Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back...Ribs!

A screaming deal at Costco Business made me come home with a 3 packs of Baby Back ribs. 97 cents a lb (works out to about $3 per slab. All the prep is standard--dry the slabs with towel, slash the bottom membrane, and cut in half (6 to 7 ribs per half), then season with your favorite rub. Mine was brown sugar, kosher salt, cumin, old bay, paprika, oregano, and red chili flakes.

This cook was on a weber kettle with the slow n sear insert for indirect cooking, and the weber rib stand to hold the slabs. I piled on some hickory chips and cherry chunks and got the temperature to a steady 250 degrees.

2 and a half hours into the cook, I flipped all the slabs bottom to top and front to back to cook them evenly.

Another hour and a half and the ribs were ready to get wrapped (in this case I just put them all in a tightly sealed pan) and go into a holding oven at 225 degrees for an hour.

Right out of the oven and ready for eating.

Good smoke penetration and the bark was fine. I was a little scared that I overcooked them. Baby backs are loin ribs and definitely run a little drier, but spooning some of the rendered fat/juice from the warming tray over the plated slab gave plenty of juice to dip the next bite-spot into.

All in all, a good cook. Ribs had some tooth, but came off the bone clean. $1.50 for a half slab--I'd take these over the costco hot dog.