Try This Memorial Day Rib Recipe from New England

Whenever we visit my brother John, as we did a few weeks ago, my kids request that he make them ribs. Because he’s such a generous uncle, he always complies. And because he’s such a generous brother, he let me take pictures while he made them so I could share the process with you. (Aren’t I nice to let him feed my kids and do my work for me?)

Now, please bear in mind that we are New Englanders. If you are from Memphis or Texas (or Kansas City or North Carolina), you are bound to find something blasphemous here. I would ask you just to avert your eyes, and enjoy one of our other fine articles here on Patch. But if you are like us, and want to make ribs without spending all day over a smoker, read on!

The slow cooking here is done in a very low oven, and the ribs are just finished on the grill to char the meat and caramelize the sauce. It’s still a messy process, but isn’t that to be expected with ribs?

The Recipe:

2 racks of baby back ribs

Dry rub—John uses a rub from the famous Dinosaur BBQ restaurant in Rochester, N.Y. (Ingredients: salt, garlic, paprika, onion powder, black, chili and cayenne peppers, and sugar.) You can use your favorite or just season with the ingredients listed above.

1½ bottles of BBQ sauce (about 3 cups)—John lives near the best supermarket in the world, Wegman’s, so he uses its Kansas City sauce. I think it tastes a little like Bulls-Eye, but feel free to use whatever brand you like best.

Heavy duty aluminum foil

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Peel the membrane off the back of the ribs. Sprinkle spice rub on front and back of ribs, then rub both sides of the ribs with ¾ of a bottle of sauce (about 1½ cups). Tightly wrap each rack separately in foil.  “Failure to wrap them tightly will cause the juices to leak out and the ribs will be dry and tough,” the recipe says. Bake the ribs, bone side down for three hours at 275 degrees. (Put them on a baking sheet just in case you didn’t heed the warning about tightly wrapping them. You don’t want that mess in your oven.) After three hours, unwrap the ribs from the foil and finish them on the grill, brushing with the remaining sauce, until the outside is seared. They're already thoroughly cooked, so whenever they look crispy and sticky, they're done.

This article first appeared on the Milford, MA, Patch.