used
>by the restaurant has been well carmelized and incorporated so the surface
>is not gooey in any way. So if you order ribs without sauce, they don't
>appear to have been sauced even if sauce or mop was used during cooking.
>There's also no clear majority doing it one way or the other... some places
>cook dry (dry rubs only), some with mops, and some with sauce. However it
>seems like only the chains and tourist restaurants serve the gooey stuff,
>and that's not representative of KC style.
>
>MartyB in KC


Thanks much! I've been lurking here for about a year now and really
learned a lot. I've had my side-box smoker about the same time and am
finally happy with the way my ribs turn out, getting ready to try a
brisket and have many of the submissions here saved for advice to
follow. Thanks to all.

On Jul 9, 4:48*am, wrote:

>
> Thanks much! I've been lurking here for about a year now and really
> learned a lot. I've had my side-box smoker about the same time and am
> finally happy with the way my ribs turn out, getting ready to try a
> brisket and have many of the submissions here saved for advice to
> follow. Thanks to all.-
>

Damn, there's been a run on smarts this summer. How many lurkers and
new posters have we had this summer all of whom have joined in with
the group the old way, that is to lurk, read, learn a bit and _then_
post? You know, just how usenet FAQ's suggest?

To Ridge and you other new BBQers, grillers and posters, after many
summers of clueless * I want it now and I want it spoon fed to me*
type posters, you all have been a welcome breath of fresh air.

Thank you all, and post more often!

Dale

On Jul 9, 9:25*am, Duwop > wrote:
> On Jul 9, 4:48*am, wrote:
>
>
>
> > Thanks much! I've been lurking here for about a year now and really
> > learned a lot. I've had my side-box smoker about the same time and am
> > finally happy with the way my ribs turn out, getting ready to try a
> > brisket and have many of the submissions here saved for advice to
> > follow. Thanks to all.-
>
> Damn, there's been a run on smarts this summer. How many lurkers and
> new posters have we had this summer all of whom have joined in with
> the group the old way, that is to lurk, read, learn a bit and _then_
> post? You know, just how usenet FAQ's suggest?
>
> To Ridge and you other new BBQers, grillers and posters, after many
> summers of clueless * I want it now and I want it spoon fed to me*
> type posters, you all have been a welcome breath of fresh air.
>
> Thank you all, and post more often!
>
> Dale

I'm not so sure about the smart part, but that's me! I got my smoker
in October (Brinkmann Gourmet square vertical smoker) and have been
playing with it, lurking here and at the Smoke Ring for learning and
recipes. I spent last week with the Inlaws and got to play with my
Father in law's offset Brinkman Pitmaster Deluxe and managed to get it
to work successfully (thanks in part to modifications I found on the
web).

I've been on Usenet for a good long time and so much information can
be had through properly applied lurking prior to actually taking part
in the discussions. I'll still primarily lurk, but will chime in more
now that I think I understand the culture and have something to
contribute (mostly to other new smokers who need to get over the
initial intimidation of the 'sport').

I've been documenting my smoke sessions in a log book and with cameras
and hope to put it together as a help to other new smokers. i'll post
a link here when I get it done.

Rock